Join Laurel
Laurel regularly leads online and in-person events for a variety of different audiences– healthcare professionals, grievers, aspiring writers or some combination therein and more. She loves to help people discover what they’re passionate about and develop the skills to share their stories as authentically as possible.
Quick Sign Up Links
-
Writing Medicine
-
Ranchlands
-
Writing/Publishing RX
-
Custom Group Workshops
Writing Medicine
Please note that there are no writing medicine workshops currently scheduled.
Writing Medicine is a monthly series of virtual reflective writing workshops for anyone working in healthcare + their loved ones. Workshops involve a craft lesson on an element of writing or the writing life, opportunities to write in response to custom prompts, and an option to share work with other participants. There is always an emphasis on kindness, curiosity, and accessibility. Free or low-cost options are available.
Ranchlands
A five-day writing and horseback-riding workshop at the gorgeous Paintrock Ranch in Wyoming, hosted by the Ranchlands Collective, a non-profit which opens up ranching — offering apprenticeships, hosting community programs, supporting wildlife research, and sharing stories that reconnect people to place. This year’s workshop will be co-led with Laurel’s dear friend, the Macarthur award-winning playwright Larissa FastHorse. Participants will go on daily horseback rides through the ranch’s stunning red rock mesas, forested canyons and open plains, swim in the rushing creek, eat meals under open skies and receive instruction on prose, character development, plot/narrative structure, the path to publishing, and more.
Writing & Publishing Rx
An interactive virtual discussion series with bestselling fiction and nonfiction authors, award-winning journalists, poets, popular podcasters, medical humanities content creators, and editors– hosted by Laurel and the Stanford School of Medicine’s Medical Humanities and the Arts Program. Audience members will learn practical tips and techniques for improving their work and sharing it with broad public audiences–whether they’re interested in fiction, narrative nonfiction, investigative journalism, poetry, radio/podcasts, content creation, or other forms of storytelling about health, medicine, and beyond. Sessions are recorded for those unable to attend in real time.
Custom Workshops
Laurel leads private communications workshops to improve participants’ writing, speaking, oral-storytelling, advocacy skills and more for a variety of organizations, corporations and academic institutions. These virtual or in-person workshops can be tailored to an audience’s specific needs and might include instruction on creative problem solving, authentic and clear communication, fostering resilience via writing and speaking practice, narrative building, writing for advocacy, and more. Recent workshops have included Atrius Health, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Amgen, National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, and the Children’s Bereavement Center.
Click on the tiles to learn more about each offering or put directly in your cart!
No results found
Testimonials
“Laurel Braitman's virtual writing workshops have helped thousands of health care workers make sense of the gut-punches of the pandemic... Gradually, the informal writing group has turned into a lifeline for many. Braitman, with her enthusiasm and earnest laugh, created a place where people could feel safe wrestling with the continuous gut-punches of working the frontlines of a pandemic.”
–STAT News
“This weekly group of writers from around the world who are vulnerable and kind, generous souls who have shared their hearts pull me in every time I login. As a social worker I’m a bleeding heart anyways, but often feel healed and nourished by these fellow travelers.”
– Jenny Kwak, Advanced Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Stanford Health Care
“Thank you for extending a platform for me to tell a story, a personal one, for the first time. And for encouraging everyone in the workshops to bare their hearts and explore their minds. These are opportunities for growth and purpose during a challenging time for all of us.”
— Anthony Carli, Physician Assistant student, Midwestern University, Arizona
“An encouraging space to start writing again.”
— Dr. Rachel Han, Department of Psychiatry, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center– Jenny Kwak, Advanced Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Stanford Health Care
“Sparked a light that I thought was snuffed out. I’d highly recommend Laurel’s workshops to anyone in medicine.”
— Ashley Gilbert, MDCI 2024
Press
