An 8-week programme for academic writers, October & November 2025
Enrolment for the 2025 round of this programme is now closed. If you missed out, there will be a next round! — and in the meantime there are other ways to work with me on your writing. Please contact me for more information.
It can be surprisingly difficult to carry on with academic writing.
If you’ve found yourself easily stopped or ‘booted out’ of the flow of work you actually love, you are not alone.
- Maybe tight deadlines or rigid formats make it hard to feel spacious enough to connect with your thoughts or your words.
- Or perhaps your project feels fine one day, then out of reach and intimidating the next — making you wonder if you’ve set it up wrong or are doing something wrong.
- Or maybe it feels like there are so many voices and opinions to consider that it’s hard to hear yourself.
Such experiences are painful and can spark worry and frustration, even when you know you’ll eventually find your way back in. They can make writing feel like a real struggle.
This programme teaches you to use the intelligence of your body to support your ongoing writing. By respecting the natural signals of feeling stopped and disconnected, you can paradoxically find a way to reconnect and move forward.
This approach turns long-term writing into a practice of skilful, warm self-accompaniment, inviting the words to come more naturally.
The problem with 'just do it'
In academia, there is this ideal type of the thick-skinned writer: someone who simply gets on with it, no matter what.
If we hold ourselves to being that way, it’s easy to conclude that any sensitivity in relation to writing doesn’t serve us, and needs to be overcome. We tell ourselves: “I just need to do it”. We try to be more disciplined, to push through. Or we try to care less.
This doesn’t feel good.
It also doesn’t work well, because the very same sensitivity that seems to be in the way… it isn’t separate from your writing. It’s part of what enables you to be the researcher, reader, and writer you are.
There has to be a way to work with rather than against it.
A different way forward
When you practise academic writing as an activity that involves your whole body, including your nervous system, you start to develop a different relationship with it.
You begin to care for yourself as a writer in new ways.
Part of this is about non-judgmental observation of what is present in the moment, be it stuckness, tiredness, aversion, foggy-headedness, or anything else that’s here.
And part of this is about training your capacity to work adaptively, gently directing yourself to where the openings and possibilities are.
This is a lifelong practice, but also one that starts to shift things right away. You may notice that you no longer feel a sense of despair when your writing doesn’t go well. Or that you experience jolts of joyful surprise when something really interesting comes out, just when you thought making progress was impossible!
A sustainable writing practice
is one where we don’t abandon ourselves, override our valid concerns, or constantly feel that we’re doing it wrong.
It’s a practice in which we know and trust ourselves, in which we keep inviting ourselves forward.
The surprising effectiveness of an embodied approach
Most people don’t think about writing as involving their bodies beyond ergonomic desk arrangements and reminders to walk or stretch.
But how you are in your body — how your fingers move over the keyboard, how you breathe, how you sit or stand, how you hold your face — is deeply implicated in the intellectual work of writing. Your physicality sends subtle signals to your brain about your approach to the task.
This gives you opportunities to experiment. You can explore variations in how you physically approach writing and learn from the insights that emerge.
The specific embodied approach we take in this programme works with the somatic map of the Four Elements: Earth, Water, Fire and Air. We use these as archetypal modes to invite nervous system regulation and develop greater choice and versatility in the practice of writing.
My highest intentions are for you to gain:
new and refined skills for supporting yourself in your academic writing;
real options for reconnecting with your writing and finding forward movement; and
a deeper appreciation for who you are and what you bring to the world as a writer.
I also hope you’ll leave with a good amount of writing you feel happy and pleased about!
What results can I expect?
This programme fosters small but impactful shifts in writing habits.
You will not eliminate instinctive stress reactions to writing, such as feeling the urge to avoid it or feeling overwhelmed.
But you will carry yourself in a new way: with greater appreciation for how you move with your writing, and more trust in your creative capacities.
Working with this embodied approach helped previous participants release negative associations with writing and rediscover the joy in it.
It helped some participants find ways to work with emotionally charged content and others to clarify what kind of writing they actually want to do in the future.
Additionally, it has enabled participants to write words that feel alive and meaningful— words they enjoy reading back.
About Catelijne
This work has very personal origins for me: from the earliest days of my academic career I grew increasingly familiar with writing blocks and struggles: a constant flickering of I can – I can’t in relation to my writing.
Finding it hard to sustain a research career, I found my groove in teaching and nearly gave up writing for publication altogether. But something pulled me back to it. I still knew myself to be a writer. And I knew I wanted a different approach.
My second career as a coach and facilitator opened my eyes to working with the body. I started to translate what I learned from my embodiment teachers to the realm of writing, and this felt like a missing piece falling into place. It has allowed me to keep writing and has helped others reclaim and transform their academic writing practice in ways that have been truly empowering.
This is what I want for you, too.
Programme overview
The programme consists of four weeks of embodied writing training, followed by four weeks of working with specific goals during November Academic Writing Month.
First, you’ll explore and experiment. Then, you’ll apply and integrate. Throughout, you’ll be working on one or more academic writing projects that are meaningful to you.
- Pre-course materials + 3 October workshop: We'll set up the space of inquiry by exploring what embodied writing is — and what attention, movement, and surprise have to do with it. Introducing the Four Elements as movement archetypes. Articulating intentions. Creating the shared environment for these 8 weeks.
- Month of October: Four weeks of workshops, writing get-togethers, and emails with practice-invitations to support your writing. Each week is themed around one the Four Elements: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. You’ll explore how to bring the qualities of these Elements into your writing practice, noticing how this shifts your experience and what it does to your text. Your preferences and patterns as a writer become known to you in new ways, and you'll broaden your range of possibilities. Reflecting on your experiences alongside others helps you take your place in a community of writers.
- 22 October — Design & Q&A session: Beginning preparations for November Academic Month: what do you feel fired up for, what do you want to make a push on? Introducing a “goals, points, and rewards” system that may accompany you through the month ahead, grounded in the values of courage and care.
- Month of November: November Academic Writing Month! A time to write... and to draw on newly learned skills and tools to accompany yourself in the writing. Weekly writing get‑togethers continue, alongside regular check‑ins and encouragement. Throughout the month, we’ll witness each other’s courage and care, and whatever else may surface along the way.
- 2 December — Closing session: Once more we'll meet, to share insights and celebrate on the other side of November Academic Writing Month. Final reflections on the 8-week course and how to keep nurturing your writing practice. Closing together.
How will I know if this embodied approach is for me?
- You can try it out! I ran a free taster session on 26 August 2025, and clicking on the link will bring you to the recording.
- For an overview of the approach we’ll be working with, you can also watch this recording.
No prior experience with body-based ways of working is required. The Four Elements practices are intuitive for most people because they naturally connect with our experiences and imaginations of movement and physical expression. They are also adaptable: I’ll provide options for differently mobile bodies and different spatial setups.
If you’re unsure about moving in front of others, don’t worry: I recommend turning off your camera during movement and writing practices to take away any performative element. A private space from which to attend will help you feel most comfortable.
FAQs
How narrow is the definition of 'writing'? Can it encompass also data analysis or literature review?
Times, dates, costs
Session Times:
Amsterdam, Barcelona, Stockholm, Vienna: 13:15 – 14:45
London, Edinburgh: 12:15 – 13:45
New York, Boston, Toronto: 7:15 – 8:45
Singapore, Taipei, Shanghai: 19:15 – 20:45
Check these times in your location
All sessions are 90 minutes.
Note: Europe and the UK end Daylight Saving Time on 26 October. This means session times for participants in Singapore and most Asian regions shift by one hour from that date. North American participants shift by one hour for one week (27 October – 2 November). Please check exact times for your location.
Workshops:
Fridays: 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 October 2025
Writing Get-Togethers:
Tuesdays: 7, 14, 21, 28 October; 4, 11, 18, 25 November 2025
Academic Writing Month Setup Session:
Wednesday 22 October 2025
Closing Session:
Tuesday 2 December 2025
Fee: €880
Payment Plans
Available on request (select “pay offline” option at checkout).
Note: Does this programme feel right and timely, yet your current financial context makes it impossible to join? Please reach out so we can explore if there’s still a way to make it work for both of us.
Enrolment for the 2025 round of this programme is now closed. If you missed out, there will be a next round! — and in the meantime there are other ways to work with me on your writing. Please contact me for more information.
Please click the button above to reserve your spot.
Space is limited to 15 participants. Registration closes on 30 September 2025.
Photographs on this page: rock pigeon by Angelo Wagan, birds perched by Eduardo Sanchez, monkey by Laura Cross, spider & statue by Yanghong Yu, open gate by Annie Spratt, portrait by Kylie Sabine.