Professional Speaker

I can speak on these topics:

Grief

~Grief Rituals 101

~How to Grieve, Even if you don’t want to

~Smell the Blue Sky, the story of my personal grief journey

~Yoga and Grief Metaphor

~How Journaling Saved Me (a tutorial on automatic writing)

~Ecstatic Dance Your Grief Away

~Healthy Grieving

Organization

~Dailies/Weeklies/Monthlies (on organizing your schedule)

~How to Organize Your Schedule, so your life isn’t swept away by a tornado of stress (includes sh@t list)

Homesteading

~How to Brew Kombucha

~Turning Your Front Yard Into a Garden

~Backyard Chickens

~How to Eat Gluten-Free

Writing

~How to Indie-Publish Your Book

~Editing Mistakes to Avoid

~Turning Negative Emotions Into Art

~How to Start a Critique Group and Make It Last

~Different Kinds of Journaling and How They Can Help You Write

Yoga/Massage

~ Yoga Postures for L.M.T.’s and Their Clients: Advanced Body Mechanics

~Basics of Partner Massage

Gift Economy

~How to Run a Gift Circle (an introduction to the gift economy)

You can contact me directly for booking a workshop, class, or a public speaking engagement at v a l e r i e w i l l m a n a t g m a i l d o t c o m, without the secret code to avoid spammers. (Insert sly wink.)

Valerie Willman is the author of Smell the Blue Sky: young, pregnant, and widowed, winner of the B.R.A.G. Medallion for Top Indie-Published Books. She co-chairs the Mid-Valley Chapter of Willamette Writers and teaches various workshops on writing, homesteading, and grief, such as “Booze and Chocolate Aren’t the Only Ways to Cope: Turning negative emotions into art.” She’s a successful freelance copy writer and editor through her company, Yellow Pen Editing, and is also a certified bereavement facilitator, and a licensed massage therapist.

Valerie has served in the United States Army, owns land in Costa Rica, and lives with three big dogs, two kids, and one Turk. She’s walked the length of two marathons—on purpose—and loves olives, chai, and chocolate.