the Artist’s Way
A WORKSHOP TO NOURISH YOUR SOUL
This thirteen-week group offers a communal, experiential, and therapeutic experience as you walk through Julia Cameron’s legendary The Artist’s Way. Through group conversation and various writing and artistic prompts, you’ll be held in creative practice, and invited into a process of discovering, healing, and transforming your relationship to your creativity and the playful, sensuous, and brilliant artist you know you are deep down. Rather than being a place of escape from the world around you, this course will serve to nourish and deepen connection to your own soul so you can be better fueled and aware of what you bring to the table in a world that needs us to remain empathetic and awake.
WHO
Carter Umhau, LMHC offers this group for the second year in a row, bringing together her passion for the healing power of creativity, her wisdom as a therapist, and her desire to create community spaces grounded in vibrancy, intention, and depth. After integrating pieces of The Artist’s Way into her personal creative practices and into her professional therapy work with clients for over a decade, Carter developed this workshop to facilitate your own work with the Artist’s Way course material, while deepening it through creating a unique, intimate, and transformative group experience. She believes that by exploring the call of your own soul towards creativity, you are opening yourself to be of service to the world in a way only you can be.
This group is for you if…
you’re looking for a way to nourish your soul within a terrifying political climate...without dissociating…
you struggle to choose rest and self-care, creative or not…
you’re a creative person but you get trapped in perfectionism whenever you consider trying anything remotely creative…
you’re an established artist who struggles to connect to a sense of play and/or spirituality…
you grew up with some nasty narratives about how creative or “out of the box” you’re allowed to be, but you want to challenge those voices…
you just have a gut feeling this experience is for you…
WHAT
This course asks you to commit to the process of doing The Artist’s Way—a workbook organized by weekly readings, reflection questions, and creative “tasks”—while bringing yourself and your process to the group. Imperfection is welcome and encouraged! Whether it is your first time hearing of the Artist’s Way, you’re approaching this as your yearly pass at it, or you want to go for a third attempt at it after never making it all the way through, this course is for you.
WHERE & WHEN:
In collaboration with Femme Fatale DC, Carter will be hosting group in a cozy, intimate setting on Monday evenings from 6:30-8pm EST for 13 weeks, February 24th-May 19th for 10-15 participants. Femme Fatale DC is a grassroots retail space that celebrates and lifts up independent artists and entrepreneurs, and hosts an incredible variety of events that make space for creativity, radical self-care, and community-based activism. It is an honor to host you all at Femme Fatale. We will gather weekly in a cozy, vibey space, designed to make you excited to start your week off together each Monday night for the next few months.
For those elsewhere in the country and world (or those just not free Monday evenings), there is an ONLINE offering for another 10-15 participants,
THURSDAY mornings from 11:00am-12:30pm EST (or 8:30-10am PST)
for 13 weekly, February 27th-May 22nd via Zoom.
Carter has extensive experience creating space online, and promises a dynamic, intimate, and energized online class where cameras will be on and awkward blank-eyed silences will be minimal!
There is no hybrid option available…nor would it be desirable, I promise!
Going for group cohesion here!
Participants from both groups are invited to two BONUS co-working sessions, meant to be a container to catch up on Artist’s Way tasks or deepen reflections in a container of body-doubling and continued connection with the community. DATES TBD.
INVESTMENT
Class is $250/month (or $750 in full), for 3+ months of 90-minute meetings.
The cost reflects the intimate and personalized setting of 10-15 participants
—and —
2 BONUS online co-working sessions
and a 20% discount for 1-on-1 sessions with Carter
valid until the end of class!
There are limited sliding scale spots available for each group,
meant especially for those where paying the full-price would make attending prohibitive.
BIPOC folks are especially encouraged to inquire,
as are folks who have just lost their jobs due to life under the new administration.
Email Carter directly for a coupon code: carterfleetu@gmail.com
If you would like to register and pay in full for whatever reason,
please contact Carter directly at carterfleetu@gmail.com to reserve your spot and receive a link to pay.
Still have questions?
Keep reading below for answers to commonly asked questions
—or— book fifteen minutes to chat with me, for free!
If you haven’t heard of the Artist’s Way, I couldn’t be more honored to introduce you. (If you’re already familiar…you know!) Written by the prolific Julia Cameron, the Artist’s Way doubles as both a workbook to assist you in unblocking your creativity and a manifesto of creativity itself. The book is divided into an introduction and twelve main chapters—meant to be read over twelve weeks—and offers lessons on creativity, and then exercises or “tasks” meant to help you deepen your reflection and step into action as you digest the material.
You’ll be in charge of getting your own copy of the book before we meet!
Wait, so what exactly is the Artist’s Way?
Ok, so it’s a book. Why read it in a group?
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people excitedly talk about how they started the book…and then bashfully admit they never finished it. The Artist’s Way is a commitment, and one that raises profoundly challenging questions about your own relationship to yourself and your creativity. To work through the book in community offers a space not only for invaluable accountability, but to connect in inspiring, generative ways in what could otherwise be a lonely process of becoming.
This group is designed to deepen your relationship to the content, connect you with others, and support you in your self-exploration in an inspiring, fun, and transformative way.
What makes Carter the right person to lead this group?
Carter began hosting creative workshops in 2009 and it was there that she realized that she had a knack for holding deep, transformative spaces that were grounded in creative practice. She wound up pursuing licensure as a psychotherapist to round out her skills and her study of the Soul. After a decade’s deep-dive into the therapy world—she has both expanded and returned to the format of the creative workshop
While this group IS NOT THERAPY, Carter pulls on her expertise in holding in sacred, intentional, and well-boundaried space for the service of creative exploration.
I’m not sure I’m an artist. Is this group for me?
YES. This group is for anyone that wants to know more about their creative life force, anyone that wants to challenge their relationship with perfectionism through play, anyone who wonders who they are beyond their 9-5. It’s for anyone that has an inkling that there’s a deeper and more authentic way they could show up in the world and be of service.
What if I can’t make it to every group?
Short answer is that it’s okay if you need to miss a few meetings. The more nuanced answer though—which is important for you to consider—is that when you sign up for this group, you are making a commitment to the process of unblocking your creativity by completing the Artist’s Way as best you can. This commitment is for you, but it is also a commitment to the group. You are showing up to something that matters to you and opting into the community accountability of that. Your care is contagious. My hope is that each group participant takes their commitment to themselves and to the group seriously, and shows up as consistently as possible. This develops group cohesion and deepens your collective experience.
Past participants of my Artist’s Way workshops are saying…
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This experience has been INCREDIBLY valuable! It has profoundly altered my perspective and the way I will move through life. It sparked a personal evolution in me.
Spring 2024 Participant
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I took [the Artist's Way] course with Carter and was continually impressed by her generosity, intentionality, kindness, and vulnerability. While wading through challenging material, she manages to be both a professional instructor and personable ally. Couldn't recommend enough!
James P., Spring 2024
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This experience was fantastic. I was searching for something to wake me up and get things moving in my life and this workshop did that! ...it was a great mix of different types of people. I feel like I grew so much and gave myself the encouragement to try new things and be loving to myself.
Anonymous Participant