Why I write about the man in cowboy boots
My dad was a feed store man in the Great Valley of California. He was a country boy from the South Dakota plains, and I don’t think he ever spent a day without his feet in cowboy boots.
MoreTending fire, spirit, and heart
The Healing Power of Telling Your Story
Welcome to our Women’s Writing Community. This is a safe place for women to write, connect, heal, and grow. Whether you’re seeking tools for self-discovery, support for writing a book, or simply a place to connect with other women on a spiritual path, you’re sure to find something here that’s right for you.
Sometimes it takes putting your story down on paper to see how you can heal from the past. Writing helps us bring ourselves current. We write a story about some part of our lives, and then we see how we’ve grown — not only since that time, but maybe even because of it. Writing helps us illuminate the dark places. It helps us bloom into greater self-awareness and self-acceptance. And it helps us make sense of our lives: how we got to here from there.
Even if you don’t consider yourself a writer, you’ll benefit from the healing power of telling your stories and having them witnessed by others. There is no judgement here. There is no critical ear. We honor each voice as equal, and we write and speak from the heart. Beginning, experienced, and exploring writers — even non-writers — are always welcome.
What’s New?
2025 Women’s Writing Retreats Now Open
These retreats are small, intimate, and fill up fast. Choose a three-day or four-day retreat and reserve your space now.
New Openings in my Coaching Practice
A couple of my clients have finished their projects, and I now have room in my coaching practice for new clients. Do you need support? Accountability? Let’s explore together.
Thursday and Friday Morning Zoom Writing Circles
Wherever you are in your journey or on your path, you can join women from across the country at our weekly drop-in Zoom writing circles. The Thursday and Friday groups are interchangeable, so come either day, as often as you like.
Upcoming Writing Events
What stories are you ready to tell? What’s stirring beneath the surface of your busy day-to-day world? How are you healing and growing yourself? Here you’ll find many opportunities to slow down, check in with yourself, and get current with your present life as you write in circle with other women.
Ongoing Writing Practice
Writing practice is a powerful path to healing, self-discovery, and spiritual growth. Having guidance, support, and companionship can help make it more enjoyable. Here are several helpful ways to keep your writing practice alive, either on your own, or in a supportive community of women.
Women’s Writing Retreats
Take a vacation from your thinking mind and drop deeper into relationship with your heart and soul. Here’s your chance to step away from daily life and sink into a long weekend of writing, resting, and re-connecting with yourself as we live and write together in the bucolic countryside near Healdsburg, CA.
Individual Guidance
I will be honored to help you deepen your writing practice, explore your self-expression, write your book, or use writing and earth-based practices to find healing and balance in your life. Everyone has a distinctive voice, needs different kinds of support, and walks a unique path.
“Part of the magic of Susan’s writing circles comes from the ceremony and guided visualization she leads before we write. From that centered place, I am able to release my inner critic, and my heart comes pouring out in words.”
– Scout Tomyris, Santa Rosa, CA
Author + Writing Guide
Meet Susan
Susan Hagen combines her experience as a writer and wilderness rites-of-passage guide to offer heart-opening, life-affirming writing circles and retreats for women. Her former work as a journalist and firefighter/EMT inspired her to co-author the 9/11 book, Women at Ground Zero: Stories of Courage and Compassion. Many of the first responders who shared their stories for the book later credited that experience as the first step in rebuilding their lives and careers. Now, two decades later, their journey is a testament to the healing power of story. It also remains a potent seed for the work Susan is passionate about today: creating a safe place for women to write, connect, heal, and grow.
Women at Ground Zero: Stories of Courage and Compassion
This photo was taken ten years after 9/11 at a reunion of the women profiled in the book, Women at Ground Zero: Stories of Courage and Compassion. Many of these women say that the process of healing from the World Trade Center attacks began with telling their stories. Learn about my journey to uncover those stories, how it inspired the Women’s Writing Circles I offer today, and how you, too, can benefit from the healing power of telling your story.
Explore the Blog
Things my dad used to say
When we were little, my dad made up a song about our breakfast cereal to get us to eat it. “We like Crispy Critters / And we know Crispy Critters like us / We like Crispy Critters / And we eat them without any fuss.” (It always worked.)
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It's never too late to have that birthday cupcake
To celebrate our 62nd birthdays, my best friend and I recently spent the weekend in Disneyland. Despite creaky knees and stiff backs, we were ready to party like … well, like eight-year-olds.
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