An 8-week writing and wilderness journey to write what hurt and transform what matters.Writing Your Wild: A Rite of Passage in Story and Land
One wilderness ceremony.
Six weeks of guided storywork.
One turning point.
Most of us are living inside a story we didn’t consciously choose. A story written by family, culture, trauma, silence, success, or survival.
These stories work for a while — until they don't.
One day something cracks...
a breakup
a loss
burnout
an internal shift
a quite voice saying, "The life I am living isn't mine."
This program exists for these moments.
❋ Are you at a threshold?
This is for you if you have carried a story for too long and are ready for a new one.
❋ Writing Instruction
You will receive expert writing instruction from published authors, professors, and skilled authors.
❋ Trauma Informed
Led by seasoned therapists, you will be held with care.
❋ Transformative
You will leave with reduce shame, a new sense of purpose, and a writing practice that will last a lifetime.
Your story can be rewritten.
Writing Your Wild is an eight-week writing apprenticeship held inside a rite of passage.
The program opens with a professionally held vision fast in the wild. The fast is a clearing — a way for an old story to reach its end.
What follows is the work.
Over seven weeks of guided integration, participants learn how to take lived experience — including what emerged during the fast — and shape it into coherent narrative. Not explanation. Not performance. Story that can be lived from.
This is not a therapeutic program, and it is not a spiritual spectacle. It is a serious writing container grounded in craft, attention, and authorship, supported by trauma-informed facilitation and deliberate pacing.
The arc moves from ending to authorship:
from letting go of a story that no longer works,
to shaping what remains,
to choosing how to live forward.
What You Will Leave With
By the end of the eight weeks, participants leave with:
20–40 pages of raw and shaped writing
One or more revised narrative pieces
A clear understanding of the story you are no longer living
Language for what is emerging in its place
Tools for turning experience into meaning without forcing it
A sustainable writing practice rooted in attention, not performance
Who is this for?
This journey is for people who:
feel an old story has reached its limit
are drawn to the wild as a place of honesty and restraint
want to work seriously with writing, not just journal
are willing to slow down and do disciplined integration
are ready to take responsibility for what comes next
This is not for people looking for quick breakthroughs, peak experiences, or spiritual entertainment.
Your GuidesNed Weidner
For over a decade, Ned Weidner has helped people find their voice — in classrooms, on rivers, and in the wild. As a writer, Ph.D., creative writing professor, and founder of Walker School of the Wild, he has guided people through both the wilderness and the written word with one simple belief: story changes us. His work has appeared in publications such as Slippery Elm Journal, Brushfire Literature and Arts Journal, Still: The Journal, and Configurations, among others. Over the years, he has guided thousands of students, writers, and men through the process of naming what’s true, giving language to what’s been buried, and turning lived experience into meaning — and in the process, helped dozens of them publish their work in print and digital outlets around the country. This new eight-week program is the culmination of that work — a chance to step into wild places, claim your voice, and write the story that’s ready to be lived.
Graeme Ford
Graeme Ford is a seasoned therapist, educator, and guide with decades of experience supporting people in rewriting their life stories and stepping into deeper authenticity. Holding a Bachelor of Child & Youth Care (CYCC), a Bachelor of Education (BEd), a Diploma in Transpersonal Counseling and the formal designation of Registered Therapeutic Counselor (RTC) in British Columbia and Alberta, he brings a richly layered professional base to his work, and he is currently authoring a book that draws on his decades of field-work and classroom experience.Through his practice in Graeme Ford Counseling and as founder of Man Aligned — a men’s work community grounded in the pillars of Depth, Play and Adventure — Graeme has facilitated transformation in a wide variety of settings: classrooms, boardrooms, wilderness immersions, and men’s retreats worldwide. His therapeutic approach is integrative and embodied: he blends somatic practices, breathwork, biodynamic methods and transpersonal psychology to help clients not only heal from trauma, anxiety or addiction, but to reclaim their inherent potential and align with their soul’s calling. Whether working in the wild, in a classroom, or in the quiet of a counseling space, he creates spaces and places that support people in returning to their true path — the calling of the soul.
The Schedule-
Participants will meet in Death Valley for our 1 week opening ceremony. This week will involve a vision fast, deep shadow work, mirrored storytelling. From this point you will begin to open new threads to those old stories.
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Through online group workshops, and interactive writing practice, you will learn how to rewrite those stories into new ones.
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With our new stories in hand, participants will meet to publicly share their stories, which will be published as part of our yearly zine.
Frequently Asked Questions
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No.
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No.
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Yes. It is accessible and deeply meaningful.
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Yes, via group calls + optional upgrades.