Writing from the Top of Your Head Retreats - sanctuary for the heartbroken writer.

Special announcement!

My next writing retreat takes place in SCOTLAND in June 2025, through Traceless Tours. Sign up to reserve your space by June 15, 2024. Click the link below for all the details, and write to me through the contact page if you’d like to chat. This will be a trip of a lifetime!

tracelesstours/writing-from-the-top-of-your-head-with-nina-hart

DETAILS of retreat 2019:

Write wild, and generate a ton of fresh writing.

Rest deep, because all creatives need to.

Play hard, so you can free your crazy kid.

Heal what’s been holding you back…  

The retreat will be food for your writer soul and a cozy sanctuary for the heartbroken artist, where you can heal what's been holding you back in your creative process.

Because I'm a creativity coach, I know how vulnerable it can be to write and read your work aloud. The retreat will be a place to bring your whole self and all your vulnerable feelings, and receive support and coaching tools that will help when you're in the throes of an inner critic moment.

This will be the place for you to learn new ways!

Learn to write with glee again. Cause writing shouldn’t be a stuffy academic classroom exercise. It can be a place of open-mouthed surprise, an amusement park ride, a quest into the unknown with no flashlight to see in the dark. At this retreat, we’ll learn to trust this place, even when it takes us into shadowy corners…

Spread out and feel that sense of spaciousness you’ve been longing for - let your writer voice run free. Gather together with some amazingly supportive fellow writers, and it’s quite possible we’ll meet some friendly goats, chickens, and dogs along the way!

Enjoy a nurturing mini-vacation with *deep rest time, optional massage, and let yourself be nourished by our chef’s healthy and comfort food meals.

“This retreat was life-giving. It blew creative energy back into my writing. It challenged me. It gave me permission to be imperfect and to explore different writing genres. The intention of cultivating creative freedom was felt every step of the way. At the same time, Nina’s heart nourished each of us in our process. Her openness and love for writing inspires the creative spirit to let go and flow. You would be so lucky to have a weekend seeping wisdom from this gem of a woman.”

~Michal Grappe - retreat participant - October, 2019

Come join us!

For information about upcoming retreats or to bring a retreat to your town, email Nina at writenina@writingfromthetopofyourhead.com

Nina Hart, founder of Writing from the Top of Your Head workshops, will be your creativity coach, guide, and cheerleader who will jump up and down and make you play with toys.

“Writing is a little bit like being shot out of a cannon.”

~Etgar Keret

Something magical happens…

When you tap into that bigger source where all creativity comes from. (And that’s just what we’ll do!)

When you leap out of the canon and into the unknown, into the non-thinking brain. Something wild and ineffable and true arises…

When you re-connect with your kid brain - when you hold hands with the kid part of yourself that’s always been there!

So, on this retreat, we’ll laugh. A lot. Cause that’s where the kid mind loves to live.

We’ll support each writer’s inner genius through the powerful practice of Gateless Method feedback -

Gateless is about nurturing the writer. While society has previously believed that good writing is born from criticism, recent brain science has found that domain-changing creativity occurs when writers are cherished and encouraged.

~Suzanne Kingsbury - founder of Gateless Method Writing

And we’ll learn the tools of Writing from the Top of Your Head – a rare, transformational course that helps creatives find freedom from the inner critic and freedom on the open page…

The content and material ALONE in this course is rich and deep enough to bring someone through substantial, substantive transformation not only in their creative lives, but in their lives, period. The hidden little traumas in all of us creatives get tweaked and exposed and witnessed in the process of these brilliantly diagnosed exercises that are laser-precise in what, where, and how they touch these places.
~Karuna Haber - student

No matter where you are on the writer’s path, from beginning to advanced - you are welcome.

“We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out. ~Ray Bradbury  

Typical 4-day Retreat Schedule:

Arrive after 4pm - our first dinner together is Thursday evening at 6:00pm. 
The first writing session is Thursday night at 7:15 pm.

Friday and Saturday:

*Breakfast 8-9:15am

*Morning writing sessions start at 9:30am and we’ll write until noon.

*Lunch at noon

 *1:15pm a half hour of deep, guided rest time followed by free time

 *Afternoon session starts at 3pm

 *Dinner at 6

*Evening meet-ups start at 7:30pm. (An eclectic blend of discussions on creativity, time to read aloud, nurturing self-care practices, time to wind down.)

*Daily Group Check-ins - again, these are really important. I want to know how you’re feeling and navigating through the writing processes. As a creativity coach, I know how vulnerable it can be to write and read your work aloud, and my aim is to make this retreat a place where you can bring your whole self and all your vulnerable feelings, and receive not only support but coaching tools that can help when you’re in the throes of an inner critic moment. This will be the place for you to learn new ways!

*Check out Sunday – breakfast 8-9:15am followed by group process - check out at 11 am.

 For information about upcoming retreats or to bring a retreat to your town, email Nina at writenina@writingfromthetopofyourhead.com

In summary, you will: Write from the top of your head! Gain coaching tools to ease your inner critic, read aloud using positive-only Gateless Method feedback, play and meet your crazy inner kid, laugh, deep rest, friendly farmhouse animals, yummy home-cooked meals from our private chef, and gain a community of uber-supportive writers! Bring your whole self. Come join us!

“The writing retreat I did with Nina was one of the best gifts I ever gave myself.  Probably the best! Nina has the gift of creating an atmosphere that is fun and light and playful, and underneath it all is such a solid and thoughtful foundation of personal experience, brain science, and techniques for accessing creativity. I came to her class (and retreat) in the hopes of recovering a sense of playfulness and delight in my writing that I haven't really felt since I was a child.  She did help me find that joy, and I'm so happy about that.  The unexpected result is that all the tools she shared to help with creativity can also be applied to all aspects of life --i.e. Pomodoros, "close enough", and most importantly having the courage to trust your own (weird) inner knowing wherever it takes you, and also to mirror back positive regard for others in the form of Gateless feedback. Doing that for other people has allowed me to approach my own writing with much less criticism and doubt. Also The Shaggs = best band ever.”  

~ Jennifer Armocida - retreat participant - October, 2019

“I honestly loved every aspect of the retreat. I wouldn’t change a thing! It was wonderful - a revelation and awakening to the writer within. Creative doors were unlocked, and the tools and prompts Nina shared with us gave me so much freedom as a writer. I am writing everyday now, and I can’t stop. It was a beautiful, encouraging, and empowering weekend.”

~Anna W. - retreat participant - October, 2019

BIO: Nina Hart is an Asheville, NC based writer, performer, and creativity coach trained in the Kaizen-Muse method. She is also a certified Gateless Method writing teacher – “a method of teaching the art and craft of writing using creative brain science, ancient non-dual teachings and highly-effective craft tools…allowing writers to access the creative genius inside.” Her first collection of surreal short fictions called “Somewhere in a Town You Never Knew Existed Somewhere” was selected as a Short Stories (Adult Fiction) category finalist in Foreword Reviews’ prestigious 2014 IndieFab Book of the Year Awards. Nina was also an original member of the experimental dance troupe Contraband, in San Francisco and, playing a purple electric bass, has recorded and performed with numerous bands. Nina spends her time as a right-brained, highly sensitive, creative entrepreneur. She is passionate about helping artists and writers find their voice and reclaim the hooligan kid spirit that most people have buried under an “adult” veneer. Nina considers herself to be an improvisational writer – she was a blocked writer until she rediscovered the curious part of herself who could play, experiment, and explore. Nina is the founder of a unique method of teaching writing called “Writing from the Top of your Head,” which combines group Creativity Coaching with creative writing. She offers online Writing from the Top of Your Head workshops, both live and self-study, as well intensive retreats and 1:1 coaching.