Oct 5 -Dec 6
The life writing retreat
A life writing retreat for purpose-driven souls who are ready to slow down, listen inward, and transform their personal stories into a powerful source of clarity, courage, and direction.
Rewrite Your Story Rewrite Your Life
This 9-week virtual retreat is designed to guide you through a structured yet transformative process that takes you deep into your memory, story, and personal history. Through guided prompts, black feminist text, reflective exercises, and interactive discussions, you'll learn how to mine your story for insights, and shape a new narrative. You will move through a powerful three-part process:
Clarity – Understanding the story you’ve been living and why.
Courage – Releasing what no longer serves you and writing a new narrative.
Commitment – Embodying your transformation and taking aligned action.
What story are you telling yourself about where you are - and where you're going?
"we tell ourselves stories
in order to live"
The stories we carry — the ones we’ve inherited, stitched together, or left unwritten — shape everything: how we show up, what we believe is possible, and the lives we build.
Some stories protect us. Others hold us back.And too often, we’re moving too fast to untangle which is which.This retreat is a space to pause.To sit with the questions we usually sidestep.To honor what’s shaped us — and get honest about what’s calling us now.
This is for you if...
This is for you if you’re building something bigger than you.This is for you if you have an idea you’re too scared to face, you feel some invisible force stopping you, but the not-doing is deepening self-resentment.This is for you to remember why you started.This is for you to remember the baddie that you are post-partum, post-divorce, post-layoff.
The Resonance Framework
This retreat is rooted in the Resonance Framework, which integrates narrative therapy, learning sciences, and Black feminist praxis to create a transformative space for self-renewal and actualization.
clarity
Remember your past and the seminal moments, relationships, and experiences that have shaped you. You will start by digging through written artifacts, evidence of your thinking and state of being at the time.
courage
Release what no longer serves you and embrace a new narrative. Step into your power by articulating a story rooted in possibility and purpose.
commitment
Take intentional action to bring your new story to life, applying it to your work, your relationships, and the way you show up every day.
week by week
This is the top line view of the curriculum, week by week.
| Clarity | Courage | Commitment |
|---|---|---|
| 1. write the old story | 4. grieve | 7. apply your insight |
| 2. dig deeper | 5. attend to the call | 8. TRNSform |
| 3. self-inquiry | 6. write the new story | 9. gather your resources |
When you log into our private learning platform, you’ll find Week 1’s resources ready for you, with new content unlocked each week. Every module includes a video lesson from me, a beautifully designed workbook, reflective writing exercises, and curated readings from poets, scholars, and visionaries. Together, we’ll explore themes like the uses of the erotic as power, radical self-trust, the architecture of belonging, radical imagination, healing narratives, and story as a practice of future-building.
at the end you will have
Memoir Map
A story map of your life, charting the places, characters, and pivotal experiences that define your journey. Think of this as a blueprint of a memoir with parts of the story already written.
Declaration of Becoming
A powerful articulation of who you are becoming and the life you are stepping into.
Legacy Framework
A creative offer, new direction, or personal reinvention that emerges from your transformation.
Integration Plan
A roadmap for embedding your new story into your daily life with intention and consistency.
this is for you if...
-This is for you if you need some new thinking tools, to release yourself from the not-enoughness of energy, time, money, and relationships.-This is for you if you want to meet the unknown, not with anxiety, but with curiosity, you ask yourself “how good can this get?”-This is for you if you’ve had to bury a parent or loved one, and now wonder about the point of it all.-This is for you if you feel too old to start something new.This is for you if you feel like you’re too inexperienced to start something new.
What's Included?
Video Recorded Sessions
These recorded video lessons give you the flexibility to review the material at your leisure.
Weekly Life Labs
Live Q&A and workshopping where we go beyond the lessons—this is where breakthroughs happen and creativity flows.
Quarterly 1:1 Plot Development Check-ins
Check-ins with me, to workshop your ideas and make sure you’re moving forward in your writing journey
Quarterly Alumni Gatherings
Stay connected with past participants for creative collaborations, skill-sharing, and ongoing growth.
The Unwritten Journal
A guided journal filled with writing prompts, reflection exercises, and storytelling frameworks to help you claim your narrative
Accountability Partner Program
You won’t be doing this alone. Get paired with a fellow writer for support, encouragement, and consistency
Community of TRNSformers
A private space where we hold each other accountable, inspire each other, and co-create transformation
Group Collage of Mutual Growth
A collective storytelling project that brings our stories together
What's the Investment?
All At Once
Single payment of:
$1000
Over 4 months
4 payments of:
$250
You can request a full refund up until September 20, 2025 — two weeks before the course begins.
After that, enrollment is final. To request a refund, just reply to your confirmation email or email [email protected]
About Us
Productive Purpose
Productive Purpose is a school for sovereign thinkers rooted in Black Feminist Pedagogy.We create spaces that nurture self-trust & creative actualization —bridging theory and practice to build new worlds, tell new stories, and live with deeper agency and purpose.
Dr. Anna Bethune
Dr. Anna Bethune is a Learning Scientist and recovering perfectionist, I’ve spent years researching how we learn, the mental models we use for sense-making, and how narratives serve as pre-figurative tools for world building and future making.In my own journey, writing my story became a path to healing, teaching me that the stories we tell ourselves become the lives we live.
Ready to Rewrite
Your Story?
Join us for the Life Writing Retreat from October 5 – December 6 and step into a transformative experience that will help you reconnect with your purpose, embrace your power, and leave a lasting legacy.