Tending the Creative Spirit
Depth-Oriented Art, Writing, and Creative Processing Workshops
in the Greater Sacramento Area
When Life Shifts, Your Soul Longs for Creative Expression
If you’re seeking a meaningful creative outlet, authentic community, and practices that honor both your wisdom and your growth, you’ve found your sanctuary.
Through mindful movement and breath work, depth art processes, and playful thought explorations, our workshops offer space to notice and reflect as well as tools to creatively integrate inner knowledge for more resilience and vitality in our daily lives.
Led by Dawn Blunk—a creative process coach with specialized training in applied somatic depth psychology and decades of experience as a writing professor—our workshops honor your journey while nurturing the creative spirit that’s wanting to emerge.
Upcoming Workshops
Saturday, 4/18
1 to 4 p.m
Layers of Experience: A Palimpsest Workshop for Revealing Hidden Narratives
Sierra 2 Center, Sacramento, CA
Inspired by the ancient practice of reusing materials, this workshop introduces the art technique of Palimpsest - a layered approach that reveals traces of what came before.
Through intuitive exploration and shifting perspectives, participants will be guided through a reflective, hands-on process to uncover and express inner narratives. Students will learn to blend diverse elements like paint, paper, fabric, and found objects to create a unique mixed-media visual artifact representing your inner experience, intuition and personal narratives.
Supplies: A variety of material, paper and art supplies will be provided. Students may bring personal cards, letters, clips for books or magazines, and any ephemera or written mementos that you wish to incorporate into your artwork, and should wear an apron or clothes that can get paint on them. Participants may also bring their own journals and sketchbooks if they wish.
Saturday, 4/25
1 to 3 p.m
My Story: Memoir Writing Workshop Series
Sierra 2 Center, Sacramento, CA
Reading the multi-faceted and emotional personal journeys of others can breathe inspiration and a sense of knowing and connection into the fabric of our own lives. What personal experiences of yours are waiting to be expressed and shared as brave declarations of existence, learning, and evolution?
In this workshop participants will learn a variety of creative writing and thinking processes that may be applied to any personal memoir writing project. By combining playful thought explorations with basic embodiment and breath practices, you'll learn to create uniquely meaningful and informative artistic expressions in the genre of memoir writing, bringing to the surface deeply held knowing and awareness.
No prior writing experience needed. Each workshop contains new material and activities. All materials are included although students are encouraged to bring their own notebook, sketchbook, or laptop.
Sundays,
5/17, 5/24, 5/31, 6/7, 6/14 and 6/28
1 to 2:30 p.m
via Zoom
"Tending the Creative Spirit” 6-Week Online Workshop Series
With all the demands on our time and attention, intentionally carving out a space for exploring our own creative expression can be challenging. The more we nurture our spirit of imagination and engage a sense of curiosity about our own inner worlds of thought and inspiration, the more we can bring that magic into our daily lives to share with others.
Our weekly pocket of time will be used to enrich personal resources, manage resistance around desired-but-stalled projects, collaborate with well-intentioned but outdated, critical inner voices, and nurture creative habits with useful project-tending strategies.
Participants will engage in a variety of creative practices including nervous system regulation through embodiment and breathwork, playful thought explorations with guided active imagination as well as journaling and mark-making—all intended to cultivate inner awareness and enliven our creative spirit.
No prior art or writing experience necessary. We will be working as a group, creating a safe, supportive container for our explorations, so finding a private, quiet space where you won’t be interrupted will help us achieve this. Wear comfortable clothing for movement, which may happen off camera, but generally we want to keep video on during meetings to encourage presence and connection.
Fees are $35 per session or $210 for the entire 6-week series. Register by 5/3 for a $60 discount. If you register for the entire series, your fee also includes a one-on-one, follow-up session (to be scheduled after the series ends) to discuss your personal creative projects and aspirations in more detail.
Registration will be open soon, so please email me to express your interest in participating.
Check back for times and locations of upcoming workshops
or click the links below to receive updates and read about more workshops.
Meet Dawn Blunk
Dawn brings together decades of creative expertise with deep psychological insight to guide transformative creative experiences. With 25 years teaching literature, composition, creative writing, journalism, and film studies at American River and Sierra Community Colleges, she understands how stories shape us—and how we can reshape our stories.
Her journey through producing and directing local film projects, combined with nearly a decade covering Sacramento's vibrant arts scene for Sacramento Magazine, gave her an intimate understanding of how creativity moves through community.
These experiences revealed the profound connection between artistic expression and personal transformation, leading her to specialized studies in depth psychology.
Today, Dawn weaves together her literary background, somatic movement practices, and depth psychology training to create workshops that go beyond traditional creative writing. Her approach honors the body's wisdom alongside the mind's creativity, offering mature learners a path to authentic self-expression through embodied creative practice.
Whether guiding participants through embodiment/breath work, depth art exploration, or transformative writing exercises, Dawn creates safe, nurturing spaces where creativity becomes a doorway to healing, growth, and genuine connection—both to Self and community.
Dawn holds specialized training in applied somatic depth psychology and continues her own journey of creative exploration and embodied learning through professional trainings and workshops.
“Dawn is a bright light and gift to the world. Her deep wisdom and ability to hold space for you and your creative spark is unmatched. Dawn’s work is thoughtful, intentional and playful. Having her as my creative process coach has helped me gain the clarity and confidence to pursue my creative urges with joy and curiosity. Her workshops are full of laughter, humor, fun and spontaneity; they are the perfect container to deep dive into my soul through artistic expression. I always leave sessions with Dawn uplifted and inspired. ”
“Dawn’s workshops are informative, fun, touching, insightful, creative, safe, and loving. Dawn is super enthusiastic; you can tell she is excited to turn us on to new ideas. I walk out of the workshops buzzing with new ideas and each time, a little bit more healed.”
“I have had the opportunity to take several of Dawn’s classes. She creates a welcoming, judgment-free space that allows you to safely connect with your internal experience and explore what’s there. It doesn’t matter what you know or don’t know, or whether you have ever considered yourself creative. Her infectious energy draws you in and guides the journey, while allowing you to determine the destination.”
“I had the pleasure of taking the Palimpsest class with Dawn Blunk of Soulworks Creative. It was a very well-designed class taught step-by-step with good instruction. Dawn is very warm, friendly and attentive. There were lots of great supplies to use and it was a fun and relaxing experience. Although the process was more important than the end result, I was pleased with what I produced. Highly recommended. Five stars. ❤️”
“I find Dawn Blunk to be an inspired and inspiring teacher who is gifted in getting us connected with ourselves for the benefit of our writing career!”
“Wonderful experience, Dawn! The space, materials, and positive energy you provide is remarkable. I appreciate the experience even more after I return home and spend some time reflecting. It’s a deep and replenishing well you help us create for ourselves!”
“I have had the pleasure of working with Dawn. It has been incredibly helpful for me. She has a special way of getting straight to the heart of what I need, while bringing a flexible and genuinely loving presence to each session. I always feel fully supported and clearly guided. Dawn has a way to design the right process to help me move forward. This is a rare talent and a truly valuable skill and a warm friendship not to be missed.”
“Taking a workshop or class from Dawn Blunk lets me simultaneously get in touch with my creativity and reset my life energy. She is knowledgeable, empathetic, and passionate, and she helps her students find those things in themselves.”
Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.
~ Socrates