2026 Cohort Live on Zoom
To be placed on the waitlist, please apply now through the link below, and you’ll be notified of the dates of the next training.
“The place in which I fit will not exist until I make it.”
— James Baldwin
A Facilitator Training for Brave Humans Who Feel Called to Teach Writing and Creativity
Join a powerful 3-month journey into creative freedom, personal growth, and meaningful work. The Writing from the Top of Your Head® (WFTH) Facilitator Training certifies you to teach your own 6-week creative writing workshops—an intuitive, playful, trauma-informed approach to writing that celebrates voice, imagination, and creative risk.
No MFA or publishing credits required, no need to be an expert.
All you need is a love for writing, a desire to create safe spaces for others, and a call to help empower them to share their voices and authentic selves with the world.
This isn’t your typical teacher training.
It’s a playful, healing education for facilitators who want to teach with authenticity, not authority. You will learn to create a playful space where students feel both safe and brave enough to take creative risks and reconnect with their imagination.
If you’ve ever thought:
I’d love to teach writing and creativity!
And then you thought, "But who am I to teach?"
This program is for you.
Because your life experience is enough. Your voice is enough.And your deep presence—vulnerable, real, and creative—is all that’s needed.
What This Training Is
A dynamic and alive certification that equips you to lead transformative writing workshops where writers:
Quiet their inner critic
Release perfectionism and shame
Rediscover creativity as play, and as a healing force that’s centered on process rather than product.
“I feel I have opened something huge in this one course. This is the best thing that has ever happened in my creative life.”
~Flora Le - Sadec Fringe Festival
“Nina created one of the safest spaces for creativity I've ever been in. She's probably the only person who could say "keep it small and crappy" -- as in, it doesn't have to be perfect or even good -- and I would actually believe them. I truly felt that anything I could produce (good, bad, or ugly) would be warmly welcomed as a creative victory. During Writing From The Top of Your Head, I felt so free to experiment, throw caution to the wind, not think so much, not doubt myself, and just enjoy the process. The group dynamic Nina cultivated was supportive, loving, open, and generous. I will treasure my time in WFTH and the many, many lessons I learned about myself and my own writing. Thank you, Nina, for sharing this gift. “
~Mary Weisgerber
What You'll Get
Certification to teach WFTH 6-week workshops (subject to completion)
A training manual + course materials
Live classes on pedagogy, practical facilitation, and curriculum design
Ongoing mentorship, feedback, and office hours
Lifetime access to the WFTH online course
Two inspiring marketing classes to help you launch
A powerful final practicum project
An inspiring, like-minded facilitator’s Signal Group, creating an ongoing, supportive community during and after you finish the training.
Just two or three rounds of teaching your 6-week course could cover your tuition.
“I don’t know how Nina does it, but she’s giving students back to themselves.”
— Josephine Spilka
The Curriculum I’ll Share with You
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As we start the journey together, we find out how the foundational practice of “Small and Crappy” can help you lower your expectations and slay perfectionism when it rears its crappy little head! You CAN create without your inner critic hanging over your pen!
“You will have written badly, but you will not have allowed it to be atrocious.” ~K evin McIlvoy
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You don’t have to sit around and wait for the muse to show up! Learn how to raise your creative “antennae” and bring about a state of flow at will, or should I say, invitation?
“The object isn’t to make art, it is to be in that wonderful state that makes art inevitable.” ~ Robert Henri
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Your MOST amazing superpower is to “just be you.” We’ll talk about it. And listen to the Shaggs.
“The place in which I fit, doesn't exist until I make it.”~James Baldwin
Through the “Koi Pond” exercise, you’ll learn to deeply trust the images that come to you, and the details of what you hear, see, feel, taste, and smell.
“An image is a place. Not a picture of a place, but a place in and of itself. You can move in it. It seems not invented but there for you to find.” ~Lynda Barry
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Tap into profound poetic states through the practice of the “Thank You Walk,” “Snapshot,” “Soft Focus,” and other techniques that will help induce states of higher creativity and awe. Learn “brain-training” techniques that reduce the fears that can stifle an artist’s life. These tools will affect your ability to follow through as an artist and allow you to practice more and more bravery and vulnerability. You will practice seeing your unique gifts and recognizing the depth of your accomplishments, and this will be a touchstone that will fuel your passion and artistic resilience.
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You will connect all that you’ve learned into a “symphonic writing experience.” You will combine dreams and other found material in order to discover new directions. By playing with playful structures (as opposed to working within more traditional structures), you will find that actually letting go of control will help you find the surprising gifts that lie beyond the “thinking mind.” Learning to trust this place will create a whole new writer/self.
“I want to be with those who know secret things—or else alone.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke
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These tools and practices in Writing from the Top of Your Head will help in all areas of your life. You will feel free again, like you were when you were a kid. You will become a troublemaker, unafraid of your voice and power. You will find an inner fortitude and sense of deep self-acceptance, knowing that who you are is MORE than enough. Oh, and did I mention, you will laugh! This is not your common boring academic writing course. You will have so much fun, and when you're having fun, you'll want to write more and more.
Why I Created This Work
I’m a lifelong writer who once gave up writing completely. My perfectionism and inner critic made it too painful to continue—until I found a new way in. I started writing badly on purpose. I played, wandered, and experimented. And what happened next opened me to flow, vulnerability, and courage, and eventually an award-winning book of short stories.
I created WFTH because I couldn’t find writing workshops that worked for my ADHD brain, my rebellious creative spirit, or my desire to explore without judgment. Most traditional writing classes felt too rigid or intimidating. So I made the one I needed—and it has been my honor for the last ten years to witness how this six-week workshop has transformed the lives of so many writers.
What certified facilitators have to say…
“Do you believe in magic? I do… now. I transformed from blocked writer to confident, practicing artist within a few months, AND gained the ability to help others do the same.”
~ Kathy G, Certified Facilitator
Link to a WFTH Facilitator Training testimonial from a graduate:
“Thank you for teaching me how to be a facilitator and not just a ‘teacher.’ Everything in your methodology is so… connecting. And that’s what I LIVE for.”
~ Claire Fishback, Certified Facilitator
“I left this facilitator training ready to take Writing From the Top of Your Head® out into the world, sharing it with my voice while staying true to the elements that make the series the unique process that it is. I learned so much about creating a safe space, the brain science of creativity, and how each class builds on the other.”
~ Anna Booream, Certified Facilitator
“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 - WFTH student
So, the WFTH Facilitator Training is about passing that torch. I have a calling to see this groundbreaking workshop reach even more people and help other artists find inspiring, creative, and fulfilling work doing what they love.
(Why settle for a boring job when you can be your own boss, lead with your creativity, and inspire others to live their full, creative lives?)
The brain science behind WHY it works:
I’ve been collaborating with neuroscientist Vaaani Sai of Neurowrite, who studies the brain science of creativity. She took an interest in this work and, out of kindness and curiosity, outlined WHY this method is so effective. (Note: She’ll be a guest speaker in the facilitator training!)
Here’s a synopsis of what she found for the sequence of modules 1-6:
Each week follows the natural rhythm of how the brain learns to create freely:
MODULE 1: Safety before risk — lower the threat response. (reduce inhibition)
MODULE 2: State before skill — cultivate flow.
MODULE 3: Authenticity before artistry — strengthen self-trust.
MODULE 4: Emotion before structure — channel awe and gratitude.
MODULE 5: Play before mastery — expand flexibility, curiosity, and openness to new forms.
MODULE 6: Integration before continuation — solidify new creative habits.
This design reflects how creativity unfolds in the brain: from safety → curiosity → trust→ awe → play → integration.
Thank you, Vaani. This makes SO much sense to me! I love it when “brain science” confirms what one already knows, intuitively.
The Schedule
Live Zoom Classes:
Designed to be digestible and nourishing—not overwhelming. You’ll participate in:
Biweekly Core Writing Labs (experience a WFTH workshop yourself, in real time)
Biweekly Pedagogy & Curriculum Classes
Monthly Practicum/Practice Teaching + Group Office Hours
Final Projects
Graduation Ceremony
Tuition & Payment Plans
Sliding Scale: $3000-$4000
Includes all live sessions, materials, certification, mentorship, and marketing support. Flexible payment plans and accessible options available. *There are no ongoing licensing fees or revenue-sharing requirements after certification. And facilitators can earn back their tuition within 2-3 rounds of teaching. Note: One full scholarship available. Contact Nina to apply.
Extra perk: This is NOT a job that AI can steal! This work is deeply human, transformational, and a joy to teach!
Not quite ready to apply, but know this is for you, contact me below. OR need more information? Reach out to request a FULL Info Packet of the training details.
“The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love... is the work of mirroring and
magnifying each other’s light.
”