ahavashiraaboutcaption Poet. Writer. Author. Mentor. 

Embark on a nourishing process of creative self-discovery. Shape your story and free your unique voice. Become a compassionate witness to yourself.

As your mentor, I will help you embrace your authentic expression. Through my open-hearted, intuitive listening, you will learn to love yourself and honour your life experience.

Work with me… click on the images below to learn more

Are you someone who writes or has always wanted to write?

 Do you dream of sharing your poems, stories, plays or other creative expression in the world?

Learn to free your voice and express your creativity.

Join a supportive community of writers & artists…

Learn more here…

PRAISE

I found the prompts to write and reflecting on the writing process to be very helpful, as well as having an obligation to make time to write. 

Comparing my writing to others at first made me feel uncomfortable. I was able to overcome it by understanding that it was my writing, my process and my goals. 

Ahava, your supportive, non-judgemental approach was what I appreciated most.

 

Louise Douaire, Retired Nurse & Memoir Writer

Ahava was fabulous leading Woman in Mirror.

She was very compassionate to everyone, and perceptive to where we were at in our writing.

It was beautiful how she spoke to each woman, encouraging each of us with where we were at. She is very intuitive and wonderful at managing all the different places the women were in life and with their different stories. 

I loved the prompts, writing the letter to ourselves. 

I soaked up the energy of the women, their words. 

 

It was a huge gift to be part of it.

 

T.G., Photographer & Memoir Writer 

It was very important to me to be in a circle of women and being led by you Ahava, with such great respect and warmth and humor and confidence in our process and in our writing.

I experienced you listening deeply to our words when we read and honoring and speaking to what you resonated with, noticed, enjoyed, loved, were more curious about.

From the beginning I felt I could trust you and therefore us and the writing and sharing would enrich us all. And surely it did.

I loved the timed writing, and sharing in the group was a key to whole experience. Being able to hear others voices and their words and visions and feel received in them listening to me was very powerful. 

You held the group beautifully.

Melissa Teft

Any opportunity to write with Ahava is one I will always take. 

She is welcoming, gentle and kind;

her soft approach allows the space for all words to be okay. 

Setting aside time and creating the space in my week and life is the most powerful thing. Having a group of women and the mentorship of Ahava feels like sweet permission for me to stop everything else (dishes, laundry…) and write.

These places we feel safe and heard and seen are holy places. 

I am grateful to have found mine in Woman in Mirror with Ahava!

Ciara Chamberlaine, Writer, Yogi and Writing Alone Together facilitator

Loving Inquiry opened the doorway to possibilities that were untapped, stored away deep within.

I have never kept a journal so this was an interesting insightful process, how a question could often produce so many more questions. 

Learning to touch my heart and saying, “stop” when I am having unkind thoughts about myself. I will take this with me for the rest of my life

Always welcoming, warm and kind, encouraging and skillfully guiding everyone to explore their creativity, Ahava, because of your generous spirit, you have created the opportunity for women to explore their lives with curiosity, openness and compassion.

Judith Barnett, Quilter and Writer

What Ahava does is hold my hand.

Ahava knows that I know the way, and so she gently reminds me that my own wisdom lies within me. Ahava has taught me a new way to see and to listen. 

 

What I really loved about Ahava is that she really does go with what is happening at the moment. This helped me to relax and open up to the experience too. I also loved to see her learning about herself along the way.

She is also a bit silly- and I love that!

 

Odette Graham, Floral Artist

 

   

Thank you for creating this space in which I can be open-hearted and playful, explore my words and what I want to be doing with my life. 

 

Loving Inquiry offered a tangible tool for moving through this challenging time.

Instead of beating myself up or falling into despair, I am learning to use words to practice new ways of being.  

When I walk through the gate, it’s like a transformation!

Ariana Salvo, Fiction Writer, Poet and Photographer

My growth happened around changing my personal story from one that was about weakness, fear and ‘stuckness’ around my creative process to one of strength, joy and having a vision for myself.

Knowing that I am a writer has led to discovering the sheer joy of pen in hand and watching with awe what flows onto the page. The transformation to my inner soul is quite remarkable. 

Ahava, you have this wonderful ability to listen and then reflect on what I shared with you. Always, whatever you said or challenged me to do was just right. 

You are really good at creating a safety net for fragile creators; there is no judgment, no shame, no blame, just celebration of whatever little steps I took towards opening into my creative self.

Rineke Jonker, Writer and Storyteller 

Ahava helped me to ditch the self-sabotage talk.

 

She set a tone with her voice and the space that was very calming and relaxing. She is easy to talk to and very open-minded, like a soul sister. She encouraged us to look at our ideas with fresh eyes and a fresh approach.

It was also inspirational to hear how other women are writing and creating their lives.

The course was very exploratory and rewarding.

Amy Gessinger, Leather Worker & Owner of Bareback Leather

 

Through Loving Inquirymy creativity was freed. 

I could play and feel great with the results, without judging myself or waiting for others’ approval. I realized just how important it is for me to tell stories, to help others tell theirs. 

Ahava encouraged me to find imaginative ways to address the places where I felt stuck. She encouraged me to see the possibilities rather than limitations.

There was always an ease in working with Ahava that felt like a collaboration. She was open to listening to where we are at as individuals, respecting our own process, and whether we wanted to share. She was encouraging, playful, flexible.  

Working with Ahava is working from and in the heart. 

Sam Barlow, Writer, Photographer and Multimedia Collage Artist

 

I couldn’t have planned anything better for me to be part of Loving Inquiry. 

In the past year I have been on a wonderful journey to discover myself and explore my life from a different perspective; as a loving, inquisitive observer.

Writing and discussing my process of grief has been a very healing journey. 

I am so very grateful to Ahava and each woman in the group for their loving support.

 

Charlene Wolff, Writer and Filmmaker

 

Thank you for a sweet and deep creative journey of Loving Inquiry

Writing and sharing with a dynamic circle of women has been a treat for my soul. 

It is a warm embrace drawing us into an intimate space of beauty and peace where we explore our passions, pain and promises about life and living. 

I learned how to give my story the time and attention it deserves, so my audience could be drawn into each living moment. 

Thank you Ahava, for being a caring catalyst in the expanding of my creative consciousness, for helping me to appreciate my golden years, turn my straw into gold and my dreams into reality.

You have an amazing gift for listening and co-creating.

Premilla Pillay, Poet, Writer and Dancer

 

Ahava believed in me and communicated this through her words and actions, helping me believe in myself and my writing project.

What I valued most was the way she gave me permission to not know what would happen, to explore and discover what was possible, what was needed moment to moment. 

Ahava, you brought the heart of a brave companion, and the intelligence of an experienced writer, together wrapped in love and curiosity. 

Lynda Monk, Co-Author of Writing Alone Together, Director of International Association for Journal Writing (IAJW) 

When I received a gate every two weeks it was like opening up a gift just for me!

Ahava’s poems, her own experience, and the questions she asked were always thought-provoking.

I often didn’t know what I was going to say as I started writing, and then ended up being surprised about what had happened. 

 

My journal became a companion who would always listen to me without judgement. And it became a vehicle for my meanderings about the art exhibitions I saw and my photographic projects.

Thank you, Ahava, for your gentle attention and guidance.

Denise Okan, Linguist, Photographer and Traveller

 

It was perfect and gentle and just what I needed. 

I feared that my ideas would not be good enough or compare to others.

Ahava showed me that there are no right or wrong ideas, that we all bring to the world what we are best capable of offering in the most pure and joyful way because we are all so unique. 

Rachel Ogis, Writer and Weaver 

 

Ahava, I loved your spontaneity in facilitating our group this past weekend!

The benefits I received were many and varied: expanded creativity, greater confidence in following my own unique path and deeper insight into my truest gifts.

The warmth of your loving guidance brought out the best in us. 

Circles within circles…a playful and moving experience.

Sheila Sayer, Poet and Performer

 

 

Ahava skillfully coaxed voices we didn’t even know we had out of us and onto the page, then more and more pages.

 

Guiding us in Writing Alone Together, she provided the perfect balance of support, encouragement, and loving kindness, leading us through a beautiful process of unfolding and exploring our journeys through writing, sharing, and holding space for one another. 

Ten writers were born that weekend. 

Margaret Schultz, Nurse and Blogger (Love and Scrubs)

I learned that I truly love to write. 

Impromptu writing challenges the editor-voice within, and urges that self-critic to subside to allow authentic words to flow. 

Pushing through the vulnerability of sharing one’s writing with others has so many nourishing benefits. You hear your own voice, thoughts, feel encouraged by others and inspired too.

There was another surprising transformation.

I realised that after a long day at work, when I felt utterly spent and reluctant to join, that pushing myself to meet the commitment of writing was so energizing.

I felt revitalized and a surge of positivity from using my creativity!

Christine Oades, Primary Teacher & Writer

Ahava warmly welcomes us unto a space of creativity, flow and growth. She facilitates a container so divine, that it etches unto every fiber of one’s existence with this nourishing nectar of love, presence, and truth.

With such intention and attentiveness, it was always a treat to hear her input and take on one’s own piece.

She gathers us, weekly, and always manages to bring a new spice to the brew of magic.

An experience of everlasting bliss!

Minah Jacobson

 

Being in this class has provoked a different relationship with myself. 

Not the inner critic, a whole different dialogue. I want to keep it going. 

Ahava teaches a very fluid way of writing. As I age, writing this way helps with my memory issues, makes my sentences longer.

She engenders an energy body awareness that invites this place inside to become engaged! 

We really need to be able to talk to each other, to have our feminine intuitive voices out in the world. It’s our human inheritance, a very different call.

A whole new way of being political. 

 

Jacqueline Chase

 

This Wondrous Writing Life 

An inward, out word journey

What is Mentionable is Manageable…

What is Mentionable is Manageable…

  "If there is someone that is there to listen to your story, there is healing."    Nancy Slonim Aronie     I watched a movie with my husband the other evening called A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood, based on a true story about the friendship between a...

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What Makes You A Real Writer?

What Makes You A Real Writer?

  Eventually you will learn that the real competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit. George A. Sheehan, Running and Being Canadian feminist writer Betsy Warland, in her award-winning book Breathing the Page, describes the quality...

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Stepping into the Creative Unknown

Stepping into the Creative Unknown

It was August. After several months of intense purging and packing and planning, the day had arrived for us to finally leave the farm. We'd spent the morning doing the last of the cleaning, scrubbing the insides of cupboards that had lovingly held our kitchen ware for...

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Books

My passion is offering writers space, support and permission to write and feel supported by a community of writers.

Fuelled by my own creative journey, here are some of my published offerings, from poetry, spoken word & music, to personal memoir and collective storytelling:

Enjoy the beauty of spoken word poetry from the heart.

Listen to a video from the CD here…

Discover the power of going to the blank page together.

Learn more about Writing Alone Together

Savour poems honouring the survivor in every woman.

Read the title poem from the book here…