Book Writing for Therapists and Other Healers
with NAOMI ROSE, Book Coach / Book Developer & Creative Midwife
Creator of WRITING FROM THE DEEPER SELF —
A soulful, process-based approach to writing,
leading to a published book you can be proud of
that resonates deeply with your readers
and helps to heal the world.
💮
Specializing in Helping Therapists and Other Healers Write Books that Actually Heal
Because a great listener like you deserves to be heard far and wide.
The Creative Process of Listening and Being Listened to
Writing a book is a wonderful creative project! And if you have a book in you, it’s a blessing to bring it out onto the page and into the world so that it can heal its readers — and you.
If you haven’t written a full book before (and even if you have), you may have some niggling concerns about whether you’ll be able to actualize this desire.
Maybe you think writing a book is like an extended term paper or dissertation, and you’ll need to gear up for its rigorous requirements.
Or maybe you’ve read numerous books in the category your book is likely to fit into (e.g., “self-help”), and you think you’ll need to follow a standardized template to make your book read that way — even if, if truth be told, that doesn’t really feel like you.
Well, as someone who has helped numerous healers write, love, and publish their books, I can assure you that neither of these pre-set formats has to be the case for you.
As the creator of Writing from the Deeper Self, and a Book Developer & Creative Midwife for decades, I know that when authors are given the opportunity to intimately mine their inner being, something uniquely creative and healing comes about. Fears are replaced by eagerness. The sense of burden is replaced by frequent inspiration. The duration of the project becomes a comfort, a friend.
And this is because the book comes not by fitting yourself into some book-writing mold, but by listening it out from within you.
This is what I help you with. I help you listen forth the book of your heart by our listening to you, together.
writing a book from the deeper self is an intimate act of listening.
And isn’t that just perfect for someone like you, who has been led to a vocation (or avocation) that so deeply involves . . . listening?
It’s your turn to be listened to, now. Your book will emerge from that.
The Creative Power (and Pleasure) of Being a Good Listener
I have become a good listener, in my later years.
I know how to empty my mind of my own preoccupations and bring an engaged awareness to the person I am listening to. It’s as if I enter a certain unobstructed atmosphere where — both through what’s said and what I pick up intuitively — what’s really relevant for the person comes into my awareness. Then, the seemingly disconnected pieces of the this-and-that the person is saying (in an effort to get to clarity and a sense of the path forward) start to weave together somewhere inside me, until the whole tapestry comes into view.
This combination of listening, cohering, and communicating what I make of what I hear combines to bring the person into a state of feeling known. The forehead smoothes out. The breath deepens. A smile may play around the eyes. An ease comes. And then more of the person is available to them.
There is nothing like being well listened to. Out of such an experience can come works of art, beauty in relationships, balm for hurt, and more.
And . . . there is nothing like being able to listen. It is a gift of great value to be in that inner place that wants to — and can — listen. To be able to put the other person at the center while keeping one’s own grounding. To welcome and distill what comes forth, and feed it back.
Therapists and other healers do this kind of thing all the time.
It is healing to listen and be listened to well. There is a subtle cord (and chord) of harmony that gets played when this kind of human and spiritual connection comes about. Both parties emerge feeling larger, and more themselves.
But I was not always a good listener. Like many people, I wasn’t listened to early on in life. There wasn’t room in the family for what went on in me. Not growing up with access to the inner stillness that can come with being listened to — or to the revelations from within that then have space to show themselves — as I got older, I hadn’t a way of listening to myself. To live an unlistened-to life can be difficult and painful. I felt shoehorned into a false standard of being, where the always-present potential for flowering was eclipsed beyond my conceiving.
It was being in therapy with practitioners who were good listeners (along with my spiritual studies and teachers) that showed me what it was like to be listened to well. To have another person take me in with interest and care, love and spaciousness, and to mirror back to me aspects of myself that had long been blocked from view. This was like the difference between living inside a dank narrow room and being sprung into a lush, verdant garden. It taught me, bit by bit, how to listen well and authentically to myself . . . and, eventually, to others.
NAOMI ROSE, CREATOR OF WRITING FROM THE DEEPER SELF — BOOK coach/ book DEVELOPER & CREATIVE MIDWIFE
“Sitting with you was like sitting with a seasoned spiritual director. Very present, very open to what I might say. Responding from the heart to my writings, which was very precious to me. For a person who is longing to be deeply heard, just sitting with you and seeing my spoken work impact you is a precious thing. You help me to see the transcendent aspect of my writing, so that it becomes an ‘of course’ to think of sharing it outside our meetings, perhaps to publish it.” — Roberta Gannon, MFT, Spiritual Director, poet
And the avenue for this deep listening that opened up for me was to help people write the books of their heart. Because the self-knowing and the joy that come from listening forth what wants to be known — and from following what plays out on the page — is a fulfillment beyond compare.
This is a spiritual as well as professional service. And it’s one I want to give to the people who listen others whole. Like you.
I bring to my clients:
💮 30+ years in the publications field,
💮 Studies in Transpersonal Psychology,
💮 Participation in the Sufi Healing Activity in the tradition of Hazrat Inayat Khan, and
💮 A lifetime of seeking & encouraging the expression of what’s real.
Listening Your Dream of Writing into a Book You’ll Love to Share
“Inner guidance is heard like soft music in the night by those who have learned to listen.” — Vernon Howard
The kind of attentive and informed listening offered by people (like you) who are drawn to healing as a vocation actually does help generate healing. I know this from experience, and I can help you bring your healing to a wider world through your book.
As a Book Developer & Creative Midwife, I work with first-time “budding” authors as well as more experienced writers. So even if you have never written a book before, your grasp of listening (along with your professional training in your field) — coupled with my ability to listen to you (along with my professional training in my field) — will set the stage for a kind of alchemical sparking from within. Our mutual attention to your true desire will unroll the path going forward.
So you won’t need to worry, or seek to fit yourself into some standardized template for writing a book. Your book will emerge by being listened out of you. And it will ring true — both to you as you write it, and later when people read it.
In this way, your book can be an actual carrier of healing, not just words about healing.
Just what our world needs.
writing a book is healing when you listen to what wants to be known through you.
Healing the World Through Writing a Book
naomi rose, book developer — listening your book into being
Our world needs healing, doesn’t it? It needs the holding, the helping, the being brought back to the essence of what’s possible for a human being that is the healer’s stock-in-trade.
As a healer, you can’t literally work one-on-one with upwards of thousands of people. But as an author of a healing book, you can.
You can reach people on a larger scale than the number of clients you can reach in private practice — and at the same time enhance your business by creating a beautiful expression from the depths of who you are.
I’m not talking about superficial books that give the “10 Most” lists, or speak with a distanced expert voice offering advice from a pedestal.
I’m talking about being the kind of deep person you are with your clients — but this time, on the page.
Depth heals. And our world is hungry for depth.
What we want most in life is to see who we really are — beyond the quick flash of the latest fad, the surface self-improvements, the conditioned concepts of self.
Book Developer Naomi Rose welcomes therapists who have a book that’s calling to be written.
Somewhere in us, we all sense that below the surface lies something real, even if we don’t always know how to reach it.
And what we want most — consciously or not — is to reach and learn to live from that place.
This is your home territory.
You’ve got this.
💮 "I am so honored that my book has been of value to you. I have felt very seen by you, and that is so much of what therapy is about. We all yearn for that." — Jenaii Gold, MFT; author, The Moon, the Hare, and the Pearl: An Intuitive Guide to Psychotherapy
💮 “Naomi provided the warm and inviting space that I needed to speak about my work and listen to the words as they emerged from within. She listened to my words before they were even shaped. She was fascinated with my ideas as I shared them with her, and this receptivity validated what I was wanting to write. She showed me how to write from my deeper Self. Naomi, thank you for listening to the heart of this book. It was inside me, and you welcomed it into being. Giving birth to books that heal is certainly your calling." — Doreen Downing, PhD; author, The 7 Secrets to Essential Speaking: Find Your Voice, Change Your Life
💮 "What Naomi does superbly is to evoke the creative and articulate in each person who works with her, to such a degree that each one is surprised at his/her own talent for expression." — Gay Luce, co-founder (with Jean Houston), Nine Gates Mystery School
You may wish to read my article on my work with therapists writing books in “Where the Client Is.”
(To get a deeper-dive sense of what “Writing from the Deeper Self” is about, click here.)
The Many Rewards of Writing a Book
writing a book can strengthen your capacities and lift your spirit when you have the inner connection.
But writing a book from the Deeper Self is not only to bring healing to your readers. It’s to heal you, too.
What could it be like to not only:
💮 Mine the treasure-house of your inner being and bring it to the page in a voice that really reflects you, but to also
💮 Discover more of who you really are through this expression of your inherent creativity. To amaze yourself with what you are capable of.
If the thought of writing a book makes you nervous, even (or especially) if this is something you really want — then the following might help to shift your perspective. In writing a book from the Deeper Self, you get to:
Be the one who is well-listened to, now — by yourself and (if you decide to bring me on) by me.
Trust your intuition as a writer.
Discover and enjoy your innate creativity.
Learn more how your creative nature constellates uniquely in you.
Find your own way, pace, and voice in writing your book.
Unearth hidden gifts in your work and in yourself.
Transform your relationship to writing into an engagement with profound, even delicious, aliveness.
Write with the end-goal of writing (because it feels best to be fully present to it).
And finally, when the writing process naturally reaches “The End,” to emerge with a publishable manuscript, which you can contribute to the world as a print book, an ebook, an audiobook, or all three.
Writing a book, the external view: PROFESSIONAL CREDENTIALS CAN HELP YOUR BOOK’S RECEPTION — AND YOUR BOOK CAN HELP YOUR PROFESSIONAL CREDENTIALS TOo.
Some Professional Rewards of Writing a Book from the Deeper Self:
In addition to the personal rewards suggested above, writing a book and making it available to readers will also:
Deliver your message and presence-by-book to many more people around the world than you can reach in private practice.
Attract essentially pre-screened clients to your practice.
Provide additional opportunities for your work to be known. This added credibility in your field can give you larger ways to make a positive, healing difference in the world.
Increase your income, both directly (through book sales) and indirectly (e.g., by developing products aligned with your books, such as online courses, as well as by teaching).
Attract new friends, kindred colleagues, even collaborators.
Help heal the world through your book, and even find out some of the results (e.g., through letters from readers).
💮 “Naomi has had a profound effect on my life by helping me not only create something I’d only dreamed of, but also realize the importance of fulfilling and honoring such a calling. To work with her is to experience acceptance, wonder, respect, honor, encouragement, guidance, and complete attention — in essence, the precious and rare gift of love. Love for the potential, beauty, and spirit that is inside me, and all of us. In such a presence, those things within naturally flower into a unique, yet universal, offering of a book. Writing this book has become a journey of discovery in the deepest way.” — Thuy Nguyen, Licensed Acupuncturist, founder, Berkeley Community Acupuncture (CA)
💮 “Naomi is an amazing writing coach. She started me on my path of writing from my depths ten years ago. I loved how she supported me to quickly claim my unique strengths as a writer. Naomi coached me through writing my very first e-course, ‘Collage for Self-Discovery,’ which is still alive and loved in the online market today.” — Shelley Klammer, Psychotherapist & Expressive Arts Educator; author, Collage for Self-Discovery
writing a book can bring comfort as well as new openings.
As a Healer, You’ll Feel Right at Home with My Process-Based Book-Writing Approach
The same qualities that drew you to your work, as well as the skills you have developed in the process, can help you enter this book-writing process in an organic, right-at-home kind of way. That is: you are a natural for writing a book in the way I approach it.
💮 Whether you are a psychotherapist seeking to help clients truly befriend themselves and live from an authentic inner place . . .
💮 Or a bodyworker who picks up on and helps release the untold stories in the client’s musculature so that optimum aliveness becomes the “new normal” . . .
💮 Or an acupuncturist who knows just what to find out from your clients so that the cause of their pain can be addressed by inserting the needles in just the right places, freeing up their qi’s natural aliveness and spaciousness . . .
💮 Or some other kind of dedicated healer . . .
you have, in your way, listened people into a truer connection with themselves and onto a more life-enhancing path.
And in your heart, you know this is not only because of the trainings you have taken and the techniques you have learned. It’s also because of who you are. Your self-knowing and -acceptance. Your gift of listening — both on the “pages” of what you have been taught, and between the lines — to help your clients heal.
How you mirror back patterns and unrealized threads, and give your clients compassion where they may never have known compassion. How you open them to seeing themselves through your loving, supportive eyes. How you unveil glimpses in them of exciting new inner capacities.
It’s your turn to be listened to, now.
writing a book by listening to yourself — an act of love. illustration by naomi rose.
Together, We Can Listen Your Book into Being
I have helped many healers write their books (the “Process” phase), and even get them into print and other book formats (the “Product” phase). (In between these two is the “Production” phase, which involves things like editing, proofreading, typesetting, and so on — all of which I can coordinate, if desired.)
Whether you feel eager and ready to start — or daunted by the prospect — I will take you in right where you are. We’ll listen to you together. And in the process, things will become more clear to you, and space will open up for you to receive your infallible inner guidance.
Then, as you more and more trust yourself and your creative process (and my noting the particulars of your creative process so you can write in the way that’s your own is included in our work together), the writing will flow out of you and feel like you. You will trust it because you recognize it. This will give you deep-rooted confidence.
I offer you expert, nurturing guidance and support to write the book of your heart. In addition to being a perceptive listener, I have studied various forms of healing, particularly Sufi healing in the tradition of Hazrat Inayat Khan. I bring over 30 years of professional expertise in the publications field, working with publishers and authors.
I’m committed to helping you from beginning to end — “spark to finish” (I can edit your manuscript once it’s at that point, and also — if desired — guide you in self-publishing the completed book). So if you stay the course, you will have a healing book that you will love, and love to share with your readers.
You don’t have to be alone in this process. Reach out to find out what’s possible.
Your Next Step
If you recognize yourself in what you’ve read here, you may feel ready to take a step towards making your book a reality. Choose one option, or make use of all three.If you recognize yourself here on this page,
OPTION 1:
SCHEDULE A FULL 60-MINUTE GIFT SESSION WITH ME
for a direct client-level experience of my work as a Book Developer & Creative Midwife.
This is not a Discovery Session or a back-door way for me to get new clients. It is a gift — an obligation-free deep dive into your concerns and desires about writing the book of your heart (wherever you currently are in the process), where I offer you the same combination of book expertise, deep encouragement, and healing ways that I bring to my actual clients.
It’s like actually having a client session with me. You will have a direct experience of me and my approach — and the take-away benefits you get to keep and work with on your own — without any obligation to continue with me past this session.
In this Gift Session, we will listen to you together about how who you are can be lovingly mined to bring forth what your book wants to be, and how it can get there in harmony with your natural creative ways and being.
If this sounds like a good plan to you, then go ahead and click on the button below to schedule your Gift Session.
OPTION 2:
Subscribe to my newsletter (see below).
OPTION 3:
Read my books on the creative process to discover the wealth of natural creativity available to you, in your own way.
Starting Your Book: A Guide to Navigating the Blank Page by Attending to What’s Inside You
An Organic Approach to Structuring Your Book: A Right-Brained Alternative to Outlines (Workbook Included)
10 Essential Qualities That Help You Write a Book: Watering the Seeds of the Qualities You Need
💮 “You kept me coming back to what’s most meaningful about what I’m trying to do and have done. You ask deep questions. You’re with me in that depth and heart and spirit, because that’s right where you are. You stuck with it. You listened. You obviously care. I think you are a midwife and therapist.” — Lisa Carey, artist-healer, Quilted Journey Arts
💮 “For a year and a half and three hundred pages later, Naomi has been my gifted guide. A great boat woman, she takes her seat quietly at the helm, and listens in a way that always inspires what is waiting to be known, said, and written to come forth. Practically skillful and mindfully soulful, she is helpful at every turn and around all the stops and stages in the process of book making. But mostly, she is the best kind of friend, and that’s really what it takes.” — Prema Nihan, Transformative Business Coach and Counselor; author, River’s Grace: Navigating the Sacred and Mundane in Motherhood
Sign up for my newsletter and discover the power of writing and healing. Let me support you in bringing the book of your heart to radiant life.
Enter your email address in the ochre sign-up box and click “Subscribe” to join the Writing from the Deeper Self community of like-minded individuals who are committed to writing books that speak to the soul and bring about genuine healing for both writer and reader. You’ll receive expert advice and guidance, creative inspiration, in-depth content, and special offers and discounts. Let your writing be a catalyst for both personal and collective transformation.
Many healers have paved the way in writing the book of their heart.
You can take heart from their experience.
Read about the book-writing journey of one my therapist-clients —
Rahima Warren, MFT (ret.),
author of The Star-Seer’s Prophecy trilogy
AUTHOR RAHIMA WARREN WITH THE THIRD BOOK IN HER TRILOGY, “THE STAR-SEER’S PROPHECY.” RAHIMA WORKED WITH BOOK DEVELOPER NAOMI ROSE THROUGHOUT the book-writing process. Illustration by naomi rose
💮 What she wanted for her book and her writing process . . .
💮 What she went through (obstacles and breakthroughs) . . .
💮 What it was like for her to work with me . . .
💮 The eventual triumph of publishing her book . . . receiving rave reviews from readers . . . and even having her book be used in clinical settings as “bibliotherapy.”
💮 You can also hear Rahima's story of her journey in her own words, in my interview with her.
For a sense of what the book-writing journey might be like for you, CLICK HERE TO EXPLORE RAHIMA’S EXPERIENCE OF WRITING A BOOK.
Books by Some Healer-Authors Who Have Worked with Me
It’s been a joy to help so many wonderful therapists & other healers write the books of their heart,
And it’s been a joy for them to be empowered to complete the journey — to the point where they actually have books in print (& other formats), and continue to receive grateful feedback from their readers, attesting to the healing that these books contribute to the world.
(It can happen like that for you, too.)
Click here to find out more about these healers and their books.
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🏵️ 🏵️ 🏵️
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And Now forYour Book . . .
As a person of depth and integrity who has chosen a vocation founded on the premise that wholeness is not only possible but also is our human birthright,
writing a book can be as natural as going through your inner door. illustration by naomi rose
You know so much about the healing power of being heard. You may even have been the first person in your clients’ lives to hold them with a receptive, healing focus so they could release their acquired negative self-beliefs and begin to grow into the potentials you saw in them.
If you are ready to write a book that the world needs for its deep healing, you’ll get to be on the receiving end of listening, this time. Even a wonderful listener like you can use support in hearing your own heart's call and expression, and articulating it as authentically and beautifully you would wish to in your heart of hearts.
So the resources are there inside you. Yet translating your deep wisdom into a book requires a certain kind of sensitivity and skill.
This is where I can help.
💮 “Unconditional positive regard and presence are two qualities that every good therapist aspires to. When achieved, the counselor becomes a healer. What a delightful surprise to find that Naomi Rose excels in these attributes. My hope, in initially working with her, was to get back on track with my book. What is happening, through being deeply listened to, is that I am starting to hear myself. Because of that, my relationship to writing has shifted to a level that will grow beyond the book project and inform the rest of my life. The book has become a bonus and I am grateful.” — Clare Goodwin, Psychosynthesis Therapist; author, Gifts of the Mandala: A Guided Journey of Self-Discovery
💮 “Working with Naomi has been a total delight. Not only is she able to deeply listen to me and fully grasp my ideas and intentions but she is also wonderfully talented at helping me clarify and plan out the structure and scope of my book. Her understanding and support of me combines with her own great insight and makes her an outstanding and inspiring midwife for creative process.” — Kathy Carlson, MA, Ph.D., MFT; author, The Flame at the Tip of the Candle
Wherever you are in your book-writing journey is where we start from. Whether you have a partly written manuscript, files stored on your computer, simply an idea, or “just” an inner urging towards a book, I can help you write a manuscript that will fulfill you creatively and reverberate from your heart to the hearts of your readers.
Our world needs so much healing from the inside out. Depth is an essential nourishment that’s missing from so much of modern life, and from so many books today. Whether you're called to write nonfiction, a memoir, fiction, narrative nonfiction — or even essays, an article, or website text that truly reflects you, your book can bridge this gap.
💮 “There was a deep knowing that there was so much I needed to express, and that urgency was called a book. [After a while] it went from inchoate to ‘This is absolutely possible. I’m going to do it!’” [And she did.]
— Jenaii Gold, PhD, MFT, author, The Moon, the Hare, and the Pearl: An Intuitive Guide to the Therapist-Client Relationship: a companion for therapists and others who are drawn to their inner life.
“The Moon, the Hare, and the Pearl is an archetypal guide to the practice of psychotherapy. It is an invitation to bring the power of your intuition, curiosity, and imagination to this profound practice. Whether you are a student, intern, newly licensed clinician, or experienced therapist, this book offers practical advice for walking a deeply feminine and intuitive path. If you are not a clinician but want to delve more deeply into your inner life and psychotherapy, open this book, sniff around, and allow yourself the luxury of wandering through evocative landscapes. The path of intuition in psychotherapy is a call to turn inward and engage deeply with psyche. It is filled with synchronicity and wonder. Written by psychotherapist Jenaii Gold from the perspective of the Crone, the elder who speaks her truth, The Moon, the Hare, and the Pearl is an offering to all who seek to live an authentic life.” (From the book’s back cover)
Book Developer & Creative Midwife for this book: Naomi Rose
Writing a book can be supported by therapy, but I’m not sure that pale ale will do it, even if it is named “Therapist.” (I bought this product for the label)
A deep listener like you deserves to be heard far and wide,
and the world deserves to receive your wisdom.
Together, we can listen your book into being.
Thank you for reading what I’ve written, here.
I look forward to reading what you will write.
