Sense of Place
Deep Dive Experience
Develop a deeper relationship with a place that matters to you.
A two-day immersive exploration of place, story, and meaning.
August 25 & 26, 2026 • Online
12:00–4:00 PM (ET) Tuesday and Wednesday
Join me for a two-day experience that will connect you more deeply with your sense of place, your stories and yourself.
Over two days you'll get to know one place deeply, uncover new layers of understanding, and follow the threads that emerge.
And most importantly, you’ll give yourself the time and focus to explore and discover more. Many people hope to create something, but don't give themselves the time or structure they need to fully explore their ideas.
This experience will give you that kind of time.
You’ll leave with a richer understanding of your place and yourself, as well as a collection of insights and a narrative thread you can continue developing in your personal or professional work.
If you have a place you feel called to write about, or a desire to find one, this experience is for you.
What You'll Experience
Over these two days you’ll explore a place through different perspectives: personal, collective, factual, evocative, researched, and felt.
Through questions, reflection, meaning-making, and guided practices, you'll gather details, insights, stories, memories, knowledge, and connections that deepen your understanding of that place.
By the end of the two days you’ll have ideas and stories you can continue developing in your writing, teaching, interpretation, creative work, or personal exploration.
Day One:
Place Connections Through Three Perspectives
Your memories: Writing about lived experiences and personal stories
The present moment: In-the field/out your door observation & awareness
The deeper layers: Exploring through research and curiosity more layers of time
You leave day one with a rich collection of memories, observations, questions, and discoveries and a “Story Bank” that becomes the foundation for everything we'll explore on Day Two.
Day Two:
A Deeper Connection Through Story Making
Gather: Explore the stories that are emerging through questioning and discovery.
Weave: Use emerging patterns, connections, and themes to find the story threads.
Develop: Begin shaping a narrative that weaves together self, place, and meaning.
By the end of day two, you’ll leave with a deeper relationship to your place, fresh insights to continue exploring, a practical and repeatable framework you can continue developing long after the Deep Dive ends.
You don’t need to have a place in mind that you’ve already picked. This experience will reveal that to you.
Your place could be from your past or your present. It could be somewhere you know well or somewhere you're only beginning to understand.
You might come with a desire to express why certain places are so meaningful to you, or with an interest in telling the deeper stories
You might come with a question about a place you’ve been longing to explore or be midway into a story or project you’re working to develop further.
This is for people who are brand new to this approach and for those already deeply immersed in their project or process. No prior experience is needed.
All you need to bring is a curiosity about uncovering the connections between yourself and a place, and a desire to uncover the stories your connection holds.
About This Approach
For decades, I’ve shared the Sense of Place framework with communities, organizations, educators, writers, creatives, and professionals, including work with National Parks, museums, and heritage sites across the country.
This experience brings that work into a guided, accessible format.
In this Deep Dive you’ll experience these tools and techniques rather than just learning about them. You’ll form a deeper relationship, uncover stories and experience a process of discovery that can be used in life and in your work with others.
What You'll Leave With
A deeper connection to your place
A clearer understanding of the layers of story, perspective, and meaning it holds
A practical process for exploring place through observation, reflection, curiosity, and research
A collection of reflections, discoveries, ideas, and material to develop further
Practical tools you can use in your personal or professional work
A narrative thread to continue exploring after the Deep Dive
Register Now. Join us for the
Sense of Place Deep Dive Experience
August 25 & 26, 2026 • Online
Tuesday 12:00–4:00 pm ET
Wednesday 12:00–4:00 pm ET
Fee: $497
Questions? Email Erica
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to be a writer?
You do not. The Deep Dive is for anyone who wants to explore a place that matters to them and develop a deeper relationship with it.
There will be writing and reflection, but this is not a writing class. Writing is simply one way we'll notice, gather, and make meaning.
What kind of place should I have in mind?
Choose a place that holds meaning, curiosity, memory, or an unanswered question. It can be familiar or new, past or present—any place you'd like to understand more deeply.
Any place that keeps calling your attention, a question, or simple curiosity is enough to begin. Your answer might come to you during the workshop, which is wonderful too.
What if I've attended something similar with Erica before?
Your relationship with place is always changing, so returning to the practices often reveals new stories, questions, and meanings.
Every time you engage with the practices you can bring to life a completely different idea because you have grown and changed since the time before.
