Start Here:
An Introduction to the Sense of Place Approach to
Programs and Experiences
A sense of place can deepen how we experience the world.
A sense of place can help us feel more connected to where we are. It can help us uncover meaning in our everyday experiences, strengthen relationships with ourselves, our surroundings and each other.
This work is about healing the disconnect many of us feel in our lives, rushing from one thing to the next without slowing down to really experience where we are.
This work is about restoring those connections that get lost in the rush— enriching our connection to places, stories, memories, and meaning.
What we uncover can be used to enrich our everyday lives, strengthen our work, and inspire connection in others.
In a world that often feels filled with disconnection and disregard, this work offers a way back to what matters.
We live in a time when many people feel disconnected—from their communities, from the nature, culture, and history that surround them, and sometimes from themselves.
At the same time, many of us are trying to create experiences, stories, programs, and projects that help people care more deeply about the places and things that matter.
This work helps you uncover your stories and gain a sense of place and belonging that is needed in the world today.
It has been honed through decades of in-the-field experience working with parks, museums, historic sites, communities, and individuals across the country and informed by my sense of place work as a songwriter, interpretive trainer, and writing mentor.
If you're new to this work, this page will help you understand the ideas, framework, and practices that shape this approach.
The Sense of Place Approach is a way of looking at our surroundings and our lives through a different lens and finding meaningful connections between ourselves and our surroundings.
Rooted in a process of inquiry, curiosity, insight, and story, this approach it originates from one core question I have worked with for decades:
How can we inspire caring about places?
What I have found is that there are many doors in— and finding stories sourced in personal connections are a powerful way to inspire caring.
What I have also found is that everyone has stories of place and belonging, though they may never have called them that. That these stories can be easily accessed— they just need to be evoked.
This work is about helping people access those stories.
Becasue when people uncover them, connection and caring follows. And that helps people and places thrive.
The Sense of Place Approach offers tools, practices, and framework to uncover connections between people and place.
A sense of place can deepen how we experience the world.
It can help us feel more connected to where we are, uncover meaning in everyday experiences, strengthen our relationships with ourselves, places, and communities, and inspire the stories, work, and contributions we want to make.
This work is about finding connection—to place, to story, to memory, to meaning, to ourselves, and to one another—and using what we discover to enrich our lives, strengthen our work, and inspire connection in others.
It can support personal reflection and creative expression, and it can also strengthen interpretation, education, community engagement, stewardship, and belonging.
There are different levels of depth and different ways to apply the work and people come to this work from different places, and enter through different doors in.
You explore this approach personally, professionally, or somewhere in between. Wherever you begin, the journey will lead you to a deeper connection to yourself, your surroundings and the places that matter to you.
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For Individuals
Are you seeking a deeper connection to place, story, meaning, or belonging?
I offer experiences for writing, creativity and personal path-finding.
Do you have a story you want to explore, develop, or share?
Are you looking to reconnect with your creativity or creative practice?
Do you want support navigating a project, transition, or next step?
Classes
Retreats
Mentoring
Deepen your sense of place and belonging
Deeper Sense of Place
Retreats
Mentoring
Explore stories, writing, and creativity
Sense of Place Writing
Story Intensive
Creative Foundations
Get personalized support
Mentoring
VIP Intensive
FAQ’s
What is a sense of place?
In this approach, sense of place is not simply a location or setting. It is not only a feeling we have about a place.It is a meaning-making process that develops through the integration of knowledge, experience, reflection, and connection.
As we explore what we know about a place, what we have experienced there, and what it comes to mean to us, a deeper sense of place begins to take shape.
What is the sense of place lens?
What is a sense of place story?
A sense of place story begins with a connection and grows from the memories, observations, experiences, and insights that emerge from our relationship with a place. It is more than a story about a place or what happened.
It is a story about what an experience came to mean.
These stories can become writing, interpretation, teaching, creative work, community storytelling, conversation, or personal reflection.
Is this more for personal or professional work?
Both. Some people come to this work through writing, interpretation, education, conservation, community engagement, or creative practice. Others come because they want a deeper relationship with the places and experiences that have shaped their lives.The approach works in both settings because it begins with the same source: meaningful relationships with place.
Do I need to be interested in nature or history?
No. You just need to start with where you are, and what you’re curious about when you think about a place. Learning about the nature, culture, history, and heritage a place holds often provide rich opportunities for connection, but this work is ultimately about relationships and meaning, and you can start where you are.
People explore a sense of place through all kinds of places from their past or present: neighborhoods, communities, family stories, memories, creative practice and everyday places, all can hold significant life experiences. The starting point is not expertise. It's curiosity.
Do I need to be a writer?
Not at all. While writers often find this work valuable, Summer of Stories is for anyone interested in exploring place, memory, meaning, and story. You don't need a writing project to participate. You only need curiosity and a willingness to pay attention to what place connections can reveal.
Do I need to have a specific project or goal?
No. While some people come to this work with a writing project, creative idea, professional challenge, or personal question they want to explore, many arrive with nothing more than curiosity.
You don't need to know exactly what you're looking for before you begin. Sometimes the value of this work is not in finding answers, but in discovering new questions, connections, perspectives, and possibilities along the way.
Any other questions? Reach out!
Organizations
Do you help others connect to places, stories, ideas, or experiences?
Interpretive Training
Educator Training
Keynotes
Community & Youth Engagement
Public Events
Consulting
Are you working to strengthen connection within a community or organization?
Interpretive Training
Educator Training
Keynotes
Community Engagement
Youth Leadership
Consulting
Create more meaningful experiences for others
Interpretive Training
Educator Training
Strengthen connection within communities
Community Engagement
Youth Leadership
Bring this work to your organization
Training
Speaking
Consulting