Keynotes and workshops on the methodology behind Seasons of Strength, The Winter's Journey Project, and a decade of holding space for stories that needed to become something.
Most of us listen to respond. This talk teaches you to listen to receive — to be present with another person's experience at the level where the real story lives, and to recognize the moment when something true surfaces.
Drawn from Gwendolyn's practice holding space for communities in crisis — from mothers experiencing housing instability who shaped The Winter's Journey Project, to the 100+ voices of Newnan, Georgia who became Seasons of Strength — this is a talk about the specific discipline of listening that makes art possible. And not just art.
Because the same listening that makes a story worth telling is the same listening that makes a team trust each other, a funder believe in a mission, and a community feel that it is truly seen.
Keynote version
A 60–90 minute talk suitable for conference opening or closing sessions, staff convenings, and leadership gatherings. Q&A included.
Most organizations are drowning in information and starving for meaning. This workshop teaches the listening and synthesis skills that turn what people say into what they actually mean — and what they actually mean into something an organization can use.
Developed from the Kernel of Truth process — the structured deep listening methodology used with entrepreneurs, C-suite leaders, nonprofit executives, and teams at organizations like Rootstock — this workshop brings together two disciplines: deep listening and editorial synthesis. It's experiential from the first hour. Participants work with each other's real material.
Terra McVoy — editor and narrative strategist, co-developer of this workshop. Terra brings the editorial synthesis lens: how to distill complexity into clarity, how to recognize the through-line, and how to communicate what you've found to the people who need to act on it.
Presentation version
A 20–30 minute introduction to the methodology, designed as a conference breakout or opening to a longer team session. Participants engage actively throughout — this format doesn't run longer without activity.
Internal team workshops, leadership retreats, culture and communications training. Organizations that understand listening is a skill — and that building it changes how teams work together and what they're able to produce.
Staff convenings, annual conferences, development team training. Organizations doing community-facing work that needs the people doing it to be genuinely present — and the people communicating it to be genuinely clear.
Graduate programs in communications, arts administration, social work, and nonprofit management. Arts organizations whose staff and artists need a shared language for the work of being in the room with other people's stories.
Every engagement is shaped to the specific audience, context, and goals. The conversation starts with a call — bring your event date, your audience, and your biggest question about whether this is the right fit.
Looking for Gwendolyn's book, Birthing Ideas: The Idea Journal? Find it here →