Live Workshop in Dublin, Ireland
Sept 18-22, 2025
Stories to Live & Die for - LIVE Workshop
with Sabrina Görlitz & April Bosshard
This five-day workshop begins at 3 pm on Thursday and ends at 4 pm on Monday. Participants will secure their own accommodation in Dublin and meet during the days at the workshop location.
Workshop Fee: €550
During this five-day workshop we will wander and write our way through the powerful existential questions that lie at the foundation of living, writing, and dying with conscious wonderment.
The stories we read, write, and tell about ourselves and each other have a profound impact on the way our individual lives—and our societies—unfold.
Most of the stories we read and write focus on how to live in the world, and that’s a good thing, but we’re in need of new narratives stories help us incorporate how to live fully— consciously—alongside the awareness of the inevitable death awaiting each one of us.
In a world in which our societies appear to be in a state of collapse, many of us are searching for new narratives that differ from all the higher, faster, further imperatives that have ruled (and ruined) the world for decades. We need some new and different stories.
Have you felt that need? Have you wondered if you could write such a story? Are you curious about whether your love of writing could help you live—and even prepare to die—with greater ease, love, and awareness?
This five-day workshop explores these kinds of questions.
We’ll start by first understanding how storytelling principles can offer us a powerful lens through which we can appreciate our lives as more than just a series of random events.
As we learn to view our lives as stories that make an impact—now and after we’re gone—we’ll delve into ways we can live with more engagement, fewer regrets, expanded consciousness, and increased acceptance of every life story’ ultimate ending.
This workshop might be for you if:
You’re a writer of stories (short stories, novels, or screenplays)
and wondering which stories are really needed right now and how to write them.You’re working on, or thinking of writing, a memoir and
want to explore the ways your personal story connects with larger, universal themes.You’re working with people close to the end of their life
and wondering how you could incorporate storytelling into
your vocation in order to help people to die in a more meaningful way.You’re in a caregiving, therapeutic, or coaching field and want to incorporate skillful means of assisting clients who are dealing with issues around death and dying for themselves and loved ones.
During this workshop we will wander and write our way through the powerful existential questions that lie at the foundation of living, writing, and dying with conscious wonderment.
As satisfying and thought-provoking ideas emerge, we will harvest insights and encouragement to go on living, writing, and working alongside the truth of our eventual departure from this world.
After learning to anticipate and integrate the inevitability of the end of life in ways that are stimulating instead of numbing, you will carry home a fresh perspective on how to be fully engaged in a life that openly includes death.
Through talks, presentations, facilitated discussions, and practical exercises you will gain a deeper understanding of the intricate “patterns of story-crafting” and how to apply them to your personal endeavors—whether they are expressed through writing, working with the dying, or “simply” living with a greater sense of meaning and purpose.
Your Workshop Hosts
This is a special collaboration between story coach, April Bosshard and story nurse, Sabrina Görlitz.
April, based in Vancouver, BC, and Sabrina, from Hamburg, Germany, first met at a writing retreat in Dublin in May of 2019. Months later, they shared an unusual bond when both of their fathers died in very different ways within weeks of each other, in July 2019.
From that point, a poignant and creative transatlantic friendship developed. Both share a profound professional and personal interest in storytelling—April as a story coach and editor working with writers from all over the world and Sabrina as a trained journalist and palliative care worker who specializes in writing and saving the life stories of the terminally ill.
After years of having many in-depth conversations on the topic and inspiring each other’s work, they’ve decided to share their insights and knowledge about how the awareness of storytelling principles can not only help you to write more easily but to also live more meaningfully and approach death and dying with a calm and open heart.
They chose to host their first workshop together in Dublin for several reasons: it’s the place they first met; Ireland is known for its rich storytelling tradition; Sabrina lived in Dublin for years and learned English there; and April’s paternal grandmother grew up in Galway before immigrating to the US. They also have an inkling that the leprechauns, sprites, and fey folk think it’s a good idea, too.
More About Sabrina & April
Sabrina Görlitz is a trained journalist and a companion for the dying. Since 2019, she has been accompanying terminally ill people in their last weeks of life as Germany’s first Story Nurse. After learned the principles of Dignity Therapy, she created her own end-of-life storytelling project called “palligraphy,” combination of the words "palliative" and biography.” Sabrina has developed her own training program and gives talks on the power of storytelling in palliative care. Her special approach has sparked media interest both in Germany and abroad. She has lived in Ireland for a number of years and calls Dublin her second home. https://en.storycare.de/
April Bosshard is a respected workshop facilitator and story coach who’s helped hundreds of writers develop and complete their projects. Sometimes called a “story whisperer” or “story genie,” she has a background in film and television and has written fiction and non-fiction for traditional and independent markets, which include publications in the US, UK, and Canada. April teaches at conferences and leads workshops internationally and online, while also working with individual clients as a story coach and developmental editor. https://www.deepstorydesign.com
What you will take away:
Profound knowledge about the craft of storytelling
Ability to apply that knowledge to your writing and to your life
Discovery of the “red thread” of your life and how to find it in your stories
Encouragement and confidence to have end-of-life-conversations with loved ones (including yourself)
Greater peace around accepting your own death and more openness for approaching it with curiosity (and maybe even anticipation)
New impulses and tools to engage on a deeper level with terminally ill people
(Re)-Connection to your writing and fresh inspiration to write deeply meaningful stories
Strength to embrace the seemingly “sad” stories in life, a capacity to treasure their gifts, and a willingness to both write and live through them
Lasting connections with like-minded people dedicated to the magic of storytelling and living (and dying) in conscious wonderment
Much of the magic of a workshop like this is created by the combination of people who show up and the inspiration of the hosts in the moment. Please remain open minded and open hearted about the flow of activity and content. We have the powerful, whole-hearted intention to create a welcoming, insightful, and transformative experience for each participant.
April & Sabrina
About the Location
Chapel of Ease, Dublin, Ireland
We will gather in the beautiful Chapel of Ease, a former little church which is now privately owned and used as a “sanctuary for free thought inviting people to explore the meaning of existence, without dogma.”
Lovingly restored by its current owner, the chapel has turned into a beloved event venue for workshops, concerts, and retreats. It is located on the South Side of Dublin, within walking distance to the sea, and only ten minutes by bus to the city centre. (There is a bus stop right outside the chapel.)
If you are looking for accommodation close by, check out the surrounding neighborhoods of Ballsbridge, Ringsend, Irishtown or Sandymount. Note: It’s highly recommended to arrive the day before the workshop and depart the day after. Even better, explore Dublin for a few days on either side of the workshop.
