Touchstone Retreat facilitators

DAWN THOMPSON

Touchstone Retreat Facilitator
Dawn Thompson was the director of Portland Women Writers and facilitated through Portland Women Writers between 2008-2023. She currently offers workshops for women, those healing from Cancer and other communities through Words for Healing. She co-edited "We Become a New Story," an anthology of writing by participants healing from cancer in the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute writing circles. She is also the co-founder of Touchstone Retreats. She believes writing our stories, whether they originate from our life experience or our imagination, is a sacred act that liberates, heals and transforms us. Dawn is passionate about how writing in community offers us the gift of becoming more intimate with ourself and more connected to one another. Dawn holds an M.A. in Creation Spirituality from Naropa University and a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Oregon. She has worked as a staff member for Write Around Portland.
Contact:Dawn Thompson503-568-6145dawnrenethompson@gmail.com

Lisa Kagan

Touchstone Retreat Facilitator
Lisa Kagan is a writer, artist, creative facilitator, celebrant, and personal historian. She is a co-founder of Touchstone Retreats, facilitating art and writing programs throughout the Portland area. Her business, Family Heirloom Arts, is dedicated to helping individuals and families celebrate their life stories and significant life milestones through conducting oral history interviews and creating illustrated heirloom books. Through her work as a celebrant, Lisa runs Full Circle Ceremonies, supporting people to create custom ceremonies honoring celebrations, transitions, and healing. Lisa believes in the transformative nature of the creative process to renew, empower, challenge, inform, and awaken the human spirit. Lisa received her BA from Wesleyan University in Connecticut with a focus on writing and fine art. She has completed intensive studies in the arts at Skidmore College, the University of New Mexico, Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and the Maine Photographic Workshops. Lisa has completed her celebrant training through the Celebrant Academy and the Ceremony and Rites of Passage Global Training certification program. Lisa has published two books of original art and poetry, Coming Home to Myself (2021) and Emergence (2009).
Contact:Lisa Kagan503.347.1391Lisa@FamilyHeirloomArts.comFamilyHeirloomArts.com

Margaret Hartsook

Touchstone Retreat Facilitator
Margaret Hartsook sees art making and writing as spiritual practices that can open the gates of creativity and self-expression. She believes we each have a unique creative language that can promote well-being, healing, meaning making and growth in our lives. Through de-mystifying the tools of visual art making, she guides individuals to explore and find their own unique expression. Trained in drawing and painting at California College of Art, Margaret completed her BFA at the University of Oregon and received a Master's degree in Transpersonal Counseling & Psychology with an emphasis in Art Therapy from Naropa University.
Margaret is currently working at Legacy Good Samaritan in the Cancer Institute as an Art Therapist. In addition to facilitating many art-based workshops she co-created the Art Therapy program for Pathways Hospice in Northern Colorado and established the Memories in the Making art program for the Alzheimer’s Association in Oregon.
Contact:Margaret Hartsookmargarethartsook@yahoo.com303-682-1073mhartsook.com