Sit down to write and feel your body tense up before you even open your document.
Find yourself stuck in endless rewriting, spinning your wheels without moving forward.
Have had an idea for a story in your head for years, but never start writing it.
Write pages and pages of false starts that just make your project feel more and more impossible.
Get a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you think about the time that’s passing.
Feel disconnected from or alienated by your published work, even if you are proud of what you wrote in the past.
Love the feeling of having written something more than the actual act of writing.
Block off writing time in your calendar to make sure you do it, and then skip it anyway.
After mentoring writers at all levels for decades, I’ve observed that writing success and talent don’t guarantee a joyful creative process. Some accomplished authors write with what seems to be natural ease, while others (equally talented!) struggle with persistent resistance. The difference isn’t in their skill or achievements. It lies in their relationship with their creative process.
Maybe you’re confident and successful in other areas of your life. But when it comes to writing, you face a level of resistance that feels completely unreasonable. Your unconscious thought patterns, procrastination, and limiting beliefs keep you from the work you feel called to do, despite your intelligence and dedication. You may have tried to override these tendencies. Maybe you’ve forced yourself to sit at your desk, regardless of how you feel! But the struggle persists.
You want to love writing. Deep down, you know it shouldn’t be this hard. Want to re-write an old story you have about yourself? Tired of repeating old patterns year after year? Ready to update your writing life in a big way? You might be ready for a breakthrough.
In a State of Mind Breakthrough, I help you dissolve the patterns that keep you stuck by working with your unconscious mind. My coaching is outcome-focused and highly personalized, designed to create lasting change in your writing life. The result: you feel lighter, more energized, and have more clarity about writing.
Through this major reset, you’ll replace your old writing habits with new, more efficient ones. Once you change your state of mind, you change your writing life for the better, for good.
If you think a breakthrough is what you need, let’s talk!
“I found Sarah’s breakthrough course when I was stuck in an endless loop of indecision about my book and questioned whether I was “meant” to be a writer. It took one short month working with Sarah for my entire perspective to change. It was as if Sarah had wiped the fog from my lenses and I could finally see things clearly. Like all experts in their craft, Sarah made the process look and feel effortless. The exercises were gentle and easy, but the effect was profound. At first the changes were subtle and then all of the sudden everything seemed different. When I engaged with my writing, instead of pressure, I felt possibility, instead of uncertainty, I felt confident, and instead of fear that I wasn’t meant to be a writer, I knew I was already the writer I was meant to be. Perhaps most surprising was that the effect expanded far beyond my writing to all the other areas of my life I’d viewed through those same clouded lenses. I’m still in awe of how much easier it feels to be me after working with Sarah and I can’t thank her enough for the gift of this experience.”
— Cori Powell
The fog cleared and you could finally see your writing with clarity. You trusted your creative instincts and enjoyed moving forward each day.
That voice in your head that used to talk you out of writing just... went quiet. You approached your writing desk with curiosity and excitement every time.
When you thought about writing, you felt a steady, sparkling warmth in your heart and your mind.
That nagging feeling of “I didn’t do enough writing today” disappeared completely. You wrote consistently because it put you in a state of joy and curiosity.
You felt lighter. More grounded and connected. More like your true self.
And perhaps most surprising: this shift expanded far beyond your writing into all the other areas of your life.
This is an intensive 1:1 coaching experience that transforms your relationship with writing. Using Timeline Therapy, hypnotherapy, and mindset coaching techniques, we work together to identify and release what’s blocking you—whether that’s impostor syndrome, creative resistance, perfectionism, or deep-seated limiting beliefs about your worthiness as a writer. Then, you build new neural pathways that support your creative work.
This breakthrough is ideal for you if you:
“I signed up for Sarah’s State of Mind Breakthrough because I wanted to find joy in my writing practice again. I also wanted to get back to work on my novel. After my breakthrough, I was amazed at how much my writing life had changed.
I’m more calm and peaceful. That feeling of, “I didn’t do enough writing today,” is gone. I‘m back at work on my novel and it feels wonderful. I just listened to my hypnosis, and it put the biggest smile on my face. I LOVE it. There are really no words to say how much I enjoyed my time with Sarah. It was truly magical and I’m so glad I made the decision to do this wonderful program with her!”
— Nancy Sulaiman
If you decide to work together, this cost is deducted from your coaching package.
Most writers move through three natural phases over 8 sessions. We’ll customize the pace and focus to match your needs and schedule.
We begin with a comprehensive look at your current writing life, goals, and blocks. Using Timeline Therapy, we identify and release negative emotions, limiting decisions, and beliefs that have kept you stuck. You’ll receive custom hypnotherapy designed specifically for your patterns.
This is where we install new writing habits and thought patterns that align with who you’re becoming. You’ll receive personalized meditation practices and practical implementation strategies to build sustainable creative rhythms.
Two follow-up sessions ensure lasting change. We fine-tune your new practices, address any integration questions, and create a strategic plan for your writing future.
When you work with your unconscious mind, you get surprisingly fast results! Most writers complete their breakthrough within one month, though we can adjust the cadence to match your schedule. Momentum is an important factor, which is why 2-3 sessions per week* tends to create the most powerful results.
Total time: 6-8 hours of intensive breakthrough work to allow for integration, plus two maintenance sessions.
After Your Breakthrough: Monthly coaching is available to support your continued growth.
*This plan is flexible. You and your project might need a different approach. We’ll find out what cadence works for you and your schedule, so you can work at your own pace. Set up a call to discuss what this will look like for you.
“Working with Sarah has been truly transformative for my writing practice. In a broad sense, I no longer find my inner critic talking me out of showing up to the page to write. Sarah and I were able to clearly identify long-held limiting beliefs that held me back from believing in the validity and worth of my writing practice. Additionally, Sarah helped me figure out how to realistically plan and set goals for completing my book that are very specific to my own life rhythms. All of this work is allowing me now to approach writing both with curiosity and excitement but also steadiness and a newfound sense of ease. I truly cannot thank you enough for our time together!”
— Sarah Carter
MD
This is intensive, personalized work that creates lasting transformation. In these 8 sessions, you’re getting a complete rewiring of your creative identity.
State of Mind Breakthrough
(Mindset Coaching + Hypnotherapy)
2 payments of $2,250 USD
Total: $4,500 USD (approximately $6,075 CAD)
Other payment arrangements available as long as payments complete by the end of our work together.
Book Your Initial Consultation Call
— Dolly Reisman
Afew years back, I took Sarah Selecky’s short story course, and while I didn’t work directly with Sarah, all the material was hers. That same year, I wrote a short story that won runner-up in the Little Bird writing contest Sarah ran then. I was thrilled. So, I jumped at the chance when I came across an offering from Sarah to work one-on-one with her. She talked about magic and trances and changing my feelings around my work. It piqued my interest.
Being a skeptic at heart, I thought, will this magical thinking work? Will all my doubts about my own work go away? Will I come to the page eager and excited? Is it possible? I decided to take the chance.
I signed up, met with Sarah, and stepped into the great unknown with her at my side. The one thing I had to do was trust Sarah, and I did. To my great surprise and delight, the heavy weight on my shoulders that held all my doubts was nudged out of the way. It didn’t happen overnight but in a reasonable amount of time. She used a technique of placing me in a light trance. With the use of images, I rewired my brain. I exchanged negative thoughts and images for positive ones.
Sarah also gave me a writing protocol, which included all the things I needed to do to support my work and help move my writing along with excitement and curiosity. She taught me to be open to change and gentle with myself. When I worried about grammar, she reminded me everyone needs an editor.
I’m still surprised at how much lighter and more joyful I feel about writing. And when you think about it, her process is scientific. Sarah helped me change my brain. She helped me sweep out all the old cobwebs and plant better, newer thoughts—images that make me feel excited about the upcoming writing. As my writing life has taken on more profound joy, my life has generally opened up. It has been a truly remarkable journey.
Just as we create narratives in our stories, we can create narratives in our lives. Sarah has helped me change my narrative, and I am eternally grateful for that.
While both therapy and coaching can create profound transformation, they serve different purposes. Therapy typically focuses on healing past trauma and addressing mental health concerns. Coaching is future-focused and goal-oriented—we work together to remove the blocks between you and your creative goals.
I use Timeline Therapy and hypnotherapy techniques, which are powerful tools for releasing limiting beliefs and installing new patterns. However, this work centres specifically on your relationship with writing and creativity. If you’re currently in therapy, this work can complement it beautifully. If you’re dealing with acute mental health concerns, I encourage you to work with a licensed therapist first.
You don’t need to call yourself a writer to work with me. If you feel called to write, if there’s something inside you that wants to be expressed through words, that’s enough. Many accomplished, published authors struggle to claim the identity of “writer”—and that’s often part of what we work on together.
This breakthrough is for anyone who wants to write but feels blocked, regardless of how you identify or what you’ve published.
I love teaching craft, but that’s not what happens in a breakthrough. This work focuses entirely on your mindset, patterns, and relationship with writing.
If you want craft instruction and editorial guidance, I have other programs that are designed for that. In mentorship, I read your work, give you detailed feedback, and help you strengthen your skills as a writer.
But if you know your issue is resistance, self-doubt, procrastination, or feeling disconnected from your creativity, that’s when a breakthrough is what you need. Once we clear those blocks, your craft can actually flourish because you’re no longer fighting yourself to get to the page.
Most of my clients haven’t! But here’s a fun fact: as a writer, you’re already familiar with trance states. Every time you imagine a scene or lose yourself in your writing, you’re in a light trance. That focused, absorbed feeling where the world falls away is what hypnotherapy feels like.
Hypnotherapy is simply a way of accessing your subconscious mind—the part of you that holds your automatic patterns, beliefs, and responses. You remain completely aware and in control during the process. It feels more like a deeply relaxed, focused conversation than anything mysterious or strange.
Many clients are surprised by how natural and comfortable it feels, and by how quickly they experience shifts.
Most clients notice shifts within the first 1-2 sessions. You might find yourself sitting down to write more easily, feeling less resistance, or noticing that your inner critic has quieted. The full transformation deepens over the course of our eight sessions together.
The key is momentum. When we work intensively (2-3 sessions per week), your brain doesn’t have time to slip back into old patterns. This accelerated pace creates faster, more lasting change. That said, everyone’s timeline is unique—some people ask for more integration time between sessions, and that’s perfectly fine. We’ll find the rhythm that works for you.
While 2-3 sessions per week creates the strongest momentum, I understand that life circumstances vary. We can structure your breakthrough to happen over a longer period with weekly sessions—it will simply take a bit more time to complete.
What matters most is consistency and your commitment to the work between sessions. If you can dedicate time to the exercises and meditations I give you, we can make any schedule work.
No. Some clients come to me with a specific project they’re stuck on, while others come because they haven’t been able to write anything for months or even years. Both are welcome.
This work focuses on your relationship with writing itself, not on completing a particular project. Once that relationship transforms, your projects naturally begin to flow. Many clients find that after their breakthrough, they not only return to abandoned projects but also discover new creative directions they’d never considered.
I understand—“breakthrough” can sound heavy. But this work is actually lighter than you might think! We’re conditioned to believe transformation requires struggle. This is not that.
The process itself will feel like creative discovery. Most clients are amazed by how quickly shifts happen (without the heaviness of traditional talk therapy). The “intensive” part simply means we work together frequently enough to build momentum. Sessions tend to feel energizing and clarifying, not draining.
After your eight sessions, you’ll have new patterns, practices, and tools to maintain your transformed relationship with writing. Many clients find they no longer need ongoing support—the breakthrough creates lasting change.
However, some clients choose to continue with monthly coaching sessions to deepen their practice, work through new creative challenges as they arise, or simply to maintain the connection and accountability. Monthly coaching is available but not required.
I’m confident in this work because I’ve seen it transform writers again and again. I’ve been working with writers for over two decades, and I’ve used these specific hypnotherapy techniques with countless writers—each one experienced meaningful shifts.
However, timing matters. If you complete the first few sessions and genuinely feel this isn’t the right approach for you, we can have an honest conversation about it. This is why the Initial Consultation Call is so important—it helps us both assess whether this is the right fit and the right time for you to do this work.
I have over 2 decades of teaching and coaching experience, and am an alumna of Hedgebrook, the Humber School for Writers, and The Banff Centre. I have my Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.
I have been trained and certified in Time Line Therapy® techniques, Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Hypnosis at the Practitioner level by the Time Line Therapy™ Association, and will be using these techniques in your State of Mind coaching sessions. I will always provide only those services in which I have been trained.
State of Mind coaching is effective for writers who want to build new habits using a positive mindset. If the obstacles keeping you from writing have to do with clinical depression, anxiety, or other mental health concerns, this may be out of my scope as a writing coach. In these circumstances, I will refer you to another coach and/or therapist who can better assist you.
First you’ll be taken to my calendar to choose a time slot that works for you. After you complete the payment ($97 USD), you’ll receive an email confirmation with a Zoom link for our call. ( If you decide to work together, this cost is deducted from your coaching package.)
The purpose of our Initial Consultation is for me to understand who you are as a writer, for you to understand my approach as a writing coach, and for both of us to discover if we’re a good fit for close, creative work together. A good creative relationship requires mutual understanding, presence, and trust. This call helps us both feel that out.
If it’s a YES for both of us at this point and we agree to move forward, I’ll send you an email with a link to process payment. There will be an agreement that you will read before your payment goes through.
Then you’ll book your sessions and we’ll get started.
You will get an automated reply letting you know that your name has been added to the waitlist.
As soon as time opens up in my schedule and I’m able to take on another client, I will reach out to everyone on the waitlist, letting them know my availability.
At that point, you can let me know you’re interested by booking an Initial Consultation Call.
