I don’t just sell the map.
I’ve walked the territory.
I teach people to re-see and re-author fragmented, difficult, or traumatic experiences into coherent narratives, so your thinking brain comes back online, your nervous system stands down, and you can finally tell yourself a story you can stand to live inside.
I'm a full professor of writing and rhetoric at Appalachian State University and author of the award-winning book Uprooted: A memoir of belonging and becoming, which served as the testing ground for the Radical Revision Method (TM) I now teach.
While I’m not a neuroscientist, my PhD in Rhetoric, Technical and Scientific Writing trained me to read science rigorously, and years of doing exactly that have made me something of a science translator, someone who takes the dense, jargon-heavy research on the brain and trauma-informed writing pedagogy, and code-switches it into plain language and practical tools the rest of us can actually use.
My academic and publication credentials are solid, but the one that matters most is the depth and breadth of my first-hand experience surviving the harder parts of being human. I spent years writing my way through a very dark wood of complex PTSD. It grew out of a childhood and adolescence scarred by domestic violence, addiction, divorce, and death, and an adulthood marked by a complicated adoption reunion, compounded loss, and a long-overdue mental health diagnosis that threatened to end me. Writing is what saved my life. Literally.
A lot of coaches sell the map before they've walked the territory.
Rest assured: these boots are well worn.
Hi, I’m Dr. Sarah Long
Author, professor, and therapeutic writing practitioner.
The method behind the work
The Radical Revision Method™
A neural-narrative approach to re-authoring the stories that keep you hurting, so your mind can still and your body can feel better.
Reveal the Hard Part
Get a painful story out of your body and onto the page. This is where the science of expressive writing begins, and it's yours, free to try.
Start the free protocol →Recognize the Pattern
See the story for what it is: a worn pattern your brain has been repeating, not the whole truth.
Rewrite the Story
Author a truer, more useful version of the story, on purpose. This has nothing to do with talent.
Rewire the Brain
Practice the new story until it takes hold. Each time you revisit a memory it becomes briefly open to change before it re-stores, and repetition strengthens the truer version. This is memory reconsolidation and neuroplasticity at work.
Return to Yourself
Build rituals you come back to, so the change consolidates and the relief holds instead of fading.
What to know before getting started
Not sure where to start? Reach out with any questions, or if you're ready to dive right in, schedule a free consultation today.
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Working together, we take the raw writing you've already done and turn it into a story you can live inside. I read your pages through linguistic software, show you in plain language how your narrative is (or isn’t) moving toward coherence, and then help you either lean in, lean back, or close the story loop. Then, we mine the organized, concluded story for its meaning and purpose, which is the final step in processing and closure.
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If you happen to be a writer seeking publication, I’m happy to consult with you about my experience, but this coaching practice and protocol has little to do with writing as a profession. I don’t coach writers on craft. I don’t edit manuscripts. I don’t write reviews. I help people use writing therapeutically to process difficult human experiences and develop narrative coherence.
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No.
I can guide you through the protocol during our first session and help you generate prompts if you're unsure where to begin.
However, we can't do the deeper analysis and meaning-making work without at least one completed writing sample. Many people arrive having completed the free four-day protocol. Others bring journals, fragments, or pages they've been carrying around for years.
Just don't clean them up first.
Bring the messy version. The hairy, gnarly, unedited truth. That's where the interesting stuff lives.
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Sessions run about 45 minutes over Zoom, usually spaced a week or two apart, because this work asks a lot of your nervous system, and the pause is part of it. Expect to feel things stir. Most people feel a little worse before they feel better, but that's the material moving, not a sign you're “doing it wrong.” You'll never be pushed faster than you're ready to go. Our goal is coherence over catharsis.
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This isn't an open-ended method like talk therapy or journaling. Most people begin with a focused block of four to six sessions, which is generally enough to work on or move through one significant experience, after which you can decide whether to keep going or not. While I am always available to you, my overarching goal is to teach you a kind of literacy, not create dependency; meaning, if I’m doing it right, you won’t need me after a few sessions.
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We start with a free 20-minute consult, so we can both get a sense of whether this is a good fit before any money changes hands. From there, sessions are $125 each. Four sessions are $425 and six sessions are $640 — that’s a 15% discount for scheduling multiple sessions.
But, money should never be the reason this work stays out of reach. If you need a reduced rate, say the word, and we'll find a number that works.
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No. In fact, many clients prefer to maintain a certain level of anonymity because that allows them to be more honest on the page. While I offer sessions synchronously via Zoom and on my farm (for locals), I also offer a completely asynchronous option where a combination of writing and voice notes sub for synchronicity.