You are human.
You have stories.

Editing the stories you tell yourself can change your life.

I'm Shauna James Ahern — storyteller, teacher, and a post-menopausal woman who wants to guide you to understanding your own stories.

In the age of algorithm and AI, of followers and likes, of misinformation and division — we need to remember what makes us human.

Storytelling can restore us.

You are human.
You have stories.

Editing the stories you tell yourself can change your life.

I'm Shauna James Ahern — storyteller, teacher, and a post-menopausal woman who wants to guide you to understanding your own stories.

In the age of algorithm and AI, of followers and likes, of misinformation and division — we need to remember what makes us human.

Storytelling can restore us.

You are human.
You have stories.

Editing the stories you tell yourself can change your life.

I'm Shauna James Ahern — storyteller, teacher, and a post-menopausal woman who wants to guide you to understanding your own stories.

In the age of algorithm and AI, of followers and likes, of misinformation and division — we need to remember what makes us human.

Storytelling can restore us.

You are human.
You have stories.

Editing the stories you tell yourself can change your life.

I'm Shauna James Ahern — storyteller, teacher, and a post-menopausal woman who wants to guide you to understanding your own stories.

In the age of algorithm and AI, of followers and likes, of misinformation and division — we need to remember what makes us human.

Storytelling can restore us.

The Story of the Tender-Hearted Warrior

This is your
call to adventure.

Something is changing in your body. The sweats, the sleeplessness, the rage that arrives without warning, the sudden refusal to keep pretending — this is not your body failing you.

This is your body in perimenopause, sounding the call to adventure.

And if you answer this call, something extraordinary becomes possible: the chance to finally let go of the stories you have been telling yourself for decades — about how small you should be, how productive you must remain, how little you deserve.

The Story of the Tender-Hearted Warrior gives you a structure for this moment — ancient, proven, shaped for women who are done performing and ready to live.

We walk through this journey together here.

And in that community conversation, you will find freedom.

Workshops

This is the place
for long thoughts.

This is the place for long thoughts, a time for reflection, a space for questions without ready answers. This isn't about hot takes or quick comments. Instead, we'll dive deep together and talk, thoughtfully.

Four Saturdays every month. Come to one. You might want to come to all of them after you've encountered this storytelling.

Next class · Free The Story of the Tender-Hearted Warrior Saturday, April 18 · 11am Pacific
Join This Class →

See all upcoming classes ↓
About

Life has hip-checked me
into the wilderness
more than once.

I always said yes to the journey. I'm a writer, a guide, a James Beard Award winner, and a woman who spent decades performing productivity — until a mini stroke and one astonishing homework assignment changed everything.

Read my full story →
Work With Shauna

You have a story.
I will help you
tell it well.

You have a story. I will help you see your story more clearly and edit it.

Passionate about your work but don't know how to tell the story? Let me listen to you talk and do the storytelling for you.

Do you need a guide to work with you 1:1 to help you understand your story? I'm here.

See How We Work Together →
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Read Shauna's Work

Read my storytelling.

A powerful, year-long story — written from the messy middle — about learning to let go of the old stories about my body and slowly coming alive to feeding myself fully.

Plus five published books.

Read the first four essays free →

You belong here.

What kind of people feel drawn to these classes:

  • Women who feel deeply and want to find their people
  • Readers and film lovers who see the world in stories
  • Writers who want to understand the structure of their own stories
  • The ones who feel that small talk is like having itching powder thrown down the back of a too-tight shirt
  • People hungry for a transformational framework that doesn’t smack of best-selling self-help books
  • The ones who refuse to go numb — even when numb would be so much easier right now

If you’re longing for the company of other people who want to connect through thoughtful conversation and learn to let go of your stories, then this is the space for you.

Let me tell you a story about a story that cracked me open.
A film that matched the precise shade of my particular grief. A book that showed me a world I didn't know existed. A woman whose life is a masterclass in becoming. Music that shifted into a minor key and suddenly I understood something I couldn't name before.
 
We are storytelling animals. These are the stories that remind us we are human. We are not alone in the thick of it.
 
This newsletter is for women who feel the world keenly and want to connect with the stories of women like them.
 
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Shauna James Ahern

Storytelling can restore us.

We must be willing to get rid of
the life we've planned, so as to have
the life that is waiting for us.
The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.

— Joseph Campbell

© 2026 Shauna James Ahern · shaunajamesahern.com