United Kingdom 2025 Participants

Alex Muck (she/they) grew up 45 minutes north of Pittsburgh in SW Pennsylvania, spent 10 years in Middlebury, Vermont, and now lives with her husband Scott in Kennington, just outside of Oxford, in the UK. She has done everything from teaching middle school math and whitewater kayaking, to gardening, to HR work, and retail shipping. Amidst it all, there’s been writing, and teaching. She discovered Gateless writing through a workshop with Sarah Byrden in 2019, and after it helped her get her post-uni writerly mojo back, did her teacher training later that year to help bring the magic she experienced to more people.

Daisy Alpert Florin is the author of My Last Innocent Year, which was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, a Washington Post Staff Pick and an Indie Next pick. Daisy attended Dartmouth College and received graduate degrees from Columbia University and Bank Street Graduate School of Education. She was a recipient of the 2016 Kathryn Gurfein Writing Fellowship at Sarah Lawrence College and was a 2019–20 fellow in the BookEnds novel revision fellowship. Daisy went on her first Gateless retreat in 2014 and in 2021, she became a Gateless certified teacher. She leads weekly salons through Terri Trespicio’s Studio. Daisy lives in Connecticut with her family and is currently at work on her second novel.

Heather Johnson Durocher is in her second year as a Gateless Academy writer and is working on her first novel. She is an award-winning journalist, writing for national and statewide newspapers, magazines and organizations for more than 25 years and specializing in parenting, health and wellness, business/financial services, and travel/outdoor recreation. She is a senior editor for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, a position that allows her to travel and explore — and do research for her in-progress book that is set in part in the Upper Peninsula.

Heather writes from a beautiful small town on Lake Michigan in the state’s northern lower peninsula, where she and her husband Joe raised their three kids, ages 24, 22 and 18. Heather is also the publisher of the lifestyle website Michigan Runner Girl and through this has hosted a weekly podcast and created an annual women’s winter retreat that brings more than 50 women together for an active and restorative weekend in the woods. She is a contributor to an anthology about women and running and writes the Moving Through newsletter on Substack, where she explores midlife, long-term partnership and marriage, parenting adult children, and how to keep moving through it all.

She discovered Gateless through the beautiful and talented Daisy Alpert Florin!

Kasey Mathews is a Holistic Life Coach, Inspirational Speaker and author of two award winning books, Preemie: Lessons in Love, Life and Motherhood and A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Magical Life. Suzanne and I worked intimately on Preemie in the years before the birth of Gateless.

I am Dana DiPrima, which rhymes with banana 😉 I live in NYC and have a little farm in upstate NY. I grew up in NC and might say “y’all” occasionally. I founded the For Farmers Movement and work to bring attention and resources to small and mid-sized American farmers. I am working on a related book. I found out about Gateless through a friend and two acquaintances who worked with Suzanne on their books. Looking forward, D

Kelly Ferrero: I live in Joshua Tree California with my amazing wife Mariska and our three poodles. I love the Gateless program and the work that Suzanne is doing is life changing. I am excited to be In the English countryside as I am also a Garden Gnome.

Sheena Cook: I grew up on my family farm in the north of Scotland, became a lawyer in London and the US and just finished an MA in Crime Writing at the University of East Anglia, UK.

My new novel, MEN WOULD KILL FOR THIS, was shortlisted for the Little, Brown UEA Crime Fiction Award 2024 and excerpts won two Scottish Arts Club awards. Large chunks of it were written on Gateless retreats.

I’m a Gateless trained teacher and a Reiki and massage therapist.

I live half in Baltimore, Maryland and half in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Sarah Byrden: I met Suzanne in 2015 and completed my Gateless Teacher Training in 2016. I’m a Wilderness guide, educator in the fields of movement, mythology, Chinese 5 Elements, nature and cycles and working on something big and beautiful that has been coming into form for a decade.

Monique Barry: received my MFA from UCLA in screenwriting in 1996. originally wrote for some documentary films and am now finishing up a memoir on my chinese jewish mother, No Wonder He Dumpa’ You.

I’m Sarah Montana, a writer, WGA screenwriter, public speaker, union leader, and PROUD GATELESS CERTIFIED TEACHER! <3 I’m currently working on two movies for Hallmark Channel. I found Gateless in 2017 and have been in love ever since. Here’s my more standard bio:

Sarah Montana is a WGA screenwriter, writer, and public speaker. She has written several screenplays for the Hallmark Channel, including “Rescuing Christmas,” “Love to the Rescue,” “A New Year’s Resolution,” and the Christopher Award winning “Two Turtle Doves.” Her play, “The Girl, The Ghosts, and the Minotaur” was a winner of the Life Jacket Theater Company’s Proof of Concept Reading Series.

She is sought after public speaker about resilience, trauma, and forgiveness, which has led to speaking engagements at TEDx, women’s conferences, corporate retreats, colleges, and podcasts. Her viral talk “What Shapes You Can’t Break You” (see her talk here or on Goalcast) was featured on Goalcast and now has tens of millions of views. Her TEDx talk “Why Forgiveness is Worth It” is featured on TED.com, has received millions of views, and has been incorporated into college curriculums and therapeutic practices.

She is a Gateless Writing Method certified teacher and teaches students of all ages how to fall in love with the creative process. She’s also a representative for Film/TV/Streaming on Writers Guild of America East Council.

Joan Johnson: I am on the journey to a new found love, writing. It began last fall when I met Suzanne at an event in New York and enquired about her program. A couple of months later I am in Connecticut at my first ever writing retreat and in love with the process. It has spurred me on to a new passion, one many people in the past said I should embrace, that it was my life’s path. Here I am, and ready to fulfill that challenge, no matter the time it takes to reach the destination.

I am a mom, grandmother and wife to an supreme group of people who support me wholy in my life. I could not wish for better cheerleaders and the intense love that they provide. Life is always best looked at from the bright side.

Pam Suchman: After many years as a television producer and writer, I completed a book, which Suzanne helped me to edit, as well as numerous articles published online. In the works at the moment a rom com movie as well as a TV pilot and a book proposal. I’m attending this retreat with the intention of excavating further inspiration and ideas for projects to come and of prioritizing the ones already in progress.

Terri Trespicio is an author, speaker, brand advisor, and facilitator who helps people unlock the power of their voice and ideas—so they can express what they do with more clarity and confidence. Her TEDx talk, Stop Searching for Your Passion, has been viewed more than 8 million times, and her book, Unfollow Your Passion: How to Create a Life that Matters to You (Atria), offers a fresh take on finding meaning and momentum in your work and life.

A certified instructor in the Gateless Method for creative generation, Terri has led transformative workshops for brands and organizations including L’Oreal, REDKEN, Wells Fargo, Northwestern Mutual, and Google. She’s also a sought-after speaker coach and former magazine editor whose writing has been featured in Marie Claire, Oprah Magazine, Jezebel, and Business Insider.

Terri’s also founder and creator of The Studio, a membership program featuring live, virtual, real-time Gateless writing workshops several days a week, all month long. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College and lives in New York City. Learn more at territrespicio.com/studio.

Christina Dexter is a freelance communicator who helps social advocacy groups talk about their priorities by telling the stories of the people they impact. She became a certified instructor of the Gateless Writing Method in 2021. She has since used the methodology in her work, generating content for nonprofits, facilitating groups of writers, and as an empowerment tool for women and girls on her travels through India. Her writing practice weaves spicy fictional and non-fictional tales, and she is still working to understand what the writing wants to be.

Megan Mitchell: I am an Interior Designer with extensive experience working in commercial design – for complete assholes. A couple of years ago I got off of the rollercoaster to nowhere and started Megan Mitchell Studios, a magical little Interior Architecture and Design firm specializing in empathic built environments. My career (re)awakening can be attributed in no small part to my involvement in all things Gateless. Over the last few years I have written in Gateless salons and even become a Gateless certified instructor. Thank you Daisy for introducing me to Suzanne and Terri to your son’s bar mitzvah!

Mariska Nicholson: Trailblazer Storyteller Poet Visionary Aquarian Daughter Mother Lover

Sandra Yin is a recovering journalist whose stories have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Associated Press, The New York Times, and American Way magazine, among others. She has covered topics as varied as nude modeling, infection control, stool transplants, picky eaters, how to market to fast-growing demographics, and homelessness. As a nonprofit editor, she translated research findings related to health, nutrition, environmental security, and food policy into more easily digested nuggets of information. As a ghostwriter/editor/workshop leader, she helps people write and share their life stories. A pandemic mover, she now calls West Virginia home.

Laura Rowley: I grew up with ten siblings in an Irish-American family on the South Side of Chicago, where the best way to win the room was to tell a good tale. At age 11, I won a prize in a poetry contest and then it was off to the races: newspaper reporter, magazine editor, television producer, nonfiction book author, Wall Street content strategist, bedtime bard for my three daughters. I recently returned to the delirious joy of writing fiction that I experienced as a child, and completed the first draft of a novel. I met the lovely Suzanne at a luminous, life-changing Gateless Retreat in Connecticut, where we chased a wayward kayak in a thunderstorm.

I. Murphy Lewis is the author of Why Ostriches Don’t Fly and Other Tales from the African Bush. After her initiation with the Maasai Warriors, Lewis left her executive position at Badgley Mischka to complete a PhD in Mythology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She lives and writes in Paris.

Hi friends! I’m Carly Lederer and I’m an artist/whatever-feels-right-in-the-moment from Frederick, Maryland, United States. Occasionally considered the Swiss Army Knife of my generation, I have “managed” the operations of all types of businesses and people for most of my adult life. I’ve tried HVAC, boot camp fitness, construction supplies, landscape/hardscape, garden retail, cannabis retail, coffee shops, real estate – but nothing ever felt like me for very long. In 2023, I started wanting to know what WOULD feel like me for very long, and it lead me down the spiritual road of self discovery to consciousness. And to a new feeling of purpose and excitement about everything life has to offer. To energy, breathwork, and mediation. And to my creativity and painting, which is (literally) changing my entire life.

And ultimately (amazingly), it led me to Gateless! And to obtaining my Gateless Writing Teacher certificate. And to occasionally collecting content for Gateless Social Media, which I will be doing at Voewood!

Hi I’m Cat Preston, I’m a life and leadership coach at More Happi, a jewellery designer, writer and a multifaceted creative soul. I’m from the UK, but have spent most of my adult life travelling the world with my family and have called six different countries home.

I love the power of stories to connect and inspire us and I took the Gateless training back in November so I could deepen my own writing experience and help others to do the same. I host a podcast called Collective Wisdom which celebrates ordinary people doing extraordinary work that matters.

Hi, I’m Celeste Adamson and I live in North London. I’ve worked in fashion PR for over 12 years now and originally started out as a fashion journalist. A friend of mine attended a Gateless workshop last year and said that it changed her life so I was very excited to give it a try.

Noor Kadhim: I am a lawyer in the art law and dispute resolution fields by profession and I’m Scottish Iraqi. I work for myself and travel around the world, and am multilingual.

I hope to be inspired by my travels (which most recently took me to Moscow, Cape Town, and Patagonia and many other place) for the books I hope to write one day. I love nature and I love being in the outdoors and most of all I am curious about life and love to meet new people everywhere I go.

Martha Fiennes: After graduating film school Martha Fiennes started directing music videos and was soon sought by the TV commercials industry going on to garner several TV advertising directing awards. Her first feature film, the acclaimed Russian-set period movie Onegin – starring Liv Tyler and Ralph Fiennes won Martha the Tokyo Film Festival; the London Critics Award for Best Newcomer and a BAFTA nomination for Best British Film.Her second movie, Chromophobia attracted a stellar cast including Penelope Cruz, Damian Lewis, Kristen Scott Thomas & Ian Holm. Written and directed by Fiennes, it was applauded for its contemporary style and ‘icy and superb script’. Fiennes’ recent work is a majestic, AI-generative digital moving-image artwork titled ‘Yugen’ . The work is comprised of multiple layers of highly crafted film/action sequences and backgrounds which utilise bespoke AI system to instruct a continuous moving-image experience. The work is accompanied by an original audio score composed by Magnus Fiennes. The result is a mesmeric work which neither loops or repeats. Fiennes used the same ‘hybrid’ media system in her earlier work ‘Nativity’ (2011). Fiennes’ artworks have exhibited in a number of high profile showcases including the Venice Biennale; Christie’s Art+Tech Summit, New York; National Gallery, London; V&A London; LACMA / Frieze Los Angeles; The Serpentine Gallery, London; The Science Museum London IMAX, The Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg and at Art Dubai ’22. Yugen was described by Vogue Arabia as ‘best in show’.

Camilla Royce read English at Southampton University and then completed classical theatre training in repertory at the Jermyn Street Theatre, off West End, London.

After a couple of years of touring, she went to Paris looking for inspiration. There, she worked as an assistant to veteran Hollywood actress Leslie Caron. Camilla went on to work in magazine publishing within events and for many years was a freelance events producer for corporate and experiential events in London, Middle East and Europe.

Camilla currently works with two film directors on script development, film production and digital art projects.

She is a master tarot reader, www.veritytarot.com, and is currently working on her debut novel – a historical thriller with esoteric and supernatural themes.

Ruth Gallogly: A brand storyteller and prodigious cat herder, I work as a communications and content consultant for corporate and nonprofit clients, including Audible, Comic Relief US and Verizon (via Gyrate Media). I hold an MFA in fiction from NYU and am writing a YA fantasy novel. This is my first Gateless retreat, thanks to Laura Rowley sharing it with me.