Healthy identity formation influences an individual's social and emotional well-being, and reflective writing processes that bolster self-compassion, autonomy, competence, and relatedness can positively affect authentic self-actualization. The present study makes use of a participant action research methodology consisting of a collaborative learning community, focus groups, and personal narratives to investigate ways to ameliorate labor practices and institutional barriers to student and instructor autonomy and authentic self-actualization in writing programs. Tangible solutions for curricular design to improve students' and instructors' well-being and quality of life are presented.