Yes, And . . . Creativity Coaching
By allowing myself to play and create with others, I had found my voice again. While doing that, I also learned one of my authentic truths—life without creativity and the arts, without opportunities to collaborate and play with others, is a life without heart. When we don’t employ creativity and play with our inspiration, we lose confidence in our abilities, our own voice, and our capacity to produce quality work. As adults, it’s crucial that we reclaim our right to creative play, that we understand the importance of creativity in everything we do, that we take the time to experiment and build our creative muscles.
From Re-Creating the World: The Power and Joy of Collaborative Creativity
After 30+ as a theater director, teaching artist, writer, and advocate for all things creative, I discovered that my purpose is to help others recognize the power of our creative muscles to bring about change and enrich our lives as individuals and community members. My goal is to help my clients rediscover their creative dreams and discover how the tools of creative play--including those from improvisation--can make amazing things happen.
Gateless Writing and Creativity Workshops: Gateless is an approach to writing (and other creative acts) where small groups create together by letting go of the inner and outer critic. We celebrate what works, create from our true voices, and learn and grow together. If you are interested in experiencing one of these workshops, hop over to the FREE but private community at https://www.subscribepage.com/sparkcollaborative, to get started.
Individually Designed Workshops: I design workshops to meet the needs of your community and company, to deal with any of the issues you struggle with--including developing teamwork, collaboration, communication, and divergent thinking skills. The following are examples of possible workshops
- Teacher and Facilitation workshops: Workshops for teachers, or other workshop facilitators that provide tools from improvisation, theater, and creativity that can be adapted to help facilitate richer, more productive training and community collaborations.
- Enhancing Skills: Workshops designed to strengthen much-needed "soft skills" like empathy, listening, critical thinking, adaptability and flexibility, emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence and diversity, leadership skills, judgment, and complex decision-making
- DEI and Community Building: Workshops designed to introduce creative approaches that can help build connections across divides.
- Finding Your Voice: Workshops to help craft better stories in any form you want (written, video, audio, presentations, etc.)
One-to-One Coaching: to help you find your voice, and take the steps toward whatever your dream is. Do you want to write a book? I've got your back. Are you thinking about becoming a content creator? I'll help you get started. Are you struggling with your next talk? I can help.
Developmental Editing: I help authors find their voice. Some of the projects I have recently edited include:
- coaching a current Ph.D. candidate to strengthen the writing in his dissertation on soldier-led protests during the Vietnam War.
- turning a dissertation about World Fairs into an accessible and interesting book, which is now seeking a publishing home.
- development edit of Festival, Culture, and Identity in Lübeck: Nordic Days, 1920–1960 by Dr. Erika Briesacher, published by Lexington Books (2022)
- developmental editor for Mommy's Little Wordlings and Daddy's Little Wordlings by Linh Nguyen-Ng
