Expressive Arts Coaching – Page 2

Inner Muse Group Coaching starts January 26th

2009 is here!!! Are you ready to go after your big dreams yet tired of going it alone? Yearning for connection and support from likeminded, creative women? Willing to take risks and be truly seen for the magnificent human being you naturally are?

Monday evenings from January 26th – March 2nd, I’ll be leading the Inner Muse Group Coaching Playground. Join me and up to six other amazing women for six weeks of intensive and inspiring group tele-coaching.

We meet over the phone and online so you can participate from anywhere!

Benefits to You

Through your active participation in this program you’ll:

Awaken your Inner Muse and access your own creative brilliance
Gain clarity on your core values and future vision
Develop an action plan for accomplishing your goals
Enjoy a fun and engaging structure to hold you accountable and support you along the way
Have a safe space to discuss obstacles, be challenged to your next level and to celebrate your success
Get the guidance and support of an experienced certified coach and the perspectives and collective wisdom from the circle

Through expressive arts, creative assignments, reading, self-reflection, journaling, connection and sharing discoveries, you’ll awaken your inner muse and craft a plan for your life vision.

What a past group coaching participant had to say:

“Having Jennifer as our group coach provided the support and guidance needed to maintain the momentum and focus of our quests. Jennifer holds creative space with clarity and curiosity which allowed us individually and collectively to move at our own pace and reach our goals. Partnering with Jennifer was a key factor in reaching my goals.”

— Cynthia Runberg B.S., Master Certified Coach (MCC)

Start 2009 off in full color by joining now!

Find out more and register here. Special pricing through January 16th and payment plans available. Give your Inner Muse the space and support to grow, play and move your dreams into action!

AEDM Day 30: Right-Brain Business Plan ’09 Part I

Today is the last day of the Art Everyday Month challenge! What an awesome month of creativity, exploration and play. I also love the community and new connections this challenge fosters!

During the final two days of AEDM 2007, I invented my Right-Brain Business Plan, so it was only befitting that I use the last day of AEDM 2008 to start my new Right-Brain Business Plan for next year!

Part of what I envision is making a broader impact on the creative entrepreneur community and women in business. While I’m putting myself out there, I want to honor my values of fun/play, authenticity/trusting myself, peace/harmony, and beauty/creativity/expression.

One of my big accomplishments this year was hiring a Virtual Assistant. I’ve really enjoyed the extra support so that I can focus on the more strategic and profit-oriented aspects of my business. In 2009, I want to continue that process and develop more streamlined systems so I can work smarter and expand my business in new and exciting ways.

Also, I’ve had a blast this year with creating The Right-Brain Business Plan e-Book and the Unfolding Your Life Vision Kit. Next year, my goal is to finish my first book and get started on the other two that have also been percolating! I also want to develop new innovative products and services to offer.

Plus, I want to continue increasing my media exposure. Would love to be back on The View From The Bay and to get on The Martha Stewart Show to demonstrate an Unfolding Your Life Vision collage book, along with other TV, print and online venues!!

Last year, when I set my financial goals, I didn’t realize this, but I focused just on the actual amount rather than also including what the money would actually get me. While I’ve come pretty darn close to my goal, I know I can dream bigger for next year and beyond! Since money is not what drives me in running my own business, I brought into my vision more aspects of the lifestyle I want to be living. I think that’s something that really came home for me when I participated in a money circle earlier this year.

I look forward to fleshing out the details of my plan like I did last year. That’s really where the rubber starts meeting the road and the vision can come to life! I also just ordered a book that just came out earlier this month called The Creative Entrepreneur: A DIY Visual Guidebook for Making Business Ideas Real by Lisa Sonora Beam. It looks right up my alley and I bet it’ll give me more ideas for detailing out my 2009 Right-Brain Business plan.

All of this creating and art visioning during AEDM has inspired me to revisit the new letter from the future I started writing a few weeks ago. That will give me additional insights into my plan and I’m sure I’ll now have more things to add to my letter!

The end of the year is a great time to start thinking about what you want the next year to be like, so I hope you’ll do some visioning and planning, too! Please let me know, I’d love to see!!

AEDM Day 19: Book Sell Sheet Part II

So, I kept the commitment that I made in yesterday’s post to spend the afternoon today doing work related to the book. I printed out drafts, organized my book binder and did some writing. I also did the second side of the future book sell sheet. I based it on the format of the other examples my book coach provided me but added a creative touch.

Feels good to have made more progress on my project. And as luck would have it, our guest speaker at the SF Coaches meeting talked about the process she went through writing her book. She had a friend call her each morning to hold her accountable! She also shared how she helped her clients finish their books and other creative projects by simply taking small steps. It could be just writing one paragraph each day and then slowly working up to a page per day. Or spending 15 minutes a day painting. Before you know it, you’ll be farther along that you every thought you could be! I like that approach.

AEDM Day 18: Book Sell Sheet Part I

We just had our Ladies Who Launch Oakland member meeting tonight. I invited bestselling author and publishing expert Jennifer Basye Sander to give us insider tips on how to get published. Writing and publishing seem to be in the air. On Thursday, I’ll be participating in a call “Ask the Author: Writing/Coaching” through the Creative Artists community that I co-lead on the Co-Active Network. Plus, several of my clients happen to be working on books and I’m slowly plugging away at my own book.

A couple of months ago my book coach suggested that I do a visionboard-esque sell sheet for my book to help inspire me. She sent me a few examples of traditional sell sheets and encouraged me to make one with my own creative flair. So, that’s what I took on for my art for today. I’m also working on the back side that has more details like bio, media and marketing highlights and testimonials. Last year, I made a fake book jacket and that manifested in being featured in two books this year. So, I’m hoping that by creating this visual reminder for myself, I’ll be more focused on my writing and finishing the rest of the draft.

I enjoy writing when I allow myself to jump in and be in the flow. It’s just a matter of making that time and energy commitment. As I reflect on passing the AEDM half-way point, I notice that I habitually save the art for the end of the day. No wonder why, under normal day-to-day circumstances, art-making falls by the way side. Same with the writing. It doesn’t happen unless I carve out time on my calendar (and turn off my e-mail!!). So, tomorrow I’m blocking out noon to 4:00pm to spend on writing and book-related work in preparation for my weekly 9:00am Thursday check-in with my ever-so-patient book coach.

P.S. – The Tuesday Kiss the Paper posts are up. My question to the sisters this week was, “What do you wish for your sister?”

AEDM Day 15: Anger

expressive arts coaching - anger

The night was going along so well. Made dinner and was having a mellow evening just vegging out with Brian. Catching up on some TV and actually not working on a weekend. Next thing I know we get into a tiff over something small that of course snowballs into something big. (Funny, I think it started off with him reminding me that I have to do my art post for today and me complaining about how I didn’t want to do it!). Snippy tones are used back and forth. He leaves the room. I get livid.

Now, anger is one of those emotions that we tend to stuff down. Or we put entirely on other people rather than owning our part in it. You know, “Oh, he made me soooo mad!” When I’m coaching, I see clients not allow themselves to fully experience their anger. Instead of the anger going away, it usually builds up until things get so bad they can’t take it anymore. To practice giving ourselves permission to fully be with the anger and let it pass through us in a healthy way, I’ve screamed at the top of my lungs along with clients, we’ve stomped our feet on the ground together, we’ve punched pillows. We usually end up laughing when we’re through, surprised at how good it feels to let it all out!

Remembering that, I spy my sneakers on the floor and get the impulse to pick one up and hurl it toward the floor. Smack! Ah, that felt good. I picked up the other one and threw it on the ground, too. Thud! Wham! I could feel the energy moving out of my body.

And then it dawned on me to express the rest of my lingering anger through art. I unpeeled the wrapper on my red oil pastel so I could smear the whole thing on a big sheet of paper. As I press the crayon hard onto the page, it snaps into smaller pieces. I smear the crimson shards with my palm across the paper, feeling the heat build up from the friction. I scratch my nails like claws down the page. It’s a frenzy of color, lines and textures. I finish it off by crumpling the paper into a ball with a grunt!

After all that, I do feel better. There is a release and I am able to move on. So, I should probably go upstairs and not only apologize to Brian but also thank him for reminding me the importance of doing my art!

AEDM Day 12: Drawing on Body Wisdom

In her book “The Art Therapy Sourcebook“, Art Therapist Cathy Malchiodi has this great exercise for visually journaling what you notice in your body. I gave a client this template today to play with over the next week and figured I’d do it for Day 12’s AEDM piece. If you tend to live in your head, this activity helps you tune into your body wisdom.

I’ve actually had a headache since this afternoon. A dull pain radiating from my head with more pressure right at my temples. I also noticed a tight jaw and tense shoulders. And my quads are sore from last night’s yoga class. My skin is really itchy. I also notice that in my heart area, I feel very warm and open and that energy spreads outward.

To take the inquiry deeper, I ask my shoulders and head what they need from me. They want to rest. To know that they don’t have to do all the heavy lifting all of the time. When I ask my heart center what it’s like being open, I hear that it feels good and to keep trusting that flow. As for my itchy skin, it reminds me to drink more water! Staying hydrated is important, especially for a vata dosha.

I love how expressive arts coaching can help bring awareness, clarity and insight that words alone may not articulate. I did a similar activity in a Yoga and the Emotions class last year. Through the use of expressive arts, we can experience and communicate our thoughts and feelings in a new way. It’s not about the final product, but rather the process of exploration and expression. Now based on my reflection here, I need to drink another glass of water and then hit the hay!

When you tune into your body right now, what do you notice? Take a few moments to sketch it out. Use colors and textures to capture the sensations you feel. What insights do you gain from drawing on your body wisdom?

AEDM Day 5: Hue Are U?

I’m always learning new things from my clients, which is one of the things I love about my job! Today, one of my clients came over for a session and she brought along a card deck called “Hue Are U? A Deck For Discovering Your True Self” by Dewey Sadka. I’m a personality-typing nut, so I was all over this system, especially given that it’s based on simply picking colors you’re naturally drawn to. You also pick colors you don’t like (what you resist persists!).

Earlier tonight, I drew my cards. You pick your favorites and least favorites out of different groupings of colors for things like your basic motivation, how you relate to people, your hopes and fears, how you take on the world, your suppressed emotions/needs, etc. There are descriptions on the back of each card. My faves were in the green/yellow/blue family and least faves in the reds/purples.

It was a fun and enlightening exercise and I decided to diagram my results (see below).

Swimming with the Sharks

This week is Shark Week on the Discovery Channel. I, like many others who watched Jaws at a tender age, am scared to death of sharks. In honor of Shark Week, Larry Olson of the J.O.B. radio dedicated a whole show to this theme. So, I dove into the waters of radio once again, this time being interviewed by Larry on leadership and how to swim with sharks in the office space.

I Feel.

I went to my first InterPlay class last night. A few weeks ago at a networking event, I met a fun woman named Gretchen. Given my expressive arts coaching approach, she thought I’d appreciate InterPlay and invited me to check out a session with her.

I loved the studio the minute I walked in. It was warm, open and inviting and the people there were very welcoming. I felt right at home!

We did a series of individual, group and partner exercises involving movement, sound and play. One of the activities was allowing ourselves to “exform.” Interplay defines exformation as the opposite of information. Instead of taking in energy and data, it allows us to release excess energy. After “exforming” I sat back down with my dance witness Gretchen to debrief.

I talked about what it was like to move around freely (after having been sitting most of the day), to be inspired by what I was sensing and to let those sensations be explored and expressed.

I started to say “I feel…” searching to find the words to describe my experience.

I tried again to articulate it, “I feel…….”

Finally, Gretchen just said, “You FEEL!”

“Ah, yes, you’re right, Gretchen! I feel (period).”

As I sat along the wall, I could feel its cool, rough texture through the back of my t-shirt. My feet felt moist against the smoothness of the hardwood floor. My fingers tingled with energy. Dancing around and letting my body wisdom move me was very freeing and helped me be hyper aware of feeling! Fancy that.

I’m definitely coming back to InterPlay! By the way, their booklet explaining InterPlay’s eight body wisdom principles is a small handwritten accordion book (see picture above). Are these my kind of peeps, or what?!

Luxury, Gratitude and Synchronicity

On Thursday, the question of the day at Cafe Gratitude was, “What is luxurious about your life?” My answer… the fact that I have the freedom and flexibility to have a nice lunch in the middle of the day with a friend I hadn’t seen in ages. I had been so looking forward to seeing my friend and old Old Navy HR teammate Meredith and hearing the latest and greatest in her life! We had such a wonderful time reconnecting. She’s getting her masters in Expressive Arts Therapy so we also had a great conversation about using Expressive Arts in therapy and coaching.

While we were there, I looked a few tables over and thought that the woman there looked kinda familiar. I said to Meredith, “I think that woman wrote the book that’s in my purse right now!” I’m taking a workshop from Kimberly Wilson this Sunday in the city, so I’ve been reading her awesome book Hip Tranquil Chick. When we were done with lunch, I went to the bathroom and pulled out the book to check the headshot. I was pretty sure it was her and thought, oh what the hell, I’ll just go over to the table and ask! Turns out it was indeed Kimberly. She was really sweet and she recognized me from the wishstudio blogzine where we both have a guest column. I’m looking forward to her Yoga & Creativity workshop this weekend.

After lunch, I had a quarterly in-person check-in session with a long-standing coaching client. We did some cool work together using the Inside Team model with Expressive Arts. I’m excited to be incorporating these new tools into my practice and seeing the powerful impact it has.

I had a couple of hours before my SF Coaches board meeting, so I stopped off at Fillmore Street to hang out. Went to Paper Source and bought some new pens. Then moseyed on over to Bittersweet for a lovely cup of White Chocolate Dream (my absolute favorite is their Spicy! hot chocolate, but I knew if I had it that late in the day I’d be wired… yes, I’m that sensitive to caffeine!).

Finished the night off with a great BBQ and meeting on the deck of fellow board member Heidi’s Marina apartment.

Ahhh, I’m grateful for my luxuriously leisurely and synchronistic day in beautiful San Fran!