Writer, Educator, Creativity Coach
Welcome!
I’m a writer whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Best American Short Stories, The New York Times, Tricycle, EPOCH, Michigan Quarterly Review, Crazyhorse, Front Porch, West Branch, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, and other publications. I’m currently finishing my first novel and working on a book of essays.
Drawing on nearly twenty years of experience as an educator and working writer, I offer coaching and consulting to writers, creatives, arts teachers, nonprofits, businesses, and anyone seeking to renew artistic expression in their life.
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There Is No Muse
Creativity Coaching & Consulting
My Coaching Philosophy
There is no muse. Your relationship to your self and the world is enough to act as a life-long source of inspiration. Show up to your creative work by cultivating an attitude of curiosity, wonder, experimentation, and joyful effort.
Helpful feedback is honest and kind. Using inquiry and collaborative feedback, I help you the identify patterns in your creative life that support you and the ones that hold you back. Together, we build a process that is a aligned with your values and worldview so that you can create with more freedom and meaning.
Gentleness and rigor are not contradictions. I’ll tell you the things you might not want to hear, but in a way that will lift you up, not tear you down. No matter what your goal is—whether it’s publishing a manuscript or simply finding a creative outlet—I’ll guide you in a way that is based in love for yourself and the work you do.
Creativity comes from the heart and body. Our creative energy isn’t confined to a mental process, but to our entire being. Feeling connected to our hearts and bodies allows us to experience freedom and pleasure in artistic expression. As a creative coach with a background in teaching yoga, I help you feel embodied through relaxation techniques, learning through nature, and somatic awareness.
The best creative coaching is designed by working creatives—because we’ve been there. I’m a fiction writer and essayist who has navigated creative work amidst the busyness of parenting, a full-time job, moving, chronic pain, illness, and bereavement. On the way, I’ve developed tools and resources to support myself and others. I’ve helped hundreds of people make immense progress in their work, increase their resilience and flexibility, and uncover inspiration when they feel inertia. I can also help you. You will take away proven strategies to enhance your creative process, and you will invent your own.
I can help you…
Find Creative Discipline: Our artistic expression should feel like a sanctuary rather than a place we dread or avoid. Based on our conversations, I provide creativity exercises and mind/body practices that will allow you to feel energized, relaxed, and motivated. When we open to creativity, discipline feels like devotion.
Connect Work to Greater Meaning: Think of this as a kind of existential counseling for your creative self. Most of us want to be creative because we find it meaningful, but it’s easy for that meaning get lost in disturbing emotions. I help you connect your worldview and values to your artistic expression so you can better handle self-doubt, rejection, failure, and the pressures of success.
Guide You Through The Practical Stuff : I provide lived experience and advice on applying to MFA programs, submitting to journals and magazines, starting a newsletter, managing time, applying to residencies, finding community, revising and editing, planning a long manuscript or project, writing grant applications, creating accountability tools, working with internalized biases around your social identity, performing and reading your work in public, and auditing your website and social media to enhance depth and message.
