SERVICES

My Story

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For years, I struggled to do the thing I loved and longed for most: to write. At first, I couldn’t write unless I was enrolled in a class with assigned homework. Then I couldn’t write at home, plagued by doubt, perfectionism, and the lure of the refrigerator. When I finally learned to self-motivate and write alone, I couldn’t get myself to finish anything. Never satisfied with my pieces, I revised them endlessly—only to abandon them, wandering off toward another project (or reorganizing my spice rack).

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The Beautiful, Terrible Pandemic

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Then came COVID-19. Grief and fear blasted through my petty self-consciousness and dithering. Suddenly, words poured out of me like an undammed river, and I was able to write and publish pieces at a breakneck pace.

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When I was asked to lead a writing circle, I assumed I had nothing to offer. But as I stepped into that role, I realized that through all my years of struggle, I had been learning. There was so much I wanted to give. Facilitating other people's writing practice became the perfect companion to my own—and the seed of writing in community was planted.

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The Return of Self-Doubt

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When life returned to normal and I returned to my full-length memoir, the old fears and doubts returned.

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To keep connecting with people as I tried to see what worked, I experimented with what helps and what hinders the creative process in a new blog, Tending the Creative Garden. While skill and craft are needed, perfectionism and fear were my real obstacles. I learned to mother myself, give myself baby-step goals, and stay close to the work even when life got crazy.

 

Yet, even with these insights, my writing often felt like it wasn't good enough. I was spending months and years on projects only to watch them end up in a ditch by the side of the road. Eventually, exhausted by the friction and discouraged by the lack of success, I stopped writing altogether.

 

The Epiphany

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Sitting in my kitchen feeling completely stuck, I tried a self-coaching exercise, and it was there that I finally told myself what I needed: I needed people.

I started looking for ways to be in community with the work. I joined organizations, I made writing friends, I reconnected with old groups. I created workshops about forms I was obsessed with, I taught people skills I too wanted to work on, and I created accountability groups for practices I wanted to master.

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Isolation allows the inner critic to get unbearably loud. Community quiets it, soothes the soul, and makes everything more fun. Sometimes it’s as simple as someone sitting in the room, doing the same thing together.

 

Becoming the Companion

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Wanting to be the support to others that I wished I had, I trained as a creativity coach under renowned psychologist Dr. Eric Maisel.

 

Today, I run free bi-weekly co-writing sessions, weekend sprints, and a weekly co-creativity circle with The Kettle. I lead occasional writing workshops, online classes with local bookstores, and restful retreats centered around self-exploration, finding joy, and gaining clarity through creative expression.

 

I love working one-on-one with people. I know intimately the struggle to find time to write, to prioritize the work, to keep going when things get tough, and to stay with that which is both desired and feared.

 

The journey is messy and beautiful, and I would be honored to walk it alongside you.