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EMERGING
Unveiling the Magic in Everyday Life
There is more of YOU that wants to come Alive!
75 minute - 1:1 Sessions - Online
You are not 'too much'. You are not 'not enough'
You are perfectly YOU.
ALL of you is welcome here.
(yes, the weird and uncomfortable parts too)
Welcome to
EMERGING
1:1 Expressive Arts Therapy online
Come Home to Yourself
through embodied & creative exploration
You feel a lot. You think a lot. You want a lot. You've tried a lot.
There is so much inside of you and it NEEDS to come out!
You are a person with so much depth and richness inside you, but you feel disconnected. You feel like something is just out of reach. You've had glimpses of your power, but somehow it feels like those moments come and go (with more emphasis on the going part). You have beautiful dreams, but they feel overwhelming and you don't know where to start. Or maybe you have started, but now feel stuck or lost. Or you know you are capable of so much more, but your limiting beliefs feel like Mount Everest (29,031.7 feet high).
You may have been feeling...
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Stuck in your head
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You think and think and think, but still don't know what to do. You wait for certainty. You second-guess yourself. You want to overcome your perfectionism but forgot how to trust the path.
Exhausted from holding it all together
You're capable. You manage. You show up for everyone. But you're tired. You're craving a break from trying so hard to get life 'right'. You want to let go of control and needing to do it all on your own.
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In Transition
You feel in-between. The old way doesn't quite fit anymore, but you can't see what's next. You can feel that your life wants to evolve, you just don't know how yet, or who you are wanting to become. You want to feel freedom to explore instead of dread of the unknown.
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Hungry for Creativity
You miss making things. Playing. Moving. Expressing yourself. Life has gotten serious and you want more joy. You have ideas, desires, dreams, but somehow there is no space in your current life for them.
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Disconnected
You feel numb. You aren't connected to your passion. You feel dry. And you are ready to feel again and allow your emotions to move through your body. You want to use your sensitivity as a gift instead of feeling it as a burden.
Or maybe things feel....fine... but you just miss feeling deeply connected to yourself and your life.
You miss yourself, and aren't sure how to feel more
YOU
What is keeping you from living fully?
We live in a world where productivity, efficiency, and optimization rule the quieter, softer, parts of ourselves that know things. We are living more sedentary, analytical lives, while our bodies were designed for movement and doing. We are conditioned to use our minds and live in a world that gives less and less space to our softness, our sensuality, our bodies and imagination to feel our way through things, to imagine our way into new possibilities, to interact with nature and be inspired forward. Instead we are taught that pushing, and over-efforting are things to be rewarded. And if we don't do those things - something is wrong with us. Your sense of self is being hi-jacked by the media, technology, comparison to your neighbors, ideas about what you should be doing, or what you should have accomplished, and in the meantime your connection to your own, unique, beautiful, inner knowing feels quieter and quieter, and you feel less and less connected. The external signals have gotten loud, while your internal signals have become much quieter.
You feel stuck. You're overthinking. Your creatively blocked. You don't know what you want. You don't feel like yourself.
You've lost contact with your own signals. You are disconnected from yourself because there's so much noise, thinking, analyzing, performing, planning, information.
You feel alone with a huge weight and don't have a nurturing space to hear yourself, to feel yourself, to come to your own knowings, because your world is too loud, too busy, too filled with thoughts, and emotions that take up your precious space of who you really are.
You wonder
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when just being yourself became such hard work?
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When did life become so serious??
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Where did all the joy and magic and play go?
At some point, your mind probably started to take over. expectations, judgements, external validation.... You stopped following the fun and started following the shoulds. I should be responsible. I should have everything figured out so there is zero room for mistakes. I should know what i want. I should have already had the perfect life by now. I should be a little more together like my neighbor.
This work creates the space, the safety, and direct contact. And with repeated contact, self-trust, clarity, responsiveness, intuition and aliveness naturally grow.
Through body, sensation, materials, imagination, relationship, beauty, and creative experimentation, we create small experiences in which you can listen, respond, discover, and learn to trust.
What happens when we slow down enough to listen?
Re-connection
You cooould keep pushing... Forcing your way forward is an option, but it's not fun, It's exhausting. It's boring. It's also not nourishing, or sustainable and it sucks the aliveness out of life. This way of living leaves the soul feeling dry, and the soul is happy when it's wet.
Let colors, materials, your body, images, sounds, stories, smells guide you.
Re-Discover your...
Joy!
Peace
wonder
Creativity
Trust
Aliveness
Less Thinking.
More Living.
Experiences Create Embodied Knowing
Mental analysis can only take you so far. What your body, soul, and mind are really craving is movement, experimentation, connection to your body, your desire. You need contact with materials, and the parts of you that don't communicate in a neat sentence.
What you are actually craving is contact with life!
Raw, messy, wild, ugly, beautiful, mysterious, sensual, weird, honest contact.
What happens if we stop trying to know for a moment? What happens if you touch the clay? Move your body. Make the mark. Notice the image. Follow what wants to happen next. What if you let go of all the efforting & let life meet you half way?
Instead of only thinking about what's happening, we work with it directly.
Follow what nourishes
Feel | Touch | Taste | Move | Imagine | Sense
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Come into contact with your senses!
How do you unleash your true essence?
We use materials, imagination, etc. to have experiences to bounce ourselves off of. so we know where we are. what we feel. what we want.
Touch the clay.
Move your body.
Make the mark.
Notice the image.
Follow what wants to happen next.
No need to know where it's going.
No need to make something beautiful.
No need to explain it yet.
Just come into contact with what's here.
Imagine...
Imagine trusting yourself enough to...
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Move before you have the whole map.
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Make the thing
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Change direction
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Follow the strange idea
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Rest when your body says no
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Say yes when something lights you up
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Let something end without immediately knowing what will replace it.
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Create without needing ot know whether it will be good
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Become curious about your life again
Remember your joy
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Imagine knowing that whatever happens, you have ways of meeting it.
Imagine developing a relationship with the unknown, trusting the unfolding, one step at a time, and maybe even learning to enjoy not knowing what's next.
Much mooree specific
What if you already are the person you are trying to become, and our job here is simply to help you be more YOU!??There is no 'right' way to do this life. There is YOUR way. You get to make up your own rules, make it fun, and follow what lights you up (even if you don't know what that is yet). That is what we're doing here. We are removing all the layers of gunk that stand in the way of you remembering how incredibly AMAZING you are, and we are shining a light on all the things that make you smile, and your heart exhale in relief. How do we do all that you ask? We enter the world of art, imagination, experimentation, and your own inner wisdom that has a lot of things to express!
The Creative Process
What if there is another way? An easier, more enjoyable way...What if you could just put all you've been carrying down for a little while and let it all just be enough. What if we can open one tiny window inside you and let in some fresh air? What if you don't have to do so much and instead let life guide you and speak to you through the language of colors, sounds, textures, images, movements, sensations, stories, poetry, symbols, ritual and creative inspiration....?Sounds way better, right?!A different way
Sometimes, in order to come home to yourself, you first need to go on a journey into the unknown. This helps you leave the old identity and the stuckness behind, so you can find new possibilities that weren't present before. This is a very uncomfortable place for many of us. We like certainty. But if we can learn to make friends with the unknown, we can go to incredible new places.
The Creative Process allows us to dip our toes into this realm. The more we enter into the creative unknown, the more we can find peace, joy, pleasure, trust, calmness, in our life's unknowns. As we enter into the creative space, we develop capactities not only to develop ourselves as artists, we also develop capactities that allow us to feel balanced, joyful, at ease, in flow, instead of stuck, scared, anxious, overwhelmed, out of control and frozen.
The more we can learn to open our senses, listen, and receive creative inspiration, the greater our capacity becomes to allow movement and respond to life. THIS is what we are doing here.
Imagine..... situation that they can see this in..... how does it actually help them in life..
How are the arts so effective? /Modalities
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intermodal 'languages' for multi-dimensional humans
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Belonging- so human, everyone.
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LIFE IS CREATION
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Senses!
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solving 'inside the problem'
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invisible to visible
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bring htings outside so we can play and touch and see them differently.
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Gilbert-genius/muse- not ours, we become of service to something outside ourselves. 'ALLOWING'
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Imagine the feeling of it - manifesting. trains focused attention
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Action in real time instead of stuckness. brings movement.
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connect us to community of artists and wisdom across ages and places.
Body
What happens when you stop explaining and notice sensation?
Image
sometimes a color knows something before yu do.
Movement
Let your body answer the question
Sound
What wants to be sighed, hummed, whispered, shouted?
Story
What changes when your problem becomes a character
Material
Clay pushes back. watercolor runs. charcoal smudges. materials have personalities. You respond to them.
Nature
Sometimes we remember ourselves by noticing what's already alive around us.
What happens in a 1:1 session?
Arriving
Slow Down Breathe.
Get Present
Tune In
We Talk.
We Notice.
We Listen
The Unknown
Lab/Exploration
We follow what wants to EMERGE without knowing where it will lead us.
Reflection
What happened? What do you notice now?
Integration
What comes back into your life from the journey.
DropDowns... Why is each section important. Each session is like a ceremony/ritual - enter into a sacred space. into relationship with the liminal space (define liminality?)
Arriving -
90% of our challenges come from us simply not being present. We are worried about the future, or thinking about what happened in the past. The more mindful we can become
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Mindfulness
Relief through Breathe
More connected to our bodies/listen to needs -
Practice connecting to Inner Being... this helps resilience. remembering htat there is a wise, loving, free part of you, even if you don't often feel connected to it.
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Become available, sensitive to new impulses, sensations, visions that want to come through
Tuning In
The therapeutic relationship in itself is often one of the most healing aspects of healing work.
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You get to practice coming into connection while being in your truth/authenticity.
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Speaking is another creative tool that we get to use to express ourselves. It's important to train this mode of expression alongside the other outlets like using your body, hands, etc.
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This is also the space where we can become sensitive to your lived experience. There are emotions that surface here that we give space to, so that they can move and loosen. There might be a story, image, or memory that is coming that needs to be witnessed and felt. We trust everything that surfaces within the container as being part of the healing.
The Unknown
So much suffering occurs because of our inability to be with uncertainty. Humans want to know things. But, we shouldn't forget that we are living on a giant spining rock in the middle of space. We belong to the mystery.
The unknown takes courage to enter. It takes willingness. It can be a big scary thing, or it can be an adventure. The more we practice being in relationship, the more fun it becomes. The more trust developes.
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This is where deep transformation lives. This is where we can be surprised and remember that magic is real and that everything is just more fun when we are flowing together with life instead of against it.
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The void is not emptiness, it is incredibly rich. But sometimes we need to get quiet enough, still enough, honest enough, in order to release, let go, so that we have space and capacity to listen, receive & perceive the richness and beauty that is available always.
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(this gives me goosebumps writing about 'the Unknown'. Can you feel the power here?!?)
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This is big stuff, but we practice meeting it in small ways. What color do I want to choose? What will I create today? What will my body respond to if I give it time and space to feel?
GIVE REAL WORLD, MIRROR LANGAGE EXAMPLES EVERYWHERE I CAN!!!!!
More analysis doesn't create more clarity.
Experiences Create Clarity
You need movement, experimentation, contact with your body, contact with desire, contact with materials, contact with the parts of you that don't communicate in a neat sentence.
You need contact with life - raw, messy, mysterious, weird.
Instead of only thinking about what's happening, we work with it.
You can't think your way into
a life that is asking to be lived
What if you let go of the efforting & let life meet you half way.
Transform
fear of the unknown into adventure.
Analysis paralysis into embodied experimentation
Questions into creative conversations
numbness and avoidance into sensuality and feeling
Holding back into expression.
We use conversation, storytelling, imagination, movement, art, writing, experimentation, the body, ritual, and whatever else the moment calls for, so you can feel deeply connected to yourself and to life again.
What can happen if we keep following what feels mnourishing?
Reflection
This is where the Bridging happens.
If you just stay in the art, it's fun.
If you just stay in therapy its interesting.
If you just stay in your life it's ordinary.
As we reflect on the process together or the session itself, we can keep gaining the fruits of our work together and find things that we may not have realized while we were inside the process itself. This bridge helps us to re-enter into the ordinary world again, but differently. This is where we get food for thought where our minds help us think about what matters to us. In many experiences this vital step is missing and useful parts of the experience can get lost if we don't spend some times here.
Integration.
Although I hope that our time together is enjoyable and important for you, I want you to be able to actually apply the things you've learned, the insights we've created, to actually receive the creative material itself and let it work on you as you go back into your day, your relationships, your work, your challenges, your life.
We want this work to be not only fun, but incredibly useful! This is where many retreats or intense experiences can loose potency. It's not only about the experience itself, but about how you are bringing it back into your life.
I often will also give some 'homework', to help guide the work more deeply between sessions. This brings you into greater connection with your life. So you can continue practicing receiving information, and responding creatively.
MOST IMPORTANTLY..... WE LISTEN TO WHAT IS WANTING TO EMERGE in the session, and that might look different for each person depending on the day or even the moment. WE DON'T PUSH. WE DON'T FORCE. WE ALLOW. This is a space for YOU to do YOU!! Permission to feel free I want you to take up space here!! That's what its for. This is a space for you to experiment with what that looks like for you in each moment.
If you hate one of my brilliant invitations that I offer, you can say 'NO!!!' If all you want to do in the session is lay on the floor, because that's what actually feels good to you, DO IT! If you have a secret desire to be a performer, or write a novel, or sing out loud not just in the shower, we create space for you to try, to make mistakes, to be imperfect, ugly, weird, to look stupid, and then to just... try again.
How will this make my life better? (CAPACTITIES)
This isn't just an art class. And this isn't just therapy.
Through being in a therapeutic container while making art, amazing things can happen.
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Expressive Arts Therapy teaches you how to engage with life differently. These are not merely session, our meetings are a portal into the sacred, where change becomes possible in real time, through meeting our senses, and responding creatively.
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What if painting wasn't just painting, but helped you understand how to let go of attachment, so that you could finally send the proposal you've been agonizing over.
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What if movement, wasn't just movement, but released stored emotion you didn't even know was inside you, so you could finally have that difficult conversation you've been avoiding for years.
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What if showing up in the 'studio', gives you the practice to finish your dream project you've almost abandoned
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What if improv, wasn't just improv, but helped you know how to follow your instincts, so that you could sign up for the class that feels like your passion!
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What if ritual, wasn't just ritual, but actually helped you embody a new part of yourself, so that you can ..........
Hi, I'm Karen
Let me take you on a journey...
As a lifelong traveler, I bring adventure into our sessions. I love asking the question of 'Where will we end up when we allow life to take us for the ride".
I am a traveler of the heart, mind, and soul. I love going deep into different worlds. Weather that is through visiting countries, expanding my artistic repetoire, through intimate connections with beautiful souls, or inside my own psyche and inner landscape. I'm an adventurer. An explorer. I try to see the fun, beauty and wonder in this life. I believe there is more here that we can not see, but we must develop the capacities to know within our being.
I stay humble in the face of the mystery
I like putting my feet in dirt
I am in a debate with time
I love hugs and cuddles
I feel deeply
I get dreamy when a warm breeze touches my face
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My World...
Let me take you on a journey
....((I'm a highly multi-modal artist :)) Why choose when we can have it all baby!!!
DROPDOWN...
How? Where? I'm not an artist. I don't have time. I don't even know what I want to do or say. My body feels shut down. I'm scared. What will people think? Am I going to feel awkward? I have too many responsibilities. I should do other stuff. Maybe tomorrow.... There is always something keeping your passion, your pleasure, your sensitivity, your life on the backburner.
There's other stuff to do. Maybe if you keep pushing, you will finally get where you want to be and then there will be time to do the fun stuff, the stuff that lights your soul on fire!
I don't believe that works. I believe life is asking us to live fully, NOW. Here. Imperfectly. raw. messy. as we are. Not when we finally become perfect or are on vacation. Not when we've finally burnt ourselves out that our bodies are screaming and begging for us to slow down and connect more deeply to ourselves. life. nourishment.
If this is you, you are not alone. Society has taught us to do more, be faster, more efficient, and more optimized. We are more disconnected from ourselves, our bodies, eachother, and nature than ever before. Many of us experience numbness, illness, depression because of it.
Expressive Arts teaches us how to come back into connection with the very things that make us feel connected, purposeful, and give our lives meaning. Our sensitivity and sensuality, become the bridge back into the world where we feel fulfilled, rooted, our hearts beating as one with the greater mystery.
Pleasure and freedom are available NOW. Everyday. Truly. Not just once we get the house, or have the kids, or get the raise, or get 20k followers, or figure 'it' out. It's available every day. As we take out the trash. As we wait in lines. As we feel our stuckness. The practice is in slowing down, paying attention, and becoming curious and available enough to engage with the beauty that is always here for us.
The Buts...
You might still be wondering...
Is this for me?
What if i'm not creative?
I don't have time to make art
It seems fun... but is it useful?
Can I make ugly art? YES! please do!!!
Let yourself be supported along the journey.
you don't have to know exactly what's wrong. You don't need to be certain this will work. We can start with one conversation about where you are, what isn't moving, and what you want more of.
You don't have to do it all alone.
You don't have to be ready, just willing to try something different
Here we practice messy, imperfect, experimentation. we start before we feel ready.
and we just try. see what happens. receive information. maybe make some changes and try again.
This is the creative process, and YOU and your life are a creative process!
I want you to feel ALIVE, connected, free, and joyful again!! You know there is more aliveness available for you. And yes sometimes it's easier to pretend that we don't know. To look the other way. To just hope that something changes, but we can help that process along. Something magical happens when you feel supported. You start to feel safe enough to let go of AALLLLLLLL the stuff you've been carrying quietly on your own. When you feel supported, your body starts to unfreeze, to loosen. You're heart can come back online. You can hear your soul whispers more clearly. Your focused intentions allow the universe to respond more fluidly. We are currently in a loneliness epidemic. We are more individualized and disconnected than ever before. We were never meant to do it all on our own!! There is support available for you. And I am honored to walk the path with you, exploring and making discoveries along the way.
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What others have said..
What Brought you Here?
Art has an amazing ability to hold it ALL. Whatever you are coming with, there is space for you here.
Creative Block
There is something I'm trying to birth, but can't quite find the way
I want to Play!
My life feels too serious. Help me connect to my joy!
Perfectionism
I'm too scared to start or finish things
Control Freak
I'm trying so hard, and I want to let go
I've tried traditional therapy..
My experience with talk therapy was meeehhh...
Nothing really changed.
I can't stop overthinking
I keep circling the same questions and still don't feel clarity.
I feel disconnected
I miss feeling like myself. I want pleasure, creativity, and aliveness back.
I'm in a transition
Something is ending or wants change, and I don't know what's next
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Nothing is wrong, but there is more inside Me!
More creativity, more intimacy, more depth with my own life.