Today’s Guest: Not a stranger to struggles and possibilities from decades of life and career changes, profound loss, and personal reinvention, Kelly Hutton, LMFT, is a queer anti-racist ADHDer who specializes in queer grief, loss, and trauma recovery in the unique grief experiences of neurodivergent LGBTQIPA2+ people. Her passions include hospice care, EMDR, and talking about death, dying, bereavement, and neurocognitive decline with teens, caregivers/partners, and older adults while bearing witness to their grief journeys. Kelly grew up in a blended multicultural family of artists, educators, and entrepreneurs who strive in their own ways to think like Leonardo da Vinci. Kelly is glad that she isn’t dead yet because she can still experience and learn pluralistically, including being on a podcast for the first time ever, and remembering that those who laugh, last.
 
SHOW TOPICS

• The importance of considering different perspectives and taking an interdisciplinary approach to therapy
• The benefits of remaining curious and asking questions rather than resorting to “I don’t know”
• Getting back to the “why” of going into therapy and what is alive for us as therapists now
• Using lived experience to hold space for grief and sadness within the queer community

Today’s Guest: Valerie Ellis is an artist and former psychotherapist with a studio near west London. She uses paper to represent human experience and intrapersonal dynamics. Valerie gained her psychology degree from the prestigious University of Queensland, Australia. After 20 years in private practice, she moved back to the UK, where she'd lived as a child. In September 2023 she will begin attending the Royal College of Art for a master's degree in painting. With a psychological lens, Valerie’s artwork uniquely reflects themes like childhood, stress, and disguise through the medium of paper minimalist artworks and post-impressionist oil paintings.

SHOW TOPICS

• Facing the disillusionment of the idea that therapy can save everyone
• The importance of meeting people’s basic needs before being able to address further needs in therapy​
• Merging psychology and expression to create art pieces that reflect viewers' life journeys

Today’s Guest: Dr. Jamie Marich began her career as a humanitarian aid worker in Bosnia-Herzegovina from 2000 to 2003, primarily teaching English and music. Jamie now travels internationally teaching on topics related to trauma, EMDR therapy, expressive arts, mindfulness, and yoga, while maintaining a private practice and online education operations in her home base of Akron, OH. She is the founder of the Institute for Creative Mindfulness and the developer of the Dancing Mindfulness approach to expressive arts therapy.

She is also the author of several books, including EMDR Made Simple: 4 Approaches for Using EMDR with Every Client (2011), Creative Mindfulness (2013), Dancing Mindfulness: A Creative Path to Healing and Transformation (2015), and Process Not Perfection: Expressive Arts Solutions for Trauma Recovery (2019). Her latest release, Dissociation Made Simple: A Stigma-Free Guide to Embracing Your Dissociative Mind and Navigating Life, came out in January 2023. She also has three more projects in the works, including her personal memoir about surviving spiritual abuse called You Lied to Me About God, due out in Autumn 2024. She has been featured in several publications, including The New York Times and the Huffington Post, as well as receiving several awards for her advocacy work.

SHOW TOPICS

• The reasons people may be scared of creativity and how to encourage them through that fear
• The beauty of grounding in EMDR techniques while also finding room for expression and adaptation
• How creative clients can find a therapist who is a great fit for them
• As a therapist, how much should we reveal about ourselves to clients and in public forums?
• Breaking the stigma around mental illness as therapists by finding and accepting support for ourselves within the therapeutic community

Today’s Guests: Tracy Sondern is a therapist and creator of the group Ageism and the Creative Professional. She spent over 30 years working in the world of fashion, celebrity and advertising photography in both New York and Los Angeles. Much of that time was spent as the creative partner to her husband, a successful photographer. Her interest in therapy for creatives stems from supporting her husband through the emotional ups and downs of the business, through several reinventions, and helping him stay creatively alive. 

Alyce Waxman is currently training for licensure as a Marriage and Family Therapist and Professional Clinical Counselor at Southern California Counseling Center, where she sees individuals as well as run two groups: Ageism and the Creative Professional and the Relational and Support Group. She is earning her master's degree at Antioch University in Los Angeles and also holds degrees in art history from Carleton College in Minnesota and graphic design from Parsons in New York City. Prior to training to become a therapist, she had a 25-year career as a creative director for brands. Alyce is interested in working with the creative population as well as work that is collaborative and relational. As a former creative professional herself, she can relate to the unique needs of a creative.

SHOW TOPICS

• The effects of aging on creatives’ identity and self-worth
• Facing the prevalence of ageism in creative industries
• The power of collaboration and community to inspire and uplift
• Similarities between the creative process and the therapeutic process