Creative Recovery

Creativity has been a driving force in Werner Sun’s life since he was a kid. The urge both to process his inner life and express it to others led him to play the piano as a youth, explore physics research later in life, and develop into a multimedia visual artist. Werner sees creativity as a safe space to explore the unknown, develop trust and patience in yourself, and grow through challenges. In this episode he shares fascinating insights into the creative process and how it can serve as both a catalyst for personal healing and a vehicle for intimate connections with people and the environment. This conversation will flip the script of everything you thought you knew about the world and thrust you into new ways of seeing and thinking about art and life. We discuss the importance of play, trusting the process, obstacles as portals to growth, vulnerability as an act of generosity, and much much more!

Werner Sun @wernersun is a visual artist who lives and works in Ithaca, NY. His work has appeared in such venues as the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Aon in New York City, Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, OH, and the Islip Art Museum. His essays and images have been published in The Brooklyn Rail, Interalia Magazine, and Stone Canoe. He is the 2019 recipient of the Aon-CUE Artist Empowerment Award from the CUE Art Foundation as well as a 2017 recipient of a Strategic Opportunity Stipend from the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County, NY. Werner recently completed a sculpture commission for the Cornell University Botanic Gardens that is currently installed in the Nevin Welcome Center.

Notes and Resources:

http://www.wernersun.com/

This episode was edited and mixed by Chad Clarke, [email protected]

Alicia Free @aliciafree_bellydance is a badass belly dancer, musician, and podcast producer. She wants us to shake off the heavy and dance to feel lighter. Alicia uses movement, live music, and simple costuming as her favorite creative endeavors. In this uplifting and inspiring conversation Alicia shares her own story of being drawn to dance as a way to feel free in her body, mind, heart, and spirit. She recounts one performance in particular where she allowed grief to move through her without controlling it and realized the healing power of movement. Alicia is committed to personal growth and to social justice. Her performances, teachings, and podcast highlighting dancers of differing cultures and identities are all creative expressions deeply rooted in an intention to serve others. In this conversation, we also touch on why so many people are afraid to dance and how you can bring more dance into your every day.

Notes and Resources:

https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/

A Little Lighter podcast with Alicia Free

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker

The Art of Accomplishment podcast by Joe Hudson

This episode was edited and mixed by Chad Clarke

Juhanna is an artist, educator, and motivational speaker encouraging people from underrepresented populations to live out loud and unapologetically. Her story is a beautiful example of the ways in which art and activism can align to improve lives and strengthen communities. In this conversation, Juhanna openly and honestly recounts her own challenging life transitions and experiences as a woman of color with the kind of courage and vulnerability that arises from years of deep introspection. The way she applies her wisdom and creativity in service of others is inspirational and exactly what the world needs right now. In this episode, Juhanna generously shares helpful tools and practices for letting go of toxic beliefs and habits formed in response to societal expectations and inequities. She is a role model of free self-expression and how to bravely become who you aspire to be.

Dr. Juhanna Rogers is a motivational speaker, commentator, artist, and education activist currently residing in Central New York. As a native of Newark, New Jersey, Dr. Rogers has a commitment to social justice, education, and the arts, having grown up in a diverse and resource rich environment. Over the last ten years, Dr. Rogers has traveled the world exploring ways through which underrepresented populations, specifically people of African descent, can improve their lives and communities. She has become passionate about bringing narratives out of the women she has met along the way to students in urban communities and using these stories as tools for empowerment. Today, Dr. Rogers utilizes her national and international experience to motivate and educate Black and Brown leaders in order to create change in their communities and professional spaces.

Episode 10 Notes and Resources:

https://juhannarogers.com

Behind the Woman with Juhanna Rogers

When Stacey @staceyhenrycarr left the corporate world to become a hypnotherapist and transformational coach, she “did an unbecoming.” She let go of all the shoulds and musts, all the familial and societal expectations she had been living by and uncovered her true self, someone she had been all along but did not fully embody. She loves the work she does now helping women discover old imprints and beliefs and the root causes of those beliefs that have forced them to show up to their lives on autopilot as if they are a robot. She discusses her work helping people interrupt autopilot and awaken to their inspired, creative, soulful self. She talks about how to identify fear and doubt and locate it in the body. Stacey also facilitates a healing hypnotherapy exercise to clear the blockages that prevent authentic self-expression.

Stacey Henry-Carr is an ex-corporate leader who now helps people identify, interrupt, and replace blockers with living more meaningful and intentional lives. She is a Certified Life Coach, Certified Hypnotherapist, an author, a mother, and a wife with a positive approach to life. She practices authentic leadership and servitude in everything she does. Her twenty-two years of corporate leadership, training, and career development have equipped her with a proven track record to help guide others in their journey of discovery. She has always had a passion for helping others become their best selves. She has a passion for reading, writing, traveling, dancing, singing off-key, and the beach.

Notes and Resources:

https://staceyhenrycarr.com/

https://aurahealth.io/guestpass/stacey-henry-carr

Insta: @staceyhenrycarr

“To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. – Lao Tzu

“Listen to silence; it has so much to say.” –Rumi

For most of her life Suzanne Onodera @sazaono, a painter and deeply creative soul, has pondered the big questions: who am I, where did I come from, and how can I express myself with authenticity and artistry? Listen to this fascinating conversation with Suzanne in which we explore such topics as mystery, memory, and the relationship between fear and authentic expression. Suzanne tells stories of turning grief into wonder through creative process. She talks about how she found strength and inspiration in excavating her own family’s traumatic history as prisoners in Japanese internment camps during World War II. Suzanne’s journey of connecting to her ancestry is powerfully expressed through her exhibit “After the War” in which she shares scenes of family lore and national history as glimpsed through the luminous haze of memory. She talks in depth about how this creative project led her down new paths in art-making and new ways of understanding her own identity.

Suzanne Onodera was born in Berkeley, California. She attended the School of the Art institute in Chicago and the California College of the Arts, where she pursued a BFA in painting. For over a decade, Onodera worked in the art departments of LucasArts and EA, envisioning and realizing fantastical environments for video games set in the Star Wars, Star Trek, and Lord of the Rings universes. In recent years, Onodera has mounted solo shows at venues on both coasts. In the words of Michaele Weissman, author of History of Women in America, “Suzanne Onodera’s paintings illustrate and yet undermine what is familiar. Mystery is present in her work, as are highly resonant, psychologically deep themes of decay, loneliness, stewardship, and regeneration.”

Notes and Resources:

www.sonodera.com

Insta: @sazaono

This episode was edited and mixed by Chad Clarke, @the.podcast.producer on IG

What is creative energy and why does it get blocked? Join me in Episode 7 of Creative Recovery as I explore creativity from a holistic mind-body-spirit perspective. I will guide you through a reflective exercise to facilitate awareness of and curiosity around your own creative spirit and what might be blocking it. My intention is to support you in moving from stuck to flow in your creativity and in your life.

Notes and Resources:

This episode was edited and mixed by Chad Clarke, @the.podcast.producer

www.brennacoaching.com

@brenna.ef

In Episode 5 we heard part 1 of my Creative Recovery conversation with Dr. Sarah Jefferis @dr.jefferies.write.now, author, editor, coach and speaker. She recounted her story growing up with trauma and how writing served as a powerful vehicle for transforming her traumatic wounds into meaningful poems, novels, and essays. We explored what it means to rewrite a story of trauma, and Sarah shared a reflective journaling exercise that can facilitate this process. We also touched on how creativity, spirituality, and healing are inextricably linked. In Episode 6, part 2 of the conversation with Sarah, we discuss how to cultivate a healthy relationship to fear and the importance of staying present and embodied, especially while writing about trauma. Sarah also shares about her commitment to speaking out against injustice and the personal healing she has experienced raising two feminist girls.

Dr. Sarah Jefferis is an author, editor, writing coach, and speaker. Through her business called Write.Now., she offers coaching, poetry readings, presentations on diversity, and interactive dialogues on using writing as a healing modality for sexual assault survivors. Jefferis holds an MA in Creative Writing and Literature from Hollins University, an MFA in Poetry from Cornell University, and a PhD in Creative Writing from SUNY Binghamton. She has taught writing and literature at Cornell University for over twenty years. Her most recent poetry collection, What Enters the Mouth, was published in February 2017 by Standing Stone Books. It was praised by Ansel Elkins, author of Blue Yodel, who wrote, “these are fearless poems—a reckoning of the violence of girlhood rendered with grit and clarity.” Sarah has recently become a certified Yoga teacher. Her most important calling is to raise two powerful feminist girls who love themselves and who are willing to speak out against injustice. She is currently working on a collection of essays about the challenge of solo motherhood in a pandemic.

Notes and Resources:

The Guesthouse by Rumi

Little Prayer by Danez Smith

Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach

www.sarahjefferis.com

[email protected]

Insta: @dr.jefferies.write.now

This episode was edited and mixed by Chad Clarke

What is the relationship between creativity and healing? Listen to Dr. Sarah Jefferis @dr.jefferies.write.now, author, editor, coach and speaker as she recounts growing up with trauma and how writing served as a powerful vehicle for transforming her traumatic wounds into meaningful poems, novels, and essays. In part 1 of our conversation, we explore what it means to rewrite a story of trauma, and Sarah shares a reflective journaling exercise that can facilitate this process. We also touch on how creativity, spirituality, and healing are inextricably linked.

Dr. Sarah Jefferis is an author, editor, writing coach, and speaker. Through her business called Write.Now., she offers coaching, poetry readings, presentations on diversity, and interactive dialogues on using writing as a healing modality for sexual assault survivors. Jefferis holds an MA in Creative Writing and Literature from Hollins University, an MFA in Poetry from Cornell University, and a PhD in Creative Writing from SUNY Binghamton. She has taught writing and literature at Cornell University for over twenty years. Her most recent poetry collection, What Enters the Mouth, was published in February 2017 by Standing Stone Books. It was praised by Ansel Elkins, author of Blue Yodel, who wrote, “these are fearless poems—a reckoning of the violence of girlhood rendered with grit and clarity.” Sarah has recently become a certified Yoga teacher. Her most important calling is to raise two powerful feminist girls who love themselves and who are willing to speak out against injustice. She is currently working on a collection of essays about the challenge of solo motherhood in a pandemic.

Notes and Resources:

The Guesthouse by Rumi

Little Prayer by Danez Smith

Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach

www.sarahjefferis.com

[email protected]

Insta: @dr.jefferies.write.now

This episode was edited and mixed by Chad Clarke, @the.podcast.producer on IG

This meditation is intended to ground you in your body and help you access a flowing stream of energy from the Earth.

In Episode 3 we heard part 1 of my Creative Recovery conversation with Delia Ahouandjinou, dancer and body-centered therapist. She recounted her story growing up with a misdiagnosed autoimmune condition and how her life journey led her into a deeper understanding of the relationship between creativity, embodiment, and healing. We explored what it means to be embodied and how developing a healthy relationship to the body facilitates access to and expression of personal truth. In Episode 4, part 2 of the conversation with Delia, we discuss how fear and trauma can block creative expression. Delia offers tools and practices for grounding in the body and getting stuck energy to flow again. Listen to this episode’s bonus meditation: Grounding in Earth’s Energy.

Delia Ahouandjinou is a body-centered therapist in Manhattan, New York where she practices manual therapies, including non-invasive hands-on techniques such as CranioSacral Therapy, Visceral Manipulation and Somato-Emotional Release. Delia was born and raised in Normandy, France, from a French mother and a father from Benin, West-Africa. Her dedication to the healing arts was naturally born during her former career as a dancer for the Opera of Paris and the Martha Graham Ensemble when she experienced the tremendous wear and tear placed upon an athlete’s body. To add to this demanding lifestyle, after years of unexplained pain, she was diagnosed with an autoimmune illness that caused chronic inflammation. After years of extensive healing through Manual Therapy and energy work, she was finally free from pain and medications. This challenging experience allowed her to find her inner voice. Upon retiring from dance, Delia was ready to share with the world her explorations in the profound, nurturing, life changing potential of the art of Manual Therapy and healing work.

Notes and Resources:

www.manualtherapynyc.com

This episode was edited and mixed by Chad Clarke, @the.podcast.producer on IG