Before the pandemic turned all of our lives completely upside down, I had a thriving, in-person retreat business. I held weekend and four day non-residential retreats at my Oakland studio and took people on week long residential retreats in fabulously beautiful places...
Creative Juices Arts Blog
Welcome to my blog page! I love writing about the healing power of the creative process. Here you will find a collection of all of my writing from all the way back to 2005! Enjoy!
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Chris Zydel
My Personal Journey With Person Centered Expressive Arts and How It Influences My Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program
As we are coming down to the wire for this next round of our Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program I’ve been thinking a lot about my own expressive arts journey My early days in terms of my own personal healing and also in my professional practice...
Smashing The Patriarchy With Intuitive Painting and the The Expressive Arts
One of the conversations I’ve been having a LOT with my students recently has to do with the struggle people feel around how much easier it is for them to be free and creative and fully alive when they are in painting class or on retreat with us, and how difficult it...
The Wild Rumpus Ride Of Change
The past four years have been a sometimes grueling, often disturbing, seemingly unending process of slip-sliding transition, rocky instability, startling change and revolutionary upheaval. This process has been happening in both in the inner world of the psyche and...
Pouting, Whining and Getting Aligned With My Artists Soul
Whenever I launch a new round of my Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program it takes me back through my journey of being an intuitive painting facilitator that began almost 30 years ago. And one thing that stands out for me was the challenge of filling my...
Registration Is Now Open For The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Online!!!
Seventeen years ago in 2007 I was facilitating a week long painting retreat in Hawaii. One of my long time students who was there with me started talking about how much she wanted to learn how to facilitate people around the creative process like I did. And proceeded...
Painting Ourselves Whole
My husband, life and business partner in all things creative, Tim Lajoie, has been writing more and more these days and this post is written by him. I’m so enjoying how his wise perspective is contributing to the conversation about this powerful expressive arts...
How A Deep Understanding Of Creative Freedom Is Integral To The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program
We’re coming down to the wire and The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program begins in one short week on April 29th. And as Tim and I are preparing and refining the curriculum it’s also making me think about some of the psychological, spiritual and...
How A Deep Understanding Of The Patriarchy and Women’s Issues Is Integral To The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program
The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program begins in a little more than two weeks on April 29th and as Tim and I are preparing and refining the curriculum it’s also making me think about some of the psychological, spiritual and philosophical roots and...
How A Deep Understanding Of The Body Is Integral To The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program
The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program begins in a little less than a month and as Tim and I are preparing and refining the curriculum it’s also making me think about some of the psychological, spiritual and philosophical roots and influences...
Trusting The Process As A Core Principle Of The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program
One of the first things you will hear me talk about when you come to one of my classes, workshops or retreats is that here in these circles we are focusing on and placing greater value on the process of creation instead of primarily valuing the finished product. ...
Free Webinar: Love As A Core Principle At The Heart Of The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program
This is Tim and I wanted share some thoughts about our upcoming Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program and one of our core philosophies: love! “I’m going back in!” She said defiantly as she took a deep breath, pursed her lip, and wiped away the tear...
Wholeness: Exploring A Core Principle Of The Heart Of The Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program
Whenever Tim and I take another group of students through our Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training process we inevitably hear from folks how they’ve never experienced anything quite like the sense of healing and love and liberation that happens for them in our...
How Do I Know If This Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training Program Is Right For Me?
As Tim and I go through the process of interviewing folks for our upcoming teacher training program, we often get the question of how do I know if this Wild Heart Expressive Arts Teacher Training is right for me? This is a HUGE question on a certain level because it...
I Wanted To Be A Nun As A Kid. But Became An Intuitive Painting Facilitator Instead.
When I was 8 years old and in the third grade we were given the assignment to write our autobiography. I don’t remember much about what I wrote. In my memory, I don't see words, only the thin, lined composition notebook with the black and white speckled cover and my...
Painting With Fire and The Power Of A Committed Creative Practice
Greetings to my beloved wild heart community, I just returned from spending a magical week in the desert with an amazing group of wild hearted painters at my most recent Painting From The Wild Heart retreat. And I must say, that as grateful as I am that I...
Some Wishes And Prayers For You During This Season Of Darkness And Light
Some Wishes And Prayers For You During This Season Of Darkness And Light Holidays are always such a mixed bag for folks. Especially this one where we’re supposed to be all merry and cheery. And if you ARE genuinely feeling merry and cheery I party with you...
How Long Does It Take To Truly Heal?
In my early days as a psychotherapist whenever I would begin with a new client I would often get the question, “How long is this going to take?” Meaning, how much time will it take before I am healed and this problem I am bringing to you is permanently solved....
Astro Wisdom: Gemini as Holy Messenger of Sacred Curiosity
When Gemini appears on the scene you can be guaranteed an endlessly entertaining torrent of scintillating conversation about anything and everything under the sun. Gemini’s primary superpower is an unquenchable curiosity that searches far and wide for the most...
Why This Wild Heart Creativity Process is MORE Important Than Ever During These Challenging Times of Change
In these times of radical change and upheaval I’ve heard a number of people question the relevancy of this inner creativity work or making art at all. It can seem like this focus on healing and internal awareness and exploration using art is no longer necessary when...
How Deeply Do You Really Know Yourself? And Why It Really Matters.
Whenever I begin one of my workshops, classes or retreats I always get a big laugh when I say : “You are all here because you think of yourself as someone committed to pursuing deep psychological and spiritual healing. You sincerely believe that you want to become...
How Is Painting With Fire Different From Other Intuitive Painting Classes?
Greetings to my beloved wild heart community, My signature online intuitive painting class Painting With Fire begins in a couple of weeks. And many people have happily signed up in eager preparation for a 6 week deep dive into their sacred creative being...
For The Times When There Is No Map
No matter what it might look like from the outside, everyone is learning the hard way. So give yourself a break. If you’re struggling or floundering or feeling stuck and confused and can’t see a way forward out of whatever is challenging in your life right now,...
The Inner Critic and The Art Police
In the Wild Heart Expressive Arts approach to intuitive painting and art-making we are in a continual dance of trying to navigate our relationship to the judging mind also known as the inner critic. I’m defining the inner critic as the part of our psyche that is...
Saying Goodbye To My High Sierras Retreat Center
As many of you know who have been in my world for awhile, prior to the pandemic, I lived my life pretty much on creativity retreats. I offered Wild Heart Painting workshops in some of the most beautiful natural places in the western United States...
What To Do When You’re Creatively Stuck
Some tips for when you find yourself at a creative standstill. Don't expect yourself to be creative. Or original. Or goddess forbid an ARTIST! Don't even call what you do creativity. Or art. Simply pick up a brush if you paint. Open a notebook if you write. Put on...
Why It’s So Important For You To Shine Your Own Light
Many of us are still wrangling with a bullshit layer of some old UNHELPFUL story that comes out of an ancient family wound. And this wound is related to the way that we took on the pain of those around us who couldn’t be supported to see their OWN beauty and gifts and...