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!
Our soul will sometimes let us know that it is time to heal something within us through an experience of suffering. We will find ourselves in a place of distress that sometimes has no discernible source. We just know that we’re miserable, hurting and unhappy....
In my role as an intuitive painting facilitator and guide I am deeply dedicated to the principals and practices of the Wild Heart Expressive Arts Intuitive Painting process. And one of those practices is the invitation to complete any painting that you start before...
When I turned 50 ( almost 22 years ago) I had just started holding my week long painting retreats at the Ghost ranch Conference Center in Abiquiu New Mexico a couple of years prior. During that retreat I had a number of my long time students in attendance. These were...
There’s an interesting form of resistance that regularly shows up in my intuitive painting classes that people don’t actually recognize as resistance. And it looks like this. What we encourage our students to practice as they are painting is their full range of...
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...
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...
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 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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. ...
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...
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...
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...
It finally arrived! I had been waiting all morning, checking my phone, tracking the number of stops until it got here and then, “cuh-thunk”, the satisfying thud of a heavy box unceremoniously dropped on our front porch. I pulled the box inside and grabbed a knife to...
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...
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 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...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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...