beat stronger. It requires hard work, persistence,
self-belief and love of what you do. And support.
If we are lucky we get support as artists from
our friends, our colleagues, and maybe from our
management and mentors (if in fact we have
either). But in my view there has always been a
gap in the support needs of artists that is now
starting to be filled by a new type of professional
called a creativity coach. Most people, including
most people in the arts, have not heard of
creativity coaching. I have recently created
AA Creativity Coaching to bring this valuable
form of support to more creative people.
But what does a creativity coach actually do?
He or she helps creative people deal with the
psychological, emotional and strategic
challenges that come with living the creative life
and making it work. One of the pioneers in this
burgeoning field, Eric Maisel, explains the role
played by creativity coaches in this way: “With
their clients, they investigate issues of blockage,
self-doubt, anxiety, fear of failure, worries about
mistakes, and the other process and personality
issues that interfere with getting creative work
done. They help creators deal with the
marketplace, career issues, issues of isolation
and alienation, and other issues that inevitably
arise for people who have chosen to create.
They cheerlead, listen, educate, respond, and
help their creative clients get work done and live
in the real world.”
Creativity coaches come from a variety of
backgrounds and have different approaches and
methods. Personally, my motivation for doing
this work comes from my love and respect for
those individuals who have the courage to create
and present their creativity to some type of
audience. I’m proud to say that I’ve been doing
this myself for four decades, ever since the
excruciatingly shy boy found that being on stage
was the one place he felt confident in letting his
voice be heard. I’ve been lucky enough to have
my creative work appreciated by millions of
people and at times make a very good living. But
I’ve also had significant periods of feeling
unappreciated, abandoned, dispirited and lost as
an artist (not to mention impoverished!). This too
has been “lucky” in a way, because it now
enables me to bring a first hand understanding of
these challenges to my skill set as a creativity
coach.
Would creativity coaching benefit you? If you
are experiencing persistent resistance in some
area of your creative life then the answer is
probably yes. As a creativity coach I find that
nearly any issue that inhibits full creative
expression and delivery is an issue of resistance.
The writer who cannot complete their novel or