Creative Spirit Unleashed

Creative Spirit Unleashed: The Artist’s Way fused with Compassionate Creative Mentorship

Brought to you by the YWCA Women's Partnership and UCLArts and Healing.

Are you feeding yourself the myth that you are “just not the creative type” or that it’s too late to explore your artistic interests? Tired of spinning your wheels and struggling in a rut? Do you crave supportive companions to walk with on the creative path?

As we can witness with any young child, it is human nature to create and express. Experts in the emerging field of creativity studies - including psychologists, neuroscientists and educators - believe that creativity is basic to human development and is crucial to psychological health. Just as creativity can be squelched - through our upbringing, education and our own limiting thoughts - it can also be fostered and enhanced.

Creative Spirit Unleashed is a gentle, practical and playful approach to re-awakening your creativity through the writings and exercises of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. In this class, we will learn the simple and tangible tools necessary to tap into your personal creative flow, tools that have worked for millions of people all across the world. Gain clarity around your authentic creative self and recover your life dreams. In weekly class discussions, small group work and experiential exercises we will uncover deeper personal understanding of and ease with the creative process. You will walk away with powerful lifelong tools that will help you to manage self-criticism, perfectionism and procrastination. This course includes homeplay such as reading, writing and creative exercises that help you to take ownership of your own creative process.

So come and be supported in a space to experiment and take chances without shame or judgement and find a new permission to play. Together we will share in the excitement and challenges of approaching life with more curiosity, openness and a spirit of adventure that are part of a meaningful, creative life.

This course has no prerequisite. It is open to adults with a range of creative and artistic experience, from novices to professionals! If you are interested in reclaiming your own creativity, we want you here!

Jana Carrey, MA is a photographic artist, writer and creativity mentor who currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She is the founder of Creative Spirit Awakening and Jana Carrey Photography. Her multidisciplinary background includes professional photography, visual anthropology, social & educational psychology, expressive arts training, research, creative mentoring and arts-education. Carrey has an MA in Visual Anthropology from the University of Manchester and a BA (honors) in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, her photography can be seen in The Story of the Creative, an international, multimedia exhibition in NYC. Since Carrey embraced photography at the age of 19 to help deal with the death of her younger brother to osteosarcoma, she maintains a deep belief and passion for personal transformation and healing through art and the creative process. She swears by The Artist’s Way and will be walking this journey alongside you as a compassionate mentor and friend!