Hi , 

To inspire you with the potential of Holistic Creativity Coaching, the following is a Case Study of one of my earliest clients, who happily went on to become a regular in my programmes and a cherished connection in my life. 

This story reveals just how powerful a holistic approach can be when it comes to creativity, and how the results can evolve in surprising and unpredictable ways!

Side-note: If you enjoy this type of behind-the-scenes peek into the world of creativity coaching, you may enjoy the book where it was featured:  

Inside Creativity Coaching; 40 Inspiring Case Studies from Around the World

Edited by Eric Maisel. 

It’s a great insight into the many ways creativity coaching can assist with the various challenges and trials that crop up when we step up to a creative life.

I'm very proud to be one of the featured coaches in the book - Eric was one of my first mentors, and he’s considered the father of creativity coaching, so it's an honour to be a part of this collection of case studies from my peers around the world.

It's a valuable resource for creatives of all levels - beginners, dabblers and amateurs as well as the pros and aspiring pros - so you might like to add it to your TBR Pile. 📚

For now though, I hope you enjoy my Case Study, Wooing The Muse With Wellness, which is available below.

Enjoy! 

PS If you’d like to read more about Eric and his pioneering work in the field of creativity coaching, I have also written about him here;

What is Creativity? (& How to make it easier)

and here;

Creativity coaching: for when you’re dreaming big, being great & stepping up.

“Creativity is not a talent or ability.

It is the fruit of a person's decision to matter.”

~ Eric Maisel

Wooing the muse...with wellness

How a foundation of health and wellbeing can spark a new creative energy.

In a happy stroke of Beginner’s Luck, my very first client turned out to be one of my favourites…

Sara is a writer and she hired me as her coach because she was struggling with that tricky second book.

She felt stuck and frustrated that she couldn't tap into the creativity she knew was in her.

So, when she saw in my newsletter that I was launching a 6-week creativity coaching programme called The Muse Spa, she immediately signed up.

This was my first offering as a newly-qualified coach, and it was based on a ‘creative wellness’ approach I’d been developing - incorporating my lifelong studies into health and wellness practices with my recent creativity coach training.

I’d been experimenting with the link between our energy levels and our creativity, and I felt that this holistic approach was where I had the most to offer clients.

Though Sara had never hired a coach before, she told me that the idea of 'wooing her muse with wellness' intrigued her and inspired her to just go for it.

She'd reached a place in her life where she was craving better health and more creativity, and she felt ready to devote some quality attention to both.

And as a new coach, I felt that the Coaching Angels had delivered the perfect First Client.

Sara was excited to begin, she was clear on what her blocks were and she also had a lovely openness to this new experience.

I was equally excited to begin our work together and grateful to be launching my coaching work with such a kind, inspiring kindred creative spirit.

Email coaching

I had chosen to coach via email and the process began with a questionnaire ebook called The You Review.

It contained just 5 questions but included space and prompts for clients to share as much or as little as they felt comfortable with.

Luckily for me, Sara was happy to really dive deep into these questions, revealing insights that helped me a great deal during our work over the coming weeks.

The questionnaire proved to be a valuable reference tool to support my coaching - a kind of blueprint of Sara’s creative life.

I was also touched that she had trusted me so much with her inner thoughts and feelings.

Foundation work

After reviewing her questionnaire, and a flurry of clarifying emails, I began creating Sara’s first customised workbook.

Sara had identified her main challenges as consistency and following through, which she felt stemmed from issues related to time and energy.

We agreed to tackle the energy issue first, with a view to setting a strong foundation for more focussed writing goals in future weeks.

In an ideal world, we would have begun by building a strong foundation of quality sleep, but Sara was responsible for the care of an elderly relative which meant she was up frequently during the night.

So, I designed her first workbooks to support her energy in other areas.

We began exploring upgrades and simple improvements in the areas of diet and nutrition, the home environment, exercise and stress levels.

And even though this work didn’t resolve her lack of sleep, it did kick-start a new vitality that began to bubble over into her creative life.

From the start, Sara was highly coachable and embraced all the action steps and suggestions with enthusiasm.

Following the coaching, she began to take better care of her physical wellness and made small changes in her lifestyle to reduce stress.

She also decluttered her home and turned a bedroom into a cosy-but-inviting writing room.

These efforts began stirring up even more enthusiasm for her writing and gradually sparked the creative energy she had felt was missing.

After two weeks of addressing her basic energy levels, I began receiving excited emails from Sara, sharing how she’d been spending more and more time in her writing room, enjoying some impromptu writing and book-planning sessions.

It seemed that all it took to reignite Sara’s creative spark was a little attention and self-care.

Next Steps

Our next focus was on how to nurture this new inspired energy.

Even though Sara had a clear goal in mind - the first draft of her next book - we agreed that for a little while longer, the only requirement would be; create as inspired.

“Fun is my compass!” proved to be an effective motto to help her tap into the joy of writing and warm up her creative muscles.

As a new coach, I was especially delighted with this approach because part of my vision had been to not only help clients find more joy and flow in their creative process but also enjoy the actual coaching experience as well.

Sara was truly relishing her new relationship with her creative spark - or as we called it; her muse - so we built in some space and time for them to get reacquainted, to simply rekindle the spark that had been missing.

This freedom to create as inspired seemed to liberate Sara’s muse.

We hadn't set any word count goals or session plans, yet the less she demanded from her creativity, the more inspired, energised and eager she was to write.

She began thinking up scenes and stories as she went about her daily life, new ideas for themes that excited her and had her rushing back to her writing room to scribble them down.

Rebooting Sara’s energy seemed to strike a rich vein of inspiration that was responding eagerly to the renewed attention.

She was also enjoying a range of lovely ripple effects from this new creative energy - finding more pleasure in her home, happier relationships and even noticing more synchronicities, things just working out well, all by themselves.

Sara seemed to be off and running -  feeling inspired, full of ideas, writing almost daily and truly enjoying her creativity again.

Then, after 4 weeks of diligently completing her workbooks - a new resistance began to appear...

Resistance and trust

The gaps between emails increased and after one of my routine check-ins, Sara confessed that she just couldn’t get into her latest workbooks.

I learned that despite her enjoyment of the programme, real life had intervened and ushered in a particularly turbulent time, both at work and at home.

However, she did feel encouraged that she was honouring her wellbeing and trusting her decision to not force the work.

She planned to leave the workbooks for a while and revisit them when life had calmed down a bit.

Luckily, the resistance was limited to the workbooks and Sara was still enjoying lots of creative energy and inspiration for her book - writing regularly and making steady progress with her first draft.

We agreed to trust her intuition and simply stick with what was working; the freedom to create as inspired.

5 days later, Sara emailed with a creative victory - a completed section of the book!

Her instinct to relax and trust, to allow herself the freedom to follow her rhythms, appeared to be a winning formula for both creativity and productivity.

And the workbooks she’d been resisting - feeling intuitively that the timing wasn’t right - she revisited again and completed with ease and a sense of perfect timing.

Inner and outer results

By the end of our work together, despite some periods of resistance, Sara felt she had achieved her main intentions - to rediscover her creativity and make real progress with her book.

Even though there was still work to be done in completing her first draft, she told me she was ‘making consistent quality progress.’

And as happy as we both were with the productive results, we felt that her inner shifts were possibly the most beneficial.

I knew the techniques she’d learned would enable her to coach herself through future creative challenges.

Sara felt inspired and empowered by her new ability to tune into her intuition and trust her creative instincts.

She had let go of some of the anxiety and perfectionism that had previously held her back - adopting a lighter, freer approach, and being kinder to herself.

She felt more playful with her creativity, eager and excited to write. 

Making progress and enjoying the journey.

And Sara’s new creative energy sparked ripple effects across her whole life that she believed would develop and increase over time.

In one of our final check-ins, she told me, “The creativity continues to flow in so many areas...'

As my first experience of coaching, I was equally excited for her - and even more convinced of the power of creativity to bring the fun and magic back to life.

• • • 

Key Takeaways  

1. We are holistic beings, so improvements in any area can have beneficial ripple effects across our whole life.   

2. Creativity is energy. Our wellness and energy levels can greatly influence our creativity and our access to inspiration.   

3. Creative expression can enhance our enjoyment and quality of life, regardless of the end results. 

 
Self-coaching Questions  

1. What areas can you make some simple improvements to your health and energy levels?   

2. Is there an opportunity to be playful and 'follow the fun' in your creative work?   

3. Can you practice trusting and following your own creative instinct, to build a stronger faith in your inner voice and intuition - your connection to your muse?   

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Dive Deeper...

If you'd like to find out more about the coaching programme featured above there are more details below.

It might be useful to see how email coaching can be incorporated into an online coaching programme that blends self-study materials with 1:1 email support. 

I'm also including some more of my writings on the link between creativity and wellbeing - which I believe are core ingredients of any coaching journey. 

MORE DETAILS > 

READ THE POST > 

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