Chronic Illness & Creativity

Chronic Illness & Creativity is a 6-week, online somatic therapy group for for chronically ill folks (18 & up) to gather, share, and feel into their creativity in community. 

This offering is for you if you want to:

• Find community who understands what you're going through

• Have a consistent space where there is no pressure to perform wellness

• Deepen relationship with your body and the ebbs and flows of chronic illness

• Explore creativity as a resource in a low-stakes environment 

About the Group

Chronic illness is often looked at through the lens of constraint, through all the limitations it imposes on one's body and one's life. Creativity often feels gate-kept, something you have to be "good" at or give up on. 

This group will ask us to shake these stories up a bit. 

It will make room for grief, anger, exhaustion, and symptoms. It will also encourage us to acknowledge the ways that being chronically ill is an inherently creative state, chronically inviting us to stretch our capacity to be with the unknown, to pivot, to maneuver within systems & symptoms, and to get creative within our constraints. 

The goal is not to make art. The goal is not to force yourself to turn your pain into something beautiful. The goal is not to share your creations. The goal is just to show up as you are and experience yourself as you create! 

In each session, we will: 

•  do (optional) somatic awareness exercises that allow you to listen to your body's needs, desires, and impulses 

• check in as a community about how things are feeling in our bodies and our lives 

• spend time in creative process—you choose the medium; you choose the pace; you choose whether you want to share 

• check in as a community about what we noticed in our bodies during our creative process (no one has to share their creation!)

No therapy, somatics, or art experience necessary—this is a low-stakes space for you to foster your own relationship to your body and your creativity! All mediums are welcome: writing, coloring, drawing, collaging, painting, movement, music, sewing/embroidery, daydreaming, altar-making, etc

This group is open to folks across the identity spectrum, and this space is committed to affirming the lived experience of queer, trans, BIPOC/PGM, disabled, and neurodivergent folks.