About your coach
It was second grade. Career Day. They’d shined as an Artist in their dad’s old work shirt with a painter’s palette made from cardboard and markers.
But somewhere along the way, they can’t remember when….
…others dimmed their light—as if they controlled the switch. Told them to be Responsible. Practical. It was a heavy load to bear, one that almost crushed them. Until…
…as a last resort, and many decades later: they started outlining a novel for fun, and playing with watercolor pencils, and writing their business newsletters as if they were poems. They walked away from all the things collected from others that never served: hiding, downplaying, deferring to others.
Decided to root into their light and SHINE. And because this light is better shared, they now help others find their path of being their actual creative selves out LOUD.
Hi I’m Ryn (they/them). I help artists (like you, yes you) make and share their most meaningful work in a way that feels steady, sustainable, and authentic to them.
I’m a coach with a background in copywriting, yoga, and mindfulness instruction. I’m also a poet and storyteller and a bit of a witch. My work is a synthesis of the things I’ve studied, the work I’ve done, and the people in my life. You can read more about my qualifications and influences below.
Here’s what got me ready to help you follow your creative callings
My influences in Coaching & Embodiment:
I first studied coaching in 2018, learning from Laura Wieck and becoming certified in BodyMind Coaching, an approach to coaching that brings the body to the conversation. Since then, I’ve studied trauma-informed practice with Eryka Peskin as well as transformational skills with Joanna Lindenbaum.
Prior to that, I owned and operated a busy massage therapy practice, and I studied yoga (the Kaivalya Yoga Method, Lasater Yoga) and aromatherapy (Aromahead Institute Aromatherapy certification) to add to my work.
I first encountered tarot through my yoga studies with Alanna Kaivalya and later learned about reading tarot through Veronica Varlow. My tarot companions include Radical Tarot by Charlie Claire Burgess, Tarot for Creativity by Chelsey Pippin Mizzi, The Queer Tarot deck and guidebook from Ash +Chess, The Haunted Cat Tarot deck and guidebook, and the more traditional Rider Waite Smith deck.
My influence in Writing & Marketing:
As a small business owner since 2013, I’ve studied marketing and copywriting from many sources. The ones that most influence my work are Amber Petty, Kelly Diels, Naomi Dunford, and Tash Corbin.
Other writing influences include Megan Falley’s workshop, Poems That Don’t Suck; Mindy Nettifee’s book: Glitter in the Blood; and Jeannine Ouellette’s Writing in The Dark exercises and seasonal writing intensives.
Other influences that shape my worldview:
My former work as a caseworker in social services and my formal studies of sociology, psychology, gender, and intersectional feminism at the University of Pittsburgh have shaped how I view the world and how we relate to one another due to the way our society is structured.
I would especially like to mention Dr. Kimberle Crenshaw (writings on intersectional feminism), bell hooks (the imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy), and Laverne Cox, who added cisnormative heteronormative to bell hooks’ term.
I’ve also been inspired by Rev. angel Kyodo williams’ practices and teachings on liberation and belonging: “love & justice are not two. without inner change, there can be no outer change; without collective change, no change matters.”
And so many more books, including…
Widen the Window: Training Your Brain and Body to Thrive During Stress and Recover from Trauma by Elizabeth A. Stanley, PhD
Expressive Writing: Words That Heal By James W. Pennebaker, PhD and John Evans, EdD
Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey
Inner Field Trip: 30 Days of Personal Exploration, Collective Liberation, and Generational Healing by Leesa Renée Hall
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
Tarot for Creativity by Chelsey Pippin Mizzi
Radical Tarot by Charlie Claire Burgess
By its nature, this list is incomplete and always growing.
As of this writing, these are the people, experiences, and writings who’ve shaped my work most.
Conventional online marketing encourages the use of our own personal transformation (with no mention of who or what spurred it) as the sole reason we’re qualified to do the work we do (Kelly Diels calls this the Makeover Myth). But we don’t become who we are in a vacuum.
I don’t personally know everyone listed above, but their work has shaped my own and I’m honored to name that.
(It’s also important to note these are not necessarily whole-hearted endorsements. And they don’t necessarily know or endorse me either.)
"But we've only just met!"
If you could use a regular reminder to marvel, delight, create, explore—to dream BIG—even though life sometimes makes it easier to stay in resignation and despair, I write The Creative Courage Project to inspire you to let your inner Artist lead.