Center for Creative Self-Compassion

06/16/2025

🌧️ When life gets hard, the inner critic often gets louder.

Maybe you’ve noticed it too ~ that voice inside that says you’re not doing enough, not handling things well enough, not enough, period.

But self-criticism isn’t what gets us through hard times.
What we actually need is more kindness and creativity ~
especially when things feel messy or uncertain.

🌞 With summer just around the corner, there can be pressure to feel bright and energized. But if you’re feeling tired, off-track, or overwhelmed ~ you’re not alone.

💖 Love Yourself Now with Art Journaling is a free online workshop where you’ll learn to meet yourself with more gentleness ~ even when your inner critic has lots to say.

And yes ~ it’s also fun and playful!
Because joy and creativity aren’t frivolous ~ they’re exactly what we need to keep going.

🖍️ No art experience needed. Just bring yourself, as you are.

🗓️ Sunday, June 29, 2025
⏰ 11am-12:30pm Pacific Time
📍 Live on Zoom | Free to attend

We’ll explore where the inner critic comes from, how to loosen its grip and how creativity can help you come home to yourself.

It’s ok to need a little extra care right now. ❤️

🎨 Click below to learn more + sign up

Sign up for this free online self-compassion and art journaling workshop ~ learn how deep self-healing can be fun and playful!

06/06/2025

Has it been hard to row your boat gently down the stream of life lately?🛶
Join me for a free online workshop where we’ll explore how to meet ourselves with kindness ~ even when life feels messy, uncertain or overwhelming.
Love Yourself Now with Art Journaling
🗓️ Sunday, June 29 | ⏰ 11am-12:30pm PT
🎨 Free | No art experience needed
📍 Live on Zoom
This gentle, creative workshop will help you reconnect with your creativity and innate capacity for self-compassion
😬 We’ll talk about where the inner critic comes from and how to loosen its grip.
🎨 You’ll be guided through a simple, nourishing art journaling practice to reimagine and revise the stories you tell yourself
Whether you’re floating, flailing, or just trying to find your rhythm again ~ you’re not alone ❤️
🖌️ Click here to learn more + sign up:

Sign up for this free online self-compassion and art journaling workshop ~ learn how deep self-healing can be fun and playful!

05/21/2025

✨ Feeling stretched thin lately? You’re not alone. ✨

If your nervous system is frayed and you need a reset ~ Beyond Burnout is for you.

This 4-week online workshop combines art journaling, poetry, mindfulness and self-compassion to help you unwind and reconnect with what matters most. It's gentle, research-based, and fun (yes, fun can be part of healing!).

🎨 No art experience needed
🧠 Grounded in science + creativity
💛 Scholarships + CE credits available

New cohorts begin June 5 and 6. Come join us ~ or share with someone who could use this kind of support.

🖌️ Learn more + sign up by clicking below

Beyond Burnout is a 4-week online workshop designed to help you avoid burnout, and creatively cultivate self-compassion for body, mind and spirit. 8 CEs available for healthcare professionals!

04/28/2025

🌿✨ Need a little breathing room? ✨🌿

There's so much going on in the world right now. If you've been feeling overwhelmed, scattered, or stretched too thin, you're not alone 💛

I created Breathing Room: Art Journaling for Stress Relief as a free 90-minute live online workshop to offer a gentle, creative reset ~ a way to step away from the noise and reconnect with your creativity and give your nervous system the care it needs and deserves.

It's completely free, and it's happening on Sunday, May 18, 2025 from 10-11:30am Pacific Time.

In Breathing Room you’ll experience:
🌼 Accessible practices to nurture body, mind and spirit
🎨 Simple, playful art journaling (no art skills or special supplies needed!)
🌿 Poetry and reflection to spark self-compassion and resilience

Breathing Room is a welcoming space to explore, create, and nurture yourself ~ whether you're brand new to art journaling or just longing for a little more peace and ease.

👇 Click below to register

✨ Everyone who signs up will also receive access to the replay through Memorial Day weekend!

💬 Curious about what Breathing Room is like? After last month's workshop, several participants emailed to share how the experience impacted them ~ I posted a few of their reflections in the comments below 🌿

Hope to see you there! 💛

A live art journaling workshop where you can de-stress through art, poetry and play! Spark your creativity with self-compassion poems and art journaling practice!

04/07/2025

🌿✨ Enrollment is now open for Beyond Burnout ✨🌿

It’s how it is right now ~ so many of us are exhausted, anxious and running on empty. The chaos is constant, the world feels intense, and our nervous systems are carrying way too much.

When we’re constantly stressed, it’s easy to disconnect from creativity, calm, and even the capacity to care for ourselves.

Beyond Burnout is a gentle, creative 4-week program designed to help you de-stress, shift out of survival mode, and find more calm and confidence in the uncertainty of everyday life.

Each week, we’ll gather online to explore research-backed ways to reduce and prevent burnout ~ through guided art journaling, thoughtfully chosen poetry, and simple mindfulness-based practices. Beyond Burnout will help you:

💛 Soothe your nervous system
💛 Feel more grounded and steady
💛 Reconnect with your creativity and joy

Throughout the program, I’ll also guide you in creating your own Beyond Burnout guide ~ a personal, handmade self-care resource you can return to anytime stress starts to rise.

And no art experience is needed ~ just a willingness to show up and try something new.

There are two cohort options (evening or daytime), and CE credits are available for therapists and healthcare professionals.

🌼 Learn more + sign up below 🌼
And if someone you know could use this kind of support, feel free to share this post and let your friends and loved ones know about Beyond Burnout.

We all need gentleness right now ~ to care for our nervous systems with compassion, and to let in as much simple joy as we can find 💛

Beyond Burnout is a 4-week online workshop designed to help you avoid burnout, and creatively cultivate self-compassion for body, mind and spirit. 8 CEs available for healthcare professionals!

03/28/2025

😣 Stressed? You're allowed to slow down.
If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, tired, or like you can’t catch a break, you're not alone. Stress happens, but self-compassion helps, and art journaling makes it easier.

🌿 Breathing Room is a free, live online workshop designed to help you pause, reset, and reconnect through art journaling and poetry.

When life gets hectic, it’s easy to put yourself last. But true self-care isn’t just about taking breaks ~ it’s about how you meet yourself in difficult moments.

This workshop will offer:
✨ A simple way to ease stress & replenish your energy
🎨 Creative self-expression as a tool for self-care
💛 A foundation for lasting self-compassion

📅 Sunday, April 6 | 🕙 10-11:30am PT
💻 Live on Zoom (Replay Available!)
You don’t have to do this alone. Let’s slow down together. 💛 Sign up here: https://www.creativeselfcompassion.com/breathingroom

The Center for Creative Self-Compassion is an education company helping people tame the inner critic with creative self-compassion, mindfulness, and art journaling.

03/10/2025

🌿 new workshop for stress relief & creative self-compassion! 🌿

Stress can build up fast, and before you know it, exhaustion feels normal. But burnout isn’t inevitable ~ there’s a fun and effective way to meet stress ~ with self-compassion and creativity 💛

Breathing Room is a free live online workshop designed to help you reset, recharge and reconnect with yourself through poetry & art journaling.

When life feels overwhelming, it’s easy to disconnect from what truly nourishes you. But just a little creative self-expression can soothe your nervous system and help you breathe easier.

In this workshop, we’ll explore:
✨ How poetry can offer immediate comfort and a grounding perspective
🎨 Simple creative practices that help quiet the mind and ease stress
💛 Practices for responding to challenges with self-compassion, instead of self-judgment

Here are the details:
🌿 Breathing Room Art Journaling for Stress Relief Workshop
📅 Sunday, April 6, 2025
🕙 10am PT
💻 Live on Zoom (Replay Available!)

This is a brand-new workshop, and I’d love to share it with you!

Save your spot here 👇

A live art journaling workshop where you can de-stress through art, poetry and play! Spark your creativity with self-compassion poems and art journaling practice!

03/05/2025

😣 Stress happens.
🫶 Self-compassion helps.
🎨 Creativity makes it easier.

When stress builds up, it’s easy to ignore your own needs and keep pushing forward ~ until exhaustion becomes "normal." And then before you know it, burnout takes over.

Coping with stress effectively isn’t about powering through or waiting for things to slow down. It’s about making space for yourself right now.

That’s what Breathing Room is all about.

This free, live online workshop is an invitation to step into a new way of relating to stress ~ with creative self-compassion. Through poetry and art journaling, we’ll explore simple, meaningful practices that help you:

✨ Ease stress & replenish your energy
🎨 Experience creativity as a tool for self-care
💛 Build a foundation for lasting self-compassion

If you’re feeling overwhelmed or need a reset, Breathing Room will help you pause, exhale and reconnect with yourself.

Workshop details:
🗓 Sunday, April 6, 2025
⏰ 10-11:30am Pacific Time
💻 Live on Zoom (replay available)

Breathing Room be engaging, supportive, and restorative ~ and I’d love to see you there 💛
To learn more or register, please click below 👇

A live art journaling workshop where you can de-stress through art, poetry and play! Spark your creativity with self-compassion poems and art journaling practice!

02/10/2025

It’s one thing to want to be kinder to yourself ~ it’s another to have a practice that actually helps you do it.

That’s what makes Everyday Self-Compassion different. This 8-week online program combines self-compassion with art journaling, giving you a concrete, creative way to slow down, process emotions, and quiet your inner critic.

No art experience is necessary ~ just a willingness to explore. Many past students have shared that this practice made self-compassion click for them in a way that nothing else had.

💛 8 weeks of live, interactive classes
💛 Guided creative practices & meditations
💛 A warm, supportive community
💛 16 CEs available for healthcare professionals

📆 Two cohort options:
✨ Thursdays, 6 PM - 8 PM PT ~ starts February 20, 2025
✨ Fridays, 10 AM - 12 PM PT ~ starts February 21, 2025

Enrollment is open through Friday, February 14! Learn more below! 🫶

Registration is now open for Everyday Self-Compassion! Healing doesn't have to be so hard! This 8-week live online art journaling program is designed to help you navigate the uncertainty of everyday life with more confidence, creativity, calm ~ and joy.

01/07/2025

What if healing isn't about self-improvement? What if it can feel light, creative and fun? As a recovering perfectionist, I know that might sound weird. But you can love yourself as you are ~ even if years of therapy, meditation, yoga and other kinds of self-help haven't brought you relief. It doesn't have to be complicated and take forever. When we put pen to paper and draw ourselves in a simple way, we make the invisible visible, and deep healing happens. Love Yourself Now With Art Journaling is a free, live online workshop, and it's happening on Sunday, February 9, 2025 11am-12:30pm Pacific Time. In our 90 minutes together we'll explore where the inner critic comes from and how to break free from self-judgment. Then I'll share a simple art journaling practice to re-imagine the unhelpful stories we tell ourselves. It will be free, fun and uplifting, and I hope to see you there! ❤️ 🎨
Click below to learn more and register ---->

Sign up for this free online self-compassion and art journaling workshop ~ learn how deep self-healing can be fun and playful!

12/09/2024

Feeling overwhelmed? 😬 🥵 🫠
It's a lot to be alive right now ~ especially in this darkest time of the year. Between holiday details, navigating family dynamics, and the ambient political intensity, it’s easy to miss the clues that you are pushing yourself too hard ❤️

If you’re a caregiver, healthcare professional, or someone who’s constantly showing up for others, burnout may feel like an all-too-familiar companion. That’s why I created the Beyond Burnout program ~ a 4-week live, online class designed to help you step out of the overwhelm and into a space of care, creativity, and renewal.

Here’s what you’ll experience:
✨ Weekly live classes blending self-compassion teachings with creative art journaling practices
✨ A supportive, non-judgmental space to process stress and reconnect with yourself
✨ Practical tools to move beyond burnout and into a life that feels more sustainable and nourishing

And for the first time ever, I'm offering some Holiday Bonuses! 🎁

🎨 First, a free art journaling kit! Register by December 31 and I will send you all the supplies you need for the workshop!

🥳 And you will save $70 if you sign up by December 31!

Joining the workshop is a great way to end 2024 and give your future self the gift of care and renewal in 2025. Start the new year with practices that ground and sustain you, no matter what comes your way.

📅 Winter cohorts meet on Thursday evenings and Friday mornings, and they begin January 16 & 17

To learn more, please click below ❤️

Beyond Burnout is a 4-week online workshop designed to help you avoid burnout, and creatively cultivate self-compassion for mind, body and spirit. Self-care is important for everyone. For professional caregivers, it's an ethical imperative. 8 CEs available!

11/16/2024

2024 has been a lot ~ so much to digest and process, so little time to pause ~ especially as the days get shorter! 😬
If you’re wishing you had a moment to slow down, breathe, reflect and rest, I invite you to join me for the End the Year Heart-First retreat on December 7 ❤️

We’ll spend the morning in gentle practices like guided meditation, art journaling, and mindful eating ~ all designed to help you care for your heart in the midst of all that's happening right now.
I’d love to share this time and support you in saying goodbye to 2024 with care, intention and creativity 💖
Click here for more information or to register: https://www.sfzc.org/calendar/events/online/end-year-heart-first-online-127