Voice Lessons: Uncovering and Claiming Your Unique, Creative Voice

This week, I’m hosting a guest with whom I have a long history—going all the way back to when she was a child. As my daughter’s close childhood friend, I got to watch her grow up and find her way into the two very different careers she has today. I’m thrilled to welcome the multifaceted Kate Nichols, who not only excels as a trauma therapist but also shines on stage as a comedian.

Kate's journey is unconventional and inspi...

In this episode, I’m thrilled to introduce Julia Thomson, a media artist and art educator residing in West Virginia. Julia, who received her BFA from Pratt Institute, discusses her journey as an artist whose work uniquely blends realism, abstraction, and surrealism. Her art is an exploration of the natural world, often blurring the lines between reality and dreams. 

She emphasizes the importance of creativity as a way to slow d...

I'm thrilled to welcome Kylene Terhune, a betrayal trauma recovery coach and classically trained singer, onto the show this week. Kylene specializes in supporting women who have discovered their husbands are porn or sex addicts. Her unique, holistic approach integrates physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual healing, utilizing functional lab work, nutrition, lifestyle adjustments, and trauma processing. 

During our conv...

This week, I welcomed my dear friend and accomplished poet, Sherri Levine, onto the show to tell us about how she discovered poetry as a healing tool during a particularly difficult time in her life. Sherri, a poet, mental health advocate, and teacher from Portland, Oregon, shares her inspiring journey of how poetry has been a lifesaving force for her. 

We discussed her experiences, including a year-long stay in a psychiatric hospit...

I'm thrilled to introduce Edy Nathan, a fascinating voice in the field of grief, loss, and trauma. Her expertise extends beyond that of traditional therapy, weaving together psychology, creative expression, and even mythology to help people understand and live with their grief—including the often-unspoken experience of sexual grief.

We discuss Edy's views on the importance of silence in building a relationship with our voi...

In this episode of Voice Lessons, I’m thrilled to welcome Kristy Gordon, a Canadian-born visual artist living in New York City, whose work reimagines classical techniques through a contemporary lens. Kristy's paintings blend old master craftsmanship with visionary explorations of nature, myth, and transformation, resulting in luminous large-scale compositions that weave together symbols from ancient myths and sacred geometry. 

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This week, I’m thrilled to welcome Alice Pauser, a prolific humorist and storyteller with over three decades of experience as a national freelance comedy writer and presenter. This episode encompasses how humorous writing and storytelling can be a catharsis and plays an important role in the healing process for some people.

Alice starts by sharing a bit about her upbringing that began in a small town in northern Wisconsin and was fu...

In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Megan Cummins, author of the upcoming novel 'Atomic Hearts' and the story collection 'If the Body Allows It.' Megan shared insights into her journey in finding her creative voice, a process that took years to fully grasp. 

From writing stories as a child to studying in an MFA program, she discussed how her sensibility plays a crucial role in her writing and how...

This week, I spoke with Jen Rubin, the former executive producer of Love Wisconsin and a seasoned storyteller who leads workshops across the state. She’s also the creator of The Great Midwest Bagel Quest, so if you’re as much of a bagel fan as Jen and I are, you’ll want to stick around to hear about that later in the episode. 

Jen shared how she began her storytelling career in advocacy work in her 20s and is now an expert in her cr...

This week on Voice Lessons, I had the privilege of chatting with Helena Fagan, an award-winning poet, memoirist, and young adult fiction writer from Juneau, Alaska, and Cape Meares, Oregon. We reminisced about our years in a writing class together, where our friendship began, and then discussed her distinguished writing career and a recently published work, 'Stalking Truth.' 

This deeply personal piece resonated with ...

This week on Voice Lessons, I had the pleasure of chatting with Katey Schultz, an accomplished author and writing coach. Katey, a recipient of numerous awards including the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction and the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year, shared insights into her writing process and how it has evolved over the years. 

We touched on the challenges and joys of both generating new material and the revision...

This month on Voice Lessons, I’m hosting a special series where every week we’ll have a new episode sharing the voices and stories of survivors who have experienced sexual trauma. 

In this week's episode, I had the pleasure of welcoming Melissa Lombardo, a bilingual sexual assault crisis advocate, trauma-sensitive author, intuitive speaker, and community connector. Melissa generously shared her rich background in psychology, so...

This month on Voice Lessons, I’m doing a special series where every week we’ll have a new episode sharing the voices and stories of survivors who have experienced sexual trauma. 

This week, I spoke with Chris McGee, a father of 3 daughters and survivor advocate, about his experience with the legal system after it came out that his daughter had been groomed and sexually assaulted by a local police officer. The crime resulted in ...

This month on Voice Lessons, I’m doing a special series where every week we’ll have a new episode sharing the voices and stories of survivors who have experienced sexual trauma. 

In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Ginger T-Rex, a writer and SAG-AFTRA actress from the Four Corners region of New Mexico. As an Amherst Writers & Artists (AWA) facilitator, Ginger leads writing workshops for survivors of violenc...

This month on Voice Lessons, I’m doing a special series where every week we’ll have a new episode sharing the voices and stories of survivors who have experienced sexual trauma. 

I had the privilege of speaking with Meadow Jones, PhD, a social practice artist, award-winning filmmaker, community organizer, and so much more. Meadow's vast experience includes utilizing the Amherst Writers and Artists Method (AWA) and her rese...

This month on Voice Lessons, I’m doing a special series of weekly episodes to share the voices of survivors of sexual trauma. 

To kick off this series, I’m thrilled to introduce everyone to Mary Simmerling, a poet and philosopher who focuses on social justice and healing. Mary is the founder of 'Write Where We Belong' and 'Write Where We Belong Press,' an independent Canadian publishing house. 

In this episode, we...

In this episode of Voice Lessons, I had the pleasure of chatting with Elizabeth Perlman, founder and executive director of the Intuitive Writing Project. Elizabeth has devoted her life to empowering teenage girls by helping them discover their strengths and trust their voice through intuitive writing workshops and coaching sessions. 

We explored her journey from a teenage girl who used writing as a form of personal expression and he...

I'm excited  to welcome PJ Gray, a versatile writer whose multi-faceted writing career spans a number of forms and genres — from television and magazine writing to cookbook publishing and adult literacy fiction — PJ has done it all. We dive into his journey, starting from his college days working on a communications major at Columbia College in Chicago, where he first developed an interest in television writing and producing. 

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I’m thrilled to introduce my guest this week, Kristin Oakley, an accomplished author of award-winning suspense thrillers and young adult dystopian series. Kristin’s works include 'Carpe Diem, Illinois' and 'God on Mayhem Street,' as well as 'The Devil Particle' series. She’s also deeply involved in the writing community, teaching workshops and critiquing manuscripts.

In this episode, Kristin shares...