Praise for Eric Maisels Work
Stuck? Suffering from creative block? Those of you already familiar with Dr. Maisels work need no introduction. Hes a psychotherapist and creativity coach who has made artists with creative blocks his specialty. If youre creatively stuck, Maisel uses common sense, exercises, and sound psychological techniques to get you unstuck.
Working Poet on Fearless Creating
Maisels book has helpful suggestions for artists and writers searching for encouragement and emotional respite.
Publishers Weekly on The Van Gogh Blues
Artists will appreciate Maisels straightforward discussion of the problems they face and his uplifting mantra of transcendence and hope.
Variety on A Life in the Arts
A therapist who counsels creative and performing artists, Maisel has fused his empirical knowledge of the artistic life with true empathy and support for artists of all disciplines.
New Age Journal on A Life in the Arts
Eric Maisel speaks as the artists friend and ally. He offers powerful encouragement for people who undertake the courageous and often lonely adventure of finding, protecting, and nourishing their creative voice.
Stephen Nachmanovitch, author of Free Play, on A Life in the Arts
Eric Maisel has made a career out of helping artists, musicians, dancers, and writers cope with the traumas and troubles that are the price of admission to a creative life.... The author doesnt just name and solve some common creative problems, he calls on us to create, and to create deeply. Fearless Creating mobilizes us to think, feel, and act completely, without self-editing and self-defeating restraint.
Intuition Magazine on Fearless Creating
Maisel suggests unique answers to the questions we face. I love this book and share it here at the outset of the year for artists and those who would be.
Flagstaff Live! on Affirmations for Artists
Creativity coach, writer, and psychotherapist Eric Maisel has given us a simple, easy-to-use program to spur creativity and inspiration.... Often the ideas stay with me all day, firing me on to carry out my appointed tasks. The cards are not just for writers or artists but for anyone seeking to expand, explore, or open up channels of creativity. Highly recommended.
Midwest Book Review on Everyday Creative
Eric Maisel warrants special praise. He demonstrates unique sensitivity to the issues artists face and provides practical guidelines for artists whose mental health and creative outputs must be protected and promoted.
Richard Lippin,
president, International Arts-Medicine Association
Maisel intimately understands the anxieties of the creative process and the psychological landscape that artists inhabit. Strong on the psychology, Maisel is equally strong on practicalities.... What Maisel does, and does brilliantly, is explain how a book proposal can be not only a marketing tool but also an essential means for discovering what your book is about.
The Writer Magazine on The Art of the Book Proposal
COACHING THE ARTIST
WITHIN
Other Books by Eric Maisel
Fiction
The Blackbirds of Mulhouse
The Black Narc
Dismay
The Fretful Dancer
The Kingston Papers
Nonfiction
Affirmations for Artists
The Creativity Book
Deep Writing
Fearless Creating
Fearless Presenting
A Life in the Arts
Living the Writers Life
Sleep Thinking
Staying Sane in the Arts
Ten-Second Centering
20 Communication Tips at Work
20 Communication Tips for Families
The Van Gogh Blues
Write Mind
A Writers Paris
Journals
Artists Speak
Writers and Artists on Devotion
Writers and Artists on Love
Meditation Decks
Everyday Calm
Everyday Creative
Everyday Smart
COACHING THE ARTIST
WITHIN
Advice for Writers, Actors,
Visual Artists & Musicians from
Americas Foremost Creativity Coach
ERIC MAISEL
New World Library
Novato, California
New World Library
14 Pamaron Way
Novato, California 94949
Copyright 2005 by Eric Maisel, PhD
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Front cover design by Bill Mifsud
Text design and typography by Tona Pearce Myers
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Maisel, Eric.
Coaching the artist within : advice for writers, actors, visual artists, and musicians from Americas foremost creativity coach / by Eric Maisel.1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-57731-464-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Creative ability. 2. Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.) 3. ArtistsPsychology. I. Title.
BF408.M232 2005
153.35dc22
2004021427
First printing, January 2005
ISBN 1-57731-464-6
Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer waste recycled paper
A proud member of the Green Press Initiative
Distributed to the trade by Publishers Group West
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Ann,
twenty-eight years
into this adventure
and counting
CONTENTS
Skill One
BECOMING A SELF-COACH
Skill Two
PASSIONATELY MAKING MEANING
Skill Three
GETTING A GRIP ON YOUR MIND
Skill Four
ELIMINATING DUALISTIC THINKING
Skill Five
GENERATING MENTAL ENERGY
Skill Six
CREATING IN THE MIDDLE OF THINGS
Skill Seven
ACHIEVING A CENTERED PRESENCE