The Creative Collective Podcast is an inviting space where we explore how creativity can weave its way into everyday life and help us feel more connected to ourselves and others. Hosted by licensed art therapists Allie Joy and Emily Sharp, it’s rooted in one simple belief: you don’t have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You just need a little curiosity and a willingness to begin. Each week, we share honest conversations and practical tools to support a creative life that feels sustainable, accessible, and truly yours. Welcome to your creative community.
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What I Wish I'd Known When I Stopped Making Art with Jennifer Chiles
Episode 22
Monday, October 12, 2026 • Duration 34:41
For about ten years, Jen barely made art. She was training to become a PA, starting a career in pediatric cardiac surgery, and raising small kids, and in her head, making art meant a big acrylic painting and enough time to finish it. Looking back, she wishes someone had told her she could just carry a little watercolor sketchbook around in her tote bag.
Jennifer Chiles is a painter, ceramicist, and art educator who has taught kids and adults for years, and she co-founded Creative Club Retreats with Emily. She talks about how her art came back when she took a break from medicine and moved to Denmark, how she lost the playfulness somewhere between art school grades and commission work, and what it looks like now to keep both careers going at once.
In this episode, they discuss:
Why Jen is the person at work who gets asked to draw the medical diagram for a family
How art school grades and commission work made her a perfectionist, and how a much more casual sketchbook habit changed that
Painting flowers with her dad as a kid, and how he kept nudging her to make things
What her creative week looks like now, from sketching with her son at the bagel place to sketchbooks that never quite make it onto the walls
Why adults come to an art table with more hesitation than kids, and why people talk more easily when they're making something side by side
And the sketchbook argument continues: first page, or wherever it opens
Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on Instagram or visit our website to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply here.
You can find Austin on Instagram for all of your podcasting and musical needs
If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life.
And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.
Creative Nostalgia - Shrinky Dinks, Gak, and the Art Briefcase Where Nothing Worked
Episode 21
Monday, October 5, 2026 • Duration 45:03
In this episode we chat about creative nostalgia - the craft supplies we wish we still had, the ones we still use, and those that can stay in the past. We go back to what we made as kids: giant poster-board birthday cards, clothes for American Girl dolls, slip-cast ceramic swans, and a whole bedroom wall of magazine collage.
Beyond the fun creative supplies, we talk about why time felt so different back then, and how to pick a thread back up now without recreating your entire 1998 bedroom. Join us for a trip down memory lane.
In this episode, they discuss:
The giant homemade cards and that specific crayon smell
Allie's grandmother's friends, who never once said "we can't make that"
Which American Girl dolls we had
Crayon bins, Play-Doh, scented markers, and Lisa Frank
Brooklyn Public Library's new Craft Supply Library
Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on Instagram or visit our to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply
What If Creativity Looked Like a Garden? with Dominique Begnaud
Episode 20
Monday, September 28, 2026 • Duration 42:39
What if the most creative thing you did this year was grow something?
Dominique Begnaud is an art therapist in St. Louis who works with art, play, and gardening — and it's the gardening that we couldn't stop thinking about. She runs art and garden groups in community nonprofits and schools, and her practice is built on a simple idea: that tending something is a creative act.
In this conversation she gets specific about what making art with plants actually looks like and how this changes with the seasons. She talks about what happens when a client who struggles to stay present tries hammering flowers. And she tells us about building gardens where ever she can find space and how this changes therapy spaces and communities.
This is an art therapy podcast built around creative community, and Dominique's work is a reminder that community doesn't require a beautiful space. Sometimes it just requires a pot, a few seeds, and the patience to wait six weeks for something to happen.
In this episode, they discuss:
How flower pounding actually works, and what a hammer does for someone who has trouble staying in the present
The difference between saying gardening is your therapy and practicing gardening therapy, and why Dominique is careful about that line
The surprising places gardens can grow
Why she tells clients they can just try something once, with no commitment to ever doing it again
The one plant she thinks everyone should try growing, which is beautiful, edible, and works for both pressing and pounding
Everything You’ve Always Wanted to Ask an Art Therapist
Episode 19
Monday, September 21, 2026 • Duration 32:51
Here's the listener requested episode where we chat about all your Art Therapy FAQs!
Emily and Allie answer the questions they get asked at parties, on airplanes, in comment sections, and occasionally by other mental health professionals who should probably know better. They cover what art therapy actually is, what it takes to become an art therapist in the US, and what those two letters after our names really mean.
We cover some funny stories and the times we recommend lying about your job, as well as the times when you should shout it proudly. We laugh about the art therapy myths circulating online right now and what might have a bit of truth to it.
Whether you're considering the field, already in it, or just curious what happens in that room - this art therapy podcast is for you.
In this episode, they discuss:
Why Allie stopped ignoring one particular comment section, and what it says about how misunderstood this profession still is inside the mental health field
The actual path to becoming an art therapist in the US — the master's degree, the supervised hours, the board exam in a real testing center, and the difference between ATR and ATR-BC
Whether you need to be good at art to become an art therapist, and why a trained painter sometimes has the hardest time in an art therapy session
The enormous range of places this work happens
Why both of them have considered lying about their jobs to strangers, and what changed their minds
Did Adulthood Make Us Less Creative? with Rukmini Poddar
Episode 18
Monday, September 14, 2026 • Duration 39:39
Rukmini Poddar didn't initially set out to teach anyone about drawing their emotions. In 2015, burnt out at the end of a graphic design degree and convinced she was the least consistent person alive, she started The 100 Day Project with no plan beyond touching the page every day. Ten years later she's the author of Draw Your Feelings, she leads workshops for individuals, schools, retreats and corporate teams, and she's built a global creative community out of people who mostly don't call themselves artists.
In this episode, Rukmini takes us back to the twenty-three-year-old who had nothing to lose and posted her drawings to a few hundred followers, which later turned into a really inspiring creative community. She also walks us through what she actually teaches: how to get acquainted with the texture of a feeling before you try to draw it, why abstract beats representational every time, and why she thinks the art you make alone is only half of the work. This conversation was a perfect fit for this creativity podcast.
In this episode, they discuss:
The 100 Day Project that changed the direction of her life — and why she credits it for who it proved she could be, not for anything she actually made
Obscure Emotions, the 2016 series of small pink figures that gave her language for feelings she couldn't name, and the comments from strangers that turned a private habit into something bigger
Her ten-second timeline exercise and what people end up telling a total stranger afterward
What she says to the person who tells her "I can't draw," plus her case that honest art matters more than beautiful art
Life-size self-portraits, a redwood forest, and the first retreat she ran before she felt anywhere near ready
You bake the cake, finish the sweater, frame the painting — and someone asks when you're going to start selling it.
They mean it as a compliment, and it usually is one. But when did, "someone would pay for that" become the main way we tell people their creativity has value? On this art therapy podcast, Emily and Allie get into what that does to the making itself, and why the pressure shows up fastest on the things we love most.
Allie explains why she has never sold a single piece of the jewelry she taught herself to solder, and what she says when people are taken aback by that. Emily tells a story about being asked to illustrate a children's book, and hearing herself say something about her own art she has genuinely never said before — the second money entered the conversation. They talk about how to tell the difference between wanting to build something and feeling like you should, why touring musicians are the right test case, and what it might mean that in Denmark the community center art classes sell out every week with no one expecting to get good.
This is an art therapy and creativity podcast, and this episode is a reminder to our creative community that not everything you make has to become something.
In this episode, they discuss:
Why "you should sell that" lands as pressure even when it's meant as praise — and what to say instead
The creative practice Allie protects by never selling it, and how she responds when people push
What Emily heard herself say about her own artwork the moment a paid project was on the table
How to tell whether you actually want to monetize something, using the touring musician test
Whether the pressure to make hobbies productive is a US-specific problem — and what a culture of hobbies looks like instead
A yes/no/maybe experiment on selling, resting, and keeping one practice completely private
Is Doing Nothing the Secret to Being More Creative? with Melissa Grisi
Episode 16
Monday, August 31, 2026 • Duration 44:15
What happens when you stop trying so hard to be creative?
This week, we’re joined by therapist and ceramic artist Melissa Grisi to talk about creativity, clay, imposter syndrome, and what it actually looks like to find your way back to making when you feel stuck.
Melissa shares how clay has followed her through different chapters of her life, why it took her years to fully claim the word “artist,” and how slowing down has completely changed her relationship with creativity.
We also get into creative blocks, the pressure to constantly produce, why sitting in your creative space without making anything still counts, and the surprisingly tiny steps that can help you reconnect when creativity feels far away.
Plus, we talk about redefining what it means to be creative, finding inspiration in your environment, building a “menu” of things that support you, and why sometimes the first step back into creativity is simply getting the pencils out.
In this episode:
• finding your way back to creativity after a long break
• creative blocks and making the first step much smaller
• imposter syndrome as an artist and therapist
• why slowing down and doing less can make space for ideas
• letting go of the pressure to perform or post your creativity
• how our environments influence what we make
• expanding our definition of what “counts” as creativity
• the art and craft of therapy
• and, of course, a little clay appreciation
Did We Accidentally Ruin Whimsy?
Monday, August 24, 2026 • Duration 30:20
Whimsy is having a moment.
Searches are up, whimsymaxxing is everywhere, brands are bedazzling their products, and what started as people sharing the tiny, weird things they do to make ordinary life more fun has somehow turned into… a shopping list.
So, did we accidentally lose the point?
This week, we’re talking about what whimsy actually means, why we think so many adults are craving more play, color, silliness, nostalgia, and everyday magic right now, and whether something changes when a mindset becomes an aesthetic you can buy.
And because neither of us is about to pretend we don't also love ridiculous little objects that make us happy, we're asking a more complicated question: can buying something be whimsical too?
We get into whimsy as permission to play, making mundane things feel magical, reconnecting with the things you loved as a kid, using creativity to practice play again, and why whimsy might even be a tiny form of rebellion against a culture that wants everything we do to be productive.
Plus: emergency purse sprinkles, googly eyes on household appliances, medieval soundtracks for doing the dishes, the most whimsical fruit, and why you should probably just use the good stickers already.
Because maybe whimsy isn't something you can buy, maybe it's a way of moving through the world.
Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on Instagram or visit our website to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply
Art Is Your Superpower with Leah Guzman
Episode 14
Monday, August 17, 2026 • Duration 36:40
Somewhere along the way, most of us picked up the idea that creativity is something you have to earn — that you need the right studio space, the right technical skills, and a long stretch of free time before you're allowed to make anything. Our conversation today our our creativity podcast takes all of that apart.
Leah Guzman is a board-certified art therapist with twenty years in the field, an artist, and the author of five books on creativity and healing. She's spent twenty-two years working in school systems, and she founded the Creative Soul Society, an online community that meets weekly to make art together — and that turns six the week we recorded.
We love how practical this creativity conversation is. Leah talks about how showing up is the hardest part of any creative practice, and how that's a solvable problem. She talks about the systems that get her there: art journals small enough to travel, creative time written into the calendar like an appointment, a thirty-dollar table that means she can leave a mess out and come back to it. She also talks about what she's learned watching people arrive in her community from every possible starting point, including the ones who show up certain they aren't artists.
If you've been meaning to get back to something, this is a good one to have on while you do.
In this episode:
The six-layer birthday cake art journal Leah built for her community's anniversary, and how to make one for yourself
Why showing up is the hard part, and the systems that get you past it — travel-sized art journals, creative time in the calendar, a mess you're allowed to leave out
Emily on carving linoleum when every part of her brain said there wasn't time
The three questions Leah asks herself every morning, answered with a scribble and a bit of watercolor in about five minutes
Why the people in her community keep coming back, and what she thinks is really happening when creative people gather
Please Let Yourself Be Bad at Something
Episode 13
Monday, August 10, 2026 • Duration 38:24
Being a beginner sounds fun until you are staring at a blank page, comparing yourself to a version of you from ten years ago, or thinking, “I do not have time for this.”
In this episode, Allie and Emily talk about what it really feels like to begin. Sometimes that means trying something completely new, like learning mahjong. Sometimes it means returning to an old creative practice and discovering that it somehow feels familiar and brand new at the same time.
They share their recent experiments with cyanotypes, the joy of learning in community, the projects they find easiest and hardest to start, and the very different ways physical setup and mental pressure can keep us from making anything at all. Emily shares why a portable art bag makes creating easier, while Allie explains why she sometimes removes scissors, brushes, and other tools that invite perfectionism.
They also talk about the connection between perfectionism and procrastination, why five creative minutes still count, and why the imperfect first attempt is not a failure. It is evidence that you showed up.
Also discussed:
Beginner’s mind and the possibilities we lose as we become more experienced
Comparing your current creativity to your past work
Why adults have such a hard time being bad at things
Bedazzled mahjong racks, naturally
The embroidery projects waiting patiently in both of their homes
Why creating privately can help quiet your inner critic
Matching your creative ambition to your actual energy level
Your challenge this week is simple: try one small creative thing you have never done before, or return to something you miss. Let it be imperfect. Let it be small. Let it be a beginning.
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Episode about letting yourself be bad at something
Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on Instagram or visit our website to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply here.
Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on Instagram or visit our website to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply here.
Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on Instagram or visit our website to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply here.
You can find Austin on Instagram for all of your podcasting and musical needs
If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life.
And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.
If you’ve been feeling creatively stuck, disconnected, uninspired, or like you need to make something “good” before you even begin, this one’s for you.
Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on Instagram or visit our website to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply here.
You can find Austin on Instagram for all of your podcasting and musical needs
If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life.
And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.
Allie on the reframe that gets used most: who said anything about painting?
The member who spent years refusing to call herself an artist — and the day she stopped
What Leah says, without hedging, to anyone who has decided they aren't creative
The stretch of Leah's life when she was giving creativity away all day and keeping none of it, and how she found her way back
What happens when the person teaching everyone else to make art stops making it for herself?
Leah Guzman has been a board-certified art therapist for twenty year and has written five books on creativity and healing, while working in school systems. She has also had a stretch of her life where everything looked good on paper and nothing felt good underneath it — a period she describes as her dark night of the soul, when she was giving creativity away all day and making none of it for herself.
Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on Instagram or visit our website to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply here.
You can find Austin on Instagram for all of your podcasting and musical needs
If you enjoyed this episode, follow along and share it with someone who could use a little more creativity in their life.
And this is your reminder that you don't have to be an artist to benefit from creativity. You're welcome, as you are, in this creative community.
Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on Instagram or visit our website to learn more. If you'd like to be a guest on the show, you can apply here.
