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Sustaining Creativity Podcast
with Mari Reisberg
Introduce yourself.
I'm Mari Reisberg, Dance/Movement Therapist, Creativity Coach, Podcast Host and Performer. Creativity is my life. I have degrees in acting and somatic psychology and several years ago I decided to put them together to develop a program for performers called, you guessed it, Sustaining Creativity. I love talking with people, listening to their stories, learning about their lives and creative experiences. I could talk about creativity all day every day. I had a unique upbringing in Portland Oregon. I was a rowdy three year old, so my parents decided to enroll me in trapeze school. I was a trapeze artist for 17 years. I did my first professional performance at three and I was hooked! Performing has always been a huge part of my life.
Sustaining Creativity Podcast
As I've gotten older I've come to realize just how helpful it has been to have all the therapeutic skills I have when performing. By combining the acting and psychology skills I get to support performers to navigate their own performing experience more effectively and without additional trauma experiences. I love supporting others, performers and non performers to bring creativity into their everyday lives. I believe we are all creative whether we realize it or not. Creativity is a skill and it can change your life, if you're willing to let it.

"Creativity can transform your life, if you let it."

- Mari Reisberg

Share an experience that has shaped who you are today.
Performing was my entire life for such a long time when I made the transition to being a therapist I experienced a bit of an identity crisis. I wasn't performing in the same capacity I had been and I didn't quite know who I was anymore. I have always been someone who has endless curiosity and loves learning so I made discovering what this new identity was a creative project. Up until this point I looked at creativity as the Performing Arts, anything outside of performing arts wasn't associated with creativity for me. As I began exploring my new identity as a therapist I started to realize how much creativity was showing up in my life. I was facilitating a Dialectical Behavioral Therapy group at a hospital three days a week and teaching the same curriculum on a 12 week rotation. As the weeks went on I started bringing in more of my creative ideas. Using nature, role playing, drawing and movement to teach these skills. Not only was I making the material more fun for me to teach, but the group participants started participating differently. They started asking more questions, they also made fun of me for some of the zany ideas I brought in, and they seemed to have more fun with the material. It was in these moments that I started to see how I could bring my creativity into being a therapist. I also started to shift my understanding of what creativity was and how creativity can show up in a million different ways. By bringing my two identities together I was creating a new experience of creativity for myself, and I loved it even more! The limited or narrow view I had of creativity no longer served me and by expanding it and allowing my view to change I am now able to find creativity in literally everything I do. This may sound like I'm all sunshine and ponies, and while I am a very positive and resilient person I'm human and have bad days and non creative days, and I'm okay with that because I know how to come back to my creativity, how to fill my creative cup so I can continue to share my unique blend of creativity with the world. Creativity will always be a part of my life. It may look different today than it did 5, 10 or 15 years ago, and that's normal because I'm not the same person I was 5, 10 or 15 years ago. As I grow and change so does my creativity.
Tell us about your podcast audience.
Creativity is a universal language that attracts so many different people. My listeners can be found on 5 continents, and 67 countries/territories. They are individuals who are interested in hearing everyday people's stories and experiences of creativity. They are looking to be inspired, and to learn something. They expect to hear about life experiences and how lives are impacted by creativity. They keep coming back because each new guest has a new story to share that is unique to them, new insights to offer, new tips and tools to give and their own individual blend of creativity and life.
What makes your podcast unique?
I started Sustaining Creativity Podcast in May 2020. I'd been sharing my sustaining creativity program with performers at universities around the country and when the pandemic hit that all went away. I decided I wanted to continue the creativity conversations and because I loved listening to podcasts I thought it might be fun to start one of my own. My podcast is an interview podcast where I talk with people from around the world about their experiences of creativity. What it means to be creative, how they face creative challenges and what their earliest memory of being creative is. The foundation of the podcast is creativity and then each guest shares their unique blend of creativity and passions with our listeners. I talk with people of all ages, backgrounds and creativity experiences. I'm getting to share the unique stories of each guest. I love talking with people and sharing creativity with them. Sometimes my guests don't think they are creative and then by the end of our conversation they have done a complete 180 and see how much creativity they use or how creative they truly are. I've talked about creativity and accounting, creativity and environmentalism, creativity and the law, creativity and public speaking, creativity and parenting, creativity and dating, and so many other topics. Each guest brings their life experience and creativity to our conversations and it makes for a truly wonderful adventure. This year I also added a solo episode every so often where I combine creativity with a topic I find interesting to share just how much creativity permeates our everyday lives.

Vinnie Potestivo, Editor-in-Chief of
I Have A Podcast®

Vinnie Potestivo,
Editor-in-Chief of I Have A Podcast®

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