Meet Mari Reisberg | LPC (licensed professional counselor), Creativity Coach, Podcast Host, and Performer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mari Reisberg and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mari, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I grew up in the pacific northwest in a very unconventional family and had lots of support to be as creative as possible. I was a very active three year old and my parents enrolled me in trapeze school and I never looked back. I did my first professional show when I was three and I was forever changed. I don’t know that I ever thought of myself as an entrepreneur but now as I look back I’ve been one my entire life! I’ve always done a million different things from being a performer, to having an organization business in NYC, to being a nanny, to teaching theater, to hosting a podcast to being a therapist. Each and every career, or job I’ve had my parents have supported me to felx my creativity and stay curious about what makes a full life. Coming from an unconventional family wasn’t always easy, there were times in childhood where I wanted everything to be “normal” but that just wasn’t my reality. I grew up with a 30 foot labyrinth (a sacred geometric walking path) in my front yard, did crossing over cerimonies at the age of 9, went to a Waldorf school where I learned to knit, all my lessons were taught through stories, and celebrated every single holiday you can imagine. Another unconventional experience was following my parents divorce. They stayed really good friends and while we didn’t all live under the same roof we all had dinner together every night, Mom, Dad, Step-dad and brother. It was a unique and creative family experience. I learned so much about family and how there is no one way to be a family. The creativity I saw my parents use in raising me and my brother is absolutely something I bring with me into my life today. I truly believe creativity helps us navigate all areas of our life and seeing my parents get creative in raising a family, I wouldn’t change any of it. My parents normalized unconventonality and that is was ok to do things differently. They both changed careers several times throguhout my life and were always there to talk me through my own career changes. Wearing many hats was super normal in my family and continues to be true today. The support and permission to try new things and take time to figure out what I want to do or what brings me joy is something I deeply value and practice in my life. The adults in my life, not just my parents showd me that you can dream big, ask for help, fall down, try again, love what you do, change what you love, stretch yourself, trust yourself, believe in yourself and love yourself. I also learned that creativity is the best friend anyone can have when it comes to finding a life that truly makes your heart and soul shine.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
As someone who comes from a creative performer background and someone who is also a therapist I have combined these two areas of my life to create my sustaining creativity business. I have a degree in acting and a degree in psychology and several years ago I started combining them to initially support performers, but then expanded to support non-performers, to find a foundation of safety and trust within themselves to take creative risk from and have a foundation to return to once the risk was complete.

Prior to the pandemic I had the opportunity to guest artist at universities around the country in the theater and dance departments to share my sustaining creativity program. Performing arts schools teach students a craft, however they are not teaching their students about creativity or how to sustain creativity in a creative professional career. Similarly, performing arts departments are not giving their students the tools for emotional or creative resiliance. These skills and tools are imparative to sustaining creativity not only in the performing arts but in life.

During the past few years when traveling and inperson workshops ceased I decided I wanted to continue the creativity conversations with a bigger audience. That is where the Sustaining Creativity Podcast came about. I interview people from around the world about their experience of creativity. I have learned so much about creativity and why it’s important through these conversations. Being able to continue to have creativity conversation with non performers as well as performers brings me so much joy.

I also had the opportunity to start my own creativity coaching business where I work with performers and non performers to awaken and reclaim their creativity.

I’d love to say it’s easy to get people to see the importance of creativity in everyday life. However, it is perhaps one of the hardest things to do. Creativity is not valued in Western culture outside of entertainment and yet coorporations want employees to be creative and innovative without providing them tools to do so. Creativity is like a muscle you have to engage it to grow it. You have to use creativity, flex creativity everyday to have more of it in your life.

Creativity touches every aspect of our lives. How we get dressed, how we cook, how we clean, how we parent, how we date, how we learn, how we grow. When we as a society change how we look at creativity that’s when magic happens. Creativity comes alive at the edge of our comfort zone. I’ve learned that to sustain creativity I have to stay curious about everything, I have to rest and reset, I have to know who I am, what my identity is and how I want to share my creativity with the world. When you live a life filled with creativity you have more fun, more confidence, more joy, and more opportunties to be yourself.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Living outside of Denver CO there are so many amazing places to see. If someone had a week here in Colorado I would create an itinerary that had indoor and outdoor experiences. I love the outdoors and feel more creative when I get out in nature so I’d take them on my favorite hike at chautauqua park in Boulder, CO, followed by brunch at the Chautauqua dinning hall. They have an amazing outdoor porch overlooking the park which is a great place to soak up the Colorado mountain air. We recently got a permanent Meow Wolf instalation which is an interactive art experience, that would certainly be on the list. The Highlands in Denver is a great place for dinner and drinks so we’d for sure spend a few evenings there exploring the restaurants. If you’re into sports catching a Rockies baseball game is a must. The stadium is a great people watching experience and you’ll see the 5280 (mile high) line on the upper stadium seats. You can’t come to Colorado without going up to the mountains. Taking a drive through Rocky Mountain National Park, or stopping for lunch in one of the mountain towns is a must. I love Leadville CO, it’s an old mining town with amazing history and fun shops to walk around. If you’re around in the winter months you can also watch the ski joring compititions on main street. A person on skis is pulled by a horse, a dog or a motor vehicle. It is derived from the Norwegian word skikjøring, meaning “ski driving”. Although skijoring is said to have originated as a mode of winter travel, it is currently primarily a competitive sport. If the mountains aren’t your thing that’s fine, I’d take you to a concert at Red Rocks or the Denver Botanic Gardens. There is a vibrant theater scene in Denver so if you wanted to see a show you can do that too! All in all there are more things to do than you could possibly fit into one week, which means you’ll just have to come back.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are so many people who have supported me to name them all would take all day! I am deeply influenced by the teachers I’ve had throughout my life but the one that stands out the most in this moment is my high school drama teacher Trisha Todd. I was a senior when she started teaching so I only had her for one year but all of the things she taught me have stuck with me these past 25 years. She and I still keep in touch today and I recently had the privledge of interviewing her for my podcast where we got to dig deep into creativity and I was reminded again why her wisdom, support and celebration of her students is so special.

Website: https://sustainingcreativity.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sustainingcreativity/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mari-reisberg-b1320151/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sustainingcreativity

Image Credits
@insearchofsolidground