Clarify what you want and how to move towards it through compassionate guidance grounded in creativity and the body.
Life can look functional on the outside while something inside feels exhausted, disconnected, resentful or unsure. Many people I work with have learned to push past their limits, doubt what they want, or believe that their dreams, passions and desires are for "someday" - not realistic or truly available to them.
Through embodied creative practice, I help clients reconnect with internal signals-body , intuition and creative energy so self trust returns, choices feel available and clearer, and life aligns with the gifts they have inside of them. So life starts to feel alive and genuinely their own again.
Unlike traditional coaching solutions that focus solely on goal-setting, I offer a holistic approach that blends guided writing, somatic healing techniques, and community support, while also providing gentle guidance for defining intentions and accountability, creating a nurturing space for creative awakening and opening.
"My work with Kelly Jo has gifted me with a gateway back to my
rewilded self. Opened up in me a well where I can now source my own love, my own care and better serve my highest self." -
Tina C , Coaching Client
When we stop trusting ourselves, life begins to feel constricted. We stay in situations our nervous systems can no longer tolerate. We live by what feels safest or most approved. Over time, it can feel like access to choice is lost. Not because it isn't there, but because we've learned not to listen. To keep doing. More. More.
Creativity is not what I offer because it is not something you can lose. It is always there and it is your doorway to your gifts and to your self trust.
Embodied creative practice brings our intuition back online and restores a deep relationship with inner knowing. In this work creativity help interrupt self abandonment, rebuild self trust, self love, and support people making aligned choices from within.
In both 1:1 and group spaces this looks like slowing down, listening to the body, allowing truth to surface. Through support and witnessing creativity begins to move again not as performance but as clarity, courage, expression and lived change. This work is about restoring internal authority and remembering that we don't step into ourselves alone.
"Our Creative Dreams and Longings Come From A Divine Source, as we move towards our dreams we move towards our divinity."
-Julia Cameron
Let’s get to know one another…
I am a body centered creative guide and coach, poet , performer and trauma-informed educator with over a decade of experience helping people reconnect with their voice, creativity, and sense of aliveness.
For eleven years, I taught special education in the South Bronx after abandoning a twelve year career in acting and directing theater. By year nine as a teacher, my body knew I couldn't stay-but I had no idea what else was possible. I had an hour and half commute each way, was a new parent, and while I was deeply grateful for my job, my nervous system was beyond capacity. Leaving felt impossible like wanting something different was irresponsible or selfish.
At home, the strain was showing. I was exhausted, resentful, getting sick often, increasingly disconnected especially from my husband. I envied people who seemed to have more choice in their lives, who were doing work they loved, but I didn't include myself in that category. That kind of life felt like it was for other people. Not me.
One night, during a near fight, my husband suggested I try The Artists Way. I snapped back, " I don't have time for that"
He replied gently, "Maybe that's exactly why you should"
This moment saved my life.
Opening that book and reconnecting to my creative energy cracked something open. It led me into therapy, writing circles, performance art, and embodiment communities like Body Temple Dance- spaces where I was witnessed, supported and allowed to listen to myself again. Through that support my inner knowing and sense of worth slowly came back online. I began to trust my body, reconnect with creativity as a source of truth, and believe that I actually had choice.
The path wasn't liner and still isn't but it taught me something essential: I wasn't broken, and I wasn't meant to do this alone. That lived experience is what shaped the way I work today.
My approach is shaped by over a decade in theater and storytelling, eleven years of teaching special education in the South Bronx and extensive training in trauma informed care. I weave body -based and creative practices including Authentic Movement, Body Temple Dance( where I am currently in Teacher Training) and creative frameworks inspired by The Artists Way,
I believe creativity does not thrive in shame or isolation/ it needs relationship and witnessing. And when it is honored, it has the power to return us to lives that feel alive, aligned and our own.
Work with me
Here’s How I Can Help
Private Coaching
My approach is rooted in embodied creative practice, relational presence and spiritual inquiry and is especially supportive for those navigating transitions, creative blocks, shame or long standing patterns of self abandonment brought on by societal and family history and culture. For those ready to reconnect with their authentic selves and explore the depths of their creativity, my 1:1 coaching is designed to support your journey. Together, we’ll navigate the complexities of your personal story, helping you heal your relationship with purpose, artistic expression, and self-worth.
This work is not about talking about change, it's about practicing and embodying it. In 1:1 sessions we work experientially to rocket you with your creative energy, body wisdom and capacity to choose yourself and to cultivate choice. Sessions are available in person within the Rockland County and Westchester Areas of NY as well as virtually via Zoom in every area.
Whole Group Gatherings and Courses
I offer quarterly gatherings as well as courses where creativity becomes a doorway into sovereignty, truth telling and lived change. When people are witnessed in community there is expansion, loosening, blocks alchemize because they are seen, clarity emerges and creative expression begins to move again-often in surprising and deeply healing ways. Healing not just for the individual but for the collective.
Participants have returned to writing after years of silence, established sustanable creative rhythms, reclaimed music and performance, spoken up in relationships and workplaces and taken concretes steps toward sharing their gifts in the world. This isn't about forcing output- it's about creating the conditions where expression naturally reawakens because it is no longer alone.
Client Testimonials
Here's What My Clients Are Saying
Tina C.
Novelist / Writer
Kristina H.
Writer / Educator
Kendra V.
Curriculum Designer
Kelly Jo is a gifted creative coach. By holding a safe space for creative exploration, she helped me to identify creative blocks that were keeping me from showing up to my novel. She used innovative exercises to help me to integrate “play” back into my life and my creative pursuits, opening new pathways for reflection and creative progress. In short, Kelly Jo helped me to rediscover the joy in my writing practice. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to have worked with her.
Frederic
Novelist / Writer
Kelly Jo is an empathetic, warm, and smart creative coach. She was able to help me identify the blocks that were holding me back as a creative writer, offering concrete – even fun – ideas for moving forward. I’m now on a regular writing schedule that works for me, and also carve out time every day for inspiration. As a result of working with Kelly Jo, I’ve developed a new structure for my memoir, have rediscovered by comedy-writing voice, and sold my first funny piece to a publication.
Ellyn H.
Writer
Interested in reclaiming your inner authority?
We all benefit from outside assistance when facing down years of patterns that aren't serving us. I encourage you to schedule a free consult call to discuss your current challenges and see if I could be a good fit to help you gain clarity, direction and momentum towards the your true gifts that serve the world. .