Susie Stonefield first became interested in grief when she was experiencing it firsthand.
One of her children had undergone serious health issues. She began experiencing intense grief for who her child had been before as well as anxiety and worry about the future.
However, she needed another outlet outside of talk therapy. And as a lifelong artist, she knew she had to get creative.
“I went to my art supplies, opened up a sketchbook and started just pouring out my heart onto the page, without it being about making a piece of art, but just about using the art supplies, and it immediately was so incredibly powerful,” Stonefield said. “I became absolutely obsessed with it.”
Today, Stonefield works as a grief and creativity coach with Unfold Art Chico.
She calls herself “the midwife to your creative spirit.”
“I love to empower people to honor their creativity, to trust themselves and to let go of the limiting narratives that they have about themselves as a creative person,” she said.
Recently, she opened up a studio in town called “The Haven.” The small studio holds art supplies and collections of art journals, Stonefield’s specialty.
The art journals are mixed media journals. In Stonefield’s classes, they help explore whatever the person is grieving over.
“I love to empower people to honor their creativity, to trust themselves and to let go of the limiting narratives that they have about themselves as a creative person.”Susie Stonefield, transformational grief and creativity coach
She said that each page tends to focus on one little part, or “story”, within the person’s journey with grief. Though it won’t get rid of the feeling of grief, the journals can help the person come to terms with it and process it.
“When you give it some time and some attention, in the end, you actually can sort of let it go like a bird,” Stonefield said. “You can sort of imagine holding that little story in your hand and then opening it up, and it flies off because you're done, you took care of it.”
She said it also helps create a “ritual,” or a process to honor a person, event, memory or anniversary that can be related to what is being grieved.
“I lead people through sort of a guided experience of how to gather materials, how to choose a time, a place, who you want to do that with, and then construct for themselves a ritual that they can then mark with also some art making,” she said.
Stonefield works in small groups, one-on-one sessions, virtual sessions, workshops and retreats.
A typical class starts with a grounding meditation. Stonefield says it helps people leave behind what they were thinking about before stepping into the studio.
Then, she’ll do a lecture on what she calls a “creativity mantra” that inspires people to think more about their deeper, personal connection to the art journal they are looking to make. After that, participants will work for about an hour.
“Then at the end, we'd all gather and share our work and what I call witness each other, so really, just listening and hearing and holding space for each person's experience and story,” Stonefield said.
Teaching people art skills is not the goal of the classes. Rather, Stonefield focuses on the process and getting people attuned to how they are feeling.
“I want you to be present in that moment with your heart, not in your mind, creating something that looks right or is a narrative, but just in that moment, feeling your feelings and translating that through art supplies onto the page,” she said.
It’s not just death
According to Stonefield, grief is a universal part of the human experience. It’s something that people experience as early as childhood.
“It's part of everything we do, because it's just the other side of loving and being attached to something,” she said.
Oftentimes, people associate grief with the death of a loved one, but in reality it’s much more broad. Stonefield said it can be anything from moving to retiring to experiencing changes in health.
“All of those things really call in the deconstruction of one identity and the construction of a new one, and it's hard,” she said.
“It's ongoing. It doesn't go away. It may lessen its presence in your consciousness and your experience, but it's going to be there and it'll rise up and sort of surprise you when you get a memory or hear a song or a smell or something like that.”Susie Stonefield, transformational grief and creativity coach
Stonefield said that culturally, people tend to not want to talk about grief. They also typically expected to finish grieving within a short timespan. She works to teach people in her classes that it is OK to be grieving on their own timeline.
“It's ongoing. It doesn't go away. It may lessen its presence in your consciousness and your experience, but it's going to be there and it'll rise up and sort of surprise you when you get a memory or hear a song or a smell or something like that,” she said.
If ignored, Stonefield said that grief can morph into anger, regret or an underlying sadness. But, if more people embraced their grief through methods like art journaling, they can move forward and feel joy within the new version of themselves.
“If you can learn how to manage it through creative process, or through the creative process, just become very comfortable with the feeling of it, then you get to carry it with you and it doesn't take over your life anymore,” she said. “And that is about thriving and resiliency.”
