Hi! I'm Lea!
You’re not the only one who has a harsh inner critic. If persistent negative thoughts make it hard to go about your day, I can help. I'm Lea Seigen Shinraku, creative self-compassion teacher, licensed therapist and founder of the Center for Creative Self-Compassion. I lead creative self-compassion groups, workshops and trainings for people who struggle with self-judgment and perfectionism.
I envision a world where people are kinder and more creative with themselves and each other, a world where we all reclaim the power of our imagination, and a world where the inner critic doesn’t block the joy in everyday life.
Why self-compassion and art journaling?
The unique combination of self-compassion and art journaling comes from my 15 years as a therapist and teacher specializing in self-compassion, two decades as a Zen practitioner, and a lifetime making art as an everyday thing. My mom was a public school art teacher, and growing up we had cabinets full of paper, paints, brushes ~ all kinds of stuff. But, for most of my life, making art was private ~ something just for me.
During the pandemic, that changed ~ I shared my artwork online for the first time, and discovered the joy of connecting with others through art journaling.
Months of sharing and an art journaling certification later, I was invited to teach an online class at San Francisco Zen Center. When I saw how excited students were and how effective it was to teach art journaling and creative self-compassion, I wanted to share it more widely.
That’s why I founded the Center for Creative Self-Compassion.
Today, the Center for Creative Self-Compassion provides fun educational experiences, including my signature program Everyday Self-Compassion. The Center is here to help as many people as possible experience more joy while healing the inner critic and infuse self-compassion with creativity (even if they don’t consider themselves artists).
I also offer trainings for professional caregivers who want to embody creative self-compassion and avoid burnout.
Approach
At the Center for Creative Self-Compassion, we do things differently. We’ve transformed the hard work of personal growth into something sweeter and more joyful. Our programs and workshops spring from my 15 years of working as a therapist and group facilitator, my training in science-based self-compassion tools, as well as my lifelong experience as an artist and art teacher’s daughter. They outline the exact steps I use in daily life to practice creative self-compassion ~ the same ones that I have taught to hundreds of clients and students throughout my career. Students often say that creative self-compassion was the missing piece and that when they take our programs and workshops, they experience lasting change. They don’t return to the self-critical place they were in before.
Guiding Principles
1. INTEGRAL APPROACH
We facilitate the integration of body, mind and spirit in students. We value their emotional, spiritual, intellectual, creative, somatic, and social dimensions.
2. AFFIRMATION OF SPIRITUALITY
We honor multiple spiritual traditions and their free expression and embodiment in students.
3. COMMITMENT TO CULTURAL DIVERSITY
We work cross-culturally with humility and respect, and our work reflects a commitment to the diversity of the world's cultures and spiritual traditions.
4. FOSTER MULTIPLE WAYS OF LEARNING AND TEACHING
We honor many learning modalities and ways of knowing in students ~ intuition, body-knowledge, creative expression, intellect, and spiritual insight.
5. ADVOCATE JUSTICE AND SUSTAINABILITY
We embrace intellectual, cultural, and spiritual traditions that further the effectiveness of emancipatory movements such as feminism, social and political liberation, cultural self-expression, and ecological activism.
6. SUPPORT COMMUNITY
We believe that a community thrives based on core values that affirm shared understandings, differences, and humane concerns.
