Kirsten's Bio

Hello. My name is Kirsten Olson. I am a Creativity Coach, a Mom, a Writer, a Theatre Director, and a Former Actress (who can still be coaxed onto the stage occasionally). I have a BFA and an MFA in Theatre Arts and Acting from Stephens College and Pennsylvania State University respectively. I am studying Life Coaching at CoachU. I am also a member of the Creativity Coaches Association working towards certification as a Creativity Coach.

After working professionally in the theatre for several years, I went on a quest in order to discover a way to use my acting skills and theatre knowledge to help people live good, fulfilling, and happy lives. I discovered Psychodrama and the Psychodrama Training Institute in New York City where I trained for eight years and interned for three. I facilitate ongoing Creativity in Action groups focusing on creative and personal development in Columbia, MO.

I write fiction, non-fiction, plays and poetry. I have a novel in progress entitled Earth Scorcher. And you can read some of my poems on my poetry blog. I never go a day without writing. I can’t. It’s physically impossible for me to go 24 hours without a pen in my hand and a notebook in my lap.

I am a single mom. My daughters name is Emma. She is beautiful, precocious, stubborn, talented, loveable, smart-as-a-whip and six years old going on seventeen. We also take care of two mice named Fuzzy and Fuzzy. (We gave them the same name because we can’t tell them apart). We co-habitate with two cats named Desi and Phoebe. They let us sleep in the house. And we are also the proud parents of three goldfish – Goldie (as in Hawn), Zorro, and Pearl. My house is a zoo.

What does all this mean? It means I walk the talk. I’m living the life of an artist while being a mom. My passion is to help other artist moms get their creativity out there, experience artistic fulfillment, and live the fun, beautiful lives they are meant to be living.

About You

You know being creative is part of who you are, but you find yourself continually putting off creative work because other “responsibilities” are managing your life.

Does it feel like you are holding your breath?

You have unfinished creative work that you have been putting off until the kids are grown, the mortgage is paid, or … (insert pending milestone here).

Are you waiting to live?

You keep meaning to pull that work-in-progress out of the drawer/basement and dust it off, but each time you do, something else comes along to steal your focus. Before you know it another year has passed.

Do you feel like a puppet?

Do you feel you have to choose between either being a mom or being an artist?

Are you trapped in either/or thinking?

All of the above have been true for me many times during my life. I am an artist. And I am a mother with all of the responsibilities being a mom entails. I am also a creativity coach and it is through coaching that I have learned to also be responsible to my creative self. You can too. You can be both/and. Both an artist and a mom.

Personal Note: This sounds rather heavy and heady. Honoring the creative self is serious stuff, but it doesn’t always have to be so heavy. See my article The Light Touch or How is a Coach like a Moving Truck.