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ABOUT ME

I am a San Francisco-based creativity coach and trainer of creativity coaches. I am also a California licensed marriage and family therapist and a national certified counselor, but these days I only do creativity coaching and not any therapy or counseling. I have been working with creative and performing artists for more than twenty years and have been writing for thirty-five years. My more than thirty books include Coaching the Artist Within, Fearless Creating, A Writer's Paris, The Van Gogh Blues, The Creativity Book, Performance Anxiety, Ten Zen Seconds, and many others.

I hold undergraduate degrees in philosophy and psychology, Master's degrees in counseling and creative writing, and a doctorate in counseling psychology. For a decade I taught personal and professional development classes at St. Mary's College, Moraga, California. I founded and wrote Callboard Magazine's Staying Sane in the Theater column and currently write for Art Calendar Magazine. I also write periodically for Writer's Digest Magazine, The Writer, and other publications, among them Dramatics Magazine, Intuition Magazine, and The California Therapist.

I've presented on creativity issues and creativity coaching at venues like the American Psychological Association annual conference, the Romance Writers of America annual conference, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the American Conservatory Theater, the Writer's Digest Writers Conference, the North Carolina School of the Arts, the Savannah College of Arts and Crafts, the Paris Writers Workshop, and more. As a keynote speaker, I've presented the keynote address at the first-ever Arizona State University Arts & Letters Faculty Convocation, the Oklahoma Writers Federation Annual Conference, the Win-Win Writers Conference, the 25th Annual International Lettering Arts Conference, the Jack London Writers Conference, the 2005 Indiana Community Arts Conference, and more.

“Maisel's inspiring keynote speech set the tone for the conference and both of his workshops were full and received rave reviews in our evaluations. I'm so pleased I took a chance and did something different this year. I've received emails already from people who are putting his invaluable tips into practice.”

Cathe Olson, Conference Director
Central Coast Writer’s Conference

WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT ME

"Eric Maisel has made a career out of helping artists, musicians, dancers and writers cope with the traumas and troubles that are the price of admission to a creative life."
— Intuition Magazine

"Eric Maisel's psychological approach sets his work apart from the many inspirational and how-to writers on the market today."
— Library Journal

"Eric Maisel has fused his empirical knowledge of the artistic life with true empathy and support for artists in each of the disciplines."
— New Age Journal

"Eric Maisel's books should be required reading for anyone involved in the arts, especially students and their teachers. Maisel demystifies the process of creating art."
— Theatre Design and Technology Journal

"Eric Maisel is a meticulous guide who knows the psychological landscape that artists inhabit."
— The Writer Magazine

More About Me

I was born in the Bronx on January 14,1947, lived on Kelly Street until I was five, and then moved to Brooklyn. This is me in the Bronx.

This is my mom, who turned 98 in 2007.

In Brooklyn, my mom and I moved from place to place. We lived in East New York, then Brooklyn Heights, then Kensington. This is me in Brooklyn.

After graduating from Stuyvesant High School, attending Brooklyn College for a year-and-a-half, and flunking out, I enlisted in the Army in 1965. This is me in the Army.

After being discharged, I went first to Oregon State and then to the University of Oregon, where I got a degree in philosophy. There I met my first wife, Leanne, and we had a baby, David. This is me in Oregon and the family.

Then we divorced. I traveled in Europe, did ghostwriting, and ended up in San Francisco, where I got a master's in creative writing from San Francisco University. Then I married my present wife, Ann, and we had two girls, Natalya and Kira.

Kira, Ann and Natalya

David grew up, got his private pilot's license, flew in real space, and worked in cyberspace. I got some additional degrees — a second bachelor's in psychology, a second master's in counseling, and a doctorate in counseling psychology. I had some novels published. I started working with creative and performing artists as a therapist, began teaching at St. Mary's College, in Moraga, California, and embarked on a nonfiction career.

Eric and Ann

Ann, Kira, and me. Kira's graduation from U. C. Berkeley, where she graduated with a degree in English (creative writing concentration), December, 2005

Natalya and Kira, December 2005. Natalya is currently working on her Ph.D. in social psychology at UCLA

This is me today, with a group of workshop participants in Edmonton, Alberta.

The view from our summer rental bedroom window, July 2006.

The view from the bedroom window of our Paris rental, July, 2006.

Here's a photo of the group that attended the July 2006 Deep Writing Retreat in Paris.

To learn about my current life in San Francisco, please take a look at A Writer's San Francisco. It contains pieces like "Lying at the Top of the Mark," "The View from Bernal Hill," "Teaching at Jane's" and 30 other essays and comes with gorgeous illustrations!