The Workshop Video
You can experience my workshop in the 9-minute video. If you are an educator, counselor, or parent you can share this directly with kids, teens, and adults. To do the activity, you’ll need paper, pencils (colored pencils optional), scissors, and tape. You can also use the downloadable templates below, if desired.
My Discovery and the Mission of this Workshop
We all have inner voices that either drag us down or lift us up. Often we deny the discouraging self-talk, or, through inaction, allow discouraging thoughts to overpower us. Personifying the discouraging voices inside our heads helps us to acknowledge and own these unhelpful thoughts. Likewise, personifying the encouraging voices inside our heads can help us to be kind and encouraging to ourselves.
As a multi-disciplinary teaching artist (creative writing, music, shadow puppetry), I saw that my students (children, teens, and adults alike) could often grasp whatever skill I was teaching but then would be ambushed by psychological forces. Who am I to call myself a creator? What will people think of me if I express myself this way? I know I will fail, so why am I trying?
Deeply ingrained negativity was not only keeping my students from creating, but also keeping them from experiencing the catharsis and joy that they were, in fact, trying to find. This, in turn, would keep them from connecting positively with others, spawning jealousy rather than generosity.
As an artist, I struggled with the same. And so I created characters to represent my inner voices and began to engage in dialogue with them. Immediately, I began to reap benefits in my creative, professional, and personal life. This led me to teach students to actively and concretely own their voices through a workshop I call “Your Voices.” I teach this workshop in person and online; and, for the 2022 Awakened Schools Conference at Columbia University, I created this video of the workshop to share.
Free Templates
The Voice of Discouragement Template: one-page sheet that includes instructions and illustrations for creating a character that symbolizes the voice of discouragement.
The Voice of Encouragement Template: one-page sheet that includes instructions and illustrations for creating a character that symbolizes the voice of encouragement.
More Resources
Voices in My Head—a video by Mary Amato showing the discouraging/encouraging characters that either haunt or help her in her creative work. https://youtu.be/N4hoXZ39St
Mary Amato Books for Children and Young Adults—the works of fiction that focus on the therapeutic value of creative work to help us understand ourselves and others:
- Our Teacher is A Vampire and Other (Not True) Stories
- Please Write in this Book
- Edgar Allan’s Official Crime Investigation Notebook
- The Lucy McGee Series
- The Word Eater
- The Star Striker Series
- The Naked Mole-Rat Letters
- Guitar Notes
- Open Mic Night at Westminster Cemetery
- Invisible Lines
- Get Happy
One Hundred Demons—a graphic-novel style memoir by Lynda Barry about this cartoonist’s childhood and adolescence. This includes prompts and helpful drawing instructions. Great inspiration for crafting symbolic representations.
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear—a how-to for adults by Elizabeth Gilbert that includes the brilliant exercise of writing a letter to Fear. Not for kids, but adults will find lots of inspiration here.
Book In-Person or Online “Your Voices” Workshops with Mary Amato
For individuals, groups, schools, libraries, and organizations who want a personal experience, I offer a live version of the “Your Voices” workshop either in-person or via Zoom. If you’re interested, please use the contact form of this website and let me know that you’d like to discuss booking me.
How Do You Discourage and/or Encourage Yourself?
I hope you are inspired to identify and personify your own negative and positive inner voices. Sharing them can be a way of owning them. Please know that you are invited to share them with me. Send a photo and a statement via email info (at) maryamato (dot) com.
Sketches and Characters from Workshop Participants
Coming soon.