The Sound of Transformation: "This is a place where we can dream"

The sound of art-making. It's energy in motion, the beat of the inner shifts happening in one of my Life & Creative group coaching sessions.

The making of collage from a Creative Life Coaching session

I'm sitting here thinking about yesterday's session at Wimbledon Library, and I can still hear it - that beautiful sound of transformation happening in real time. You know what I mean? It's not just the rustle of magazine pages being torn for collages, or the soft scratch of pencils on paper. It's something deeper. It's the sound of people discovering parts of themselves they didn't know existed.

After five years of running these creative coaching sessions, I've learned to listen for it. That moment when someone stops talking and starts creating, when the room shifts from chatter to focused energy, when breakthrough happens not through words but through colors, shapes, and images that seem to appear from nowhere.

How It All Began

Back in 2019, when I first started volunteering with Merton Library, I thought I knew what coaching looked like. I had my questions ready, my techniques polished, my traditional verbal coaching toolkit all set up. And you know what? It worked... sort of. People talked, they reflected, they made some insights. But something was missing.

I kept noticing how people would struggle to find words for their deepest feelings and dreams. "I don't know how to explain it," they'd say, looking frustrated. That's when I started wondering - what if we didn't have to explain everything with words? What if there was another way in?

The shift toward visual arts happened gradually over the past three years, and honestly, it's been the most exciting part of my coaching journey. I'm still experimenting, still learning, still being surprised by what emerges when we give people permission to create without judgment.

The People Who Show Up

The beautiful thing about community-based sessions is the incredible mix of people who walk through those library doors. All ages, all backgrounds, all walks of life. The retired teacher sitting next to the young parent, the artist alongside someone who "can't draw to save their life." What they all have in common is courage - they're ready to risk something, ready to look at their lives differently, ready for change.

And here's what I've discovered: when you give people art materials and a safe space, magic happens. They surprise themselves. They see things they couldn't see before. Only then, right at the end of the session, do they find the words to express what they've discovered.

Yesterday's Session: Looking at the Stars to Walk on Earth

Our theme was Life Vision and Purpose, inspired by that beautiful Cervantes quote: "look at the stars to walk on earth." We started with a gentle visualization - three circles of light representing the authentic self, our closest relationships, and our larger purpose in the world.

I watched as seven people settled into the meditation, their faces softening as they imagined these circles of golden, silver, and blue-white light merging into their own personal mandala of possibility.

Then we did something simple but powerful. I asked them to think about life without a clear vision. The words that came up made me pause: "dark, stuck, wondering, stagnant, being at a crossroads, drifting, static, resigned, dull, lazy, no motivation, depression, oppression, lonely."

Heavy words. Real words. Words that I think most of us have felt at some point.

But then we flipped it. What about life WITH a vision? The energy in the room completely shifted: "imaginative, inspiring, amazing, light, direct, fruition, energetic, goals achieved, happy, open, aware, comforting, comfortable, exciting."

You could literally feel the difference.

When Art Becomes the Teacher

But the real transformation happened when we moved into the art-making. I spread out magazines, papers, paints, markers - all the beautiful chaos of creative possibility - and simply said, "Show me your life vision."

This is when I start listening for that sound of transformation. And yesterday, it was everywhere.

One person said, "Don't think about it, look for the not obvious." Another shared, "The warm up was frantic, now I am in visual resonance." Someone else laughed and said, "I started with a plan, everything changed."

I love these moments. When people give themselves permission to not have it all figured out. When they let the process guide them instead of the other way around.

"I felt guilty tearing up those beautiful magazines," someone confessed, and I understood completely. There's something sacred about the act of deconstruction that leads to reconstruction - of images, of thoughts, of life itself.

The Voices of Discovery

Collage artwork from one of the participants

As the session continued, the insights kept flowing:

"I was drawn to colours... Orange is expression of love, from the background."

"I wanted to fill the paper, to fill my life."

"Making waves is making a difference."

"It's a treasure, I appreciate art."

"This is a place where we can dream."

That last one stopped me in my tracks. "This is a place where we can dream." In all my years of coaching, through all the techniques and frameworks and methodologies, this might be the most important thing anyone has ever said about what we're creating together.

Because that's exactly what it is, isn't it? A place where dreams are not just allowed but celebrated. Where the impossible becomes visible. Where the inner world gets to come out and play.

One participant described their experience as "a kaleidoscope, endless possibilities." Another found "power, stillness, balance." Someone else was "taken by the initial visualization, I felt emotional."

The Art Tells the Story

Collage artwork from one of the participants

Looking at their finished pieces, I'm amazed every time. Collages bursting with words like "WOW!" and "Great minds" and "Love and Kindness." Images of gardens and journeys, of light breaking through darkness, of hands reaching toward possibility. One piece featured "A New Way of Seeing" - and isn't that exactly what we're all looking for?

These aren't just art projects. They're visual maps of transformation, tangible proof that change is possible, that vision can be cultivated, that we all have the capacity to reimagine our lives.

What I've Learned After 200+ People

Five years in, having worked with more than 200 incredible humans, I've learned something important: I don't bring a coaching model to people. I bring energy and imagination, and they find their way. I've developed my approach based on what actually works for the people in the room, not what looks good on paper.

This feels revolutionary to me. Community-based coaching that grows from the ground up, that honors what people actually need rather than what theory says they should need.

The traditional coaching world talks a lot about transformation, but I'm witnessing it happen in real time, with scissors and glue sticks and watercolors. I'm seeing people discover parts of themselves they didn't know existed. I'm hearing that sound of breakthrough that happens when someone creates something that surprises even them.

Why This Matters

In our word-heavy, analysis-driven culture, we tend to forget that we're creative beings. We think transformation has to happen through talking, through thinking, through figuring it all out with our minds. But some of the most profound shifts happen when we bypass the analytical brain and go straight to the heart through our hands.

When someone creates a collage and suddenly sees their life vision reflected back at them in color and texture and symbol, something shifts that no amount of talking could achieve. When they experience that moment of "I didn't know I felt that way until I made this," they've accessed a deeper wisdom.

And in a world that often feels chaotic and overwhelming, having a place where you can dream - really dream - feels more important than ever.

The Sound Continues

As I packed up yesterday's session, watching people carefully roll up their artwork to take home, I thought about how these images will continue to work on them in ways they might not even realize. They'll catch glimpses of their collages on their kitchen tables or pinned to their walls, and remember. They'll remember not just what they created, but how it felt to create it. How it felt to surprise themselves. How it felt to dream.

That's the sound of transformation I'm listening for - not just in the room during our sessions, but echoing out into their daily lives, rippling through their relationships, shifting how they see possibility.

And the most beautiful part? They take that sound with them. They become the sound of transformation in their own lives and in the lives of the people they love.

Five years on, 200+ people later, I'm more convinced than ever that this is what coaching can be: not just talking about change, but creating the conditions where change happens naturally, joyfully, artfully.

After all, as Cervantes knew, sometimes you have to look at the stars to remember how to walk on earth. And sometimes, you have to pick up a paintbrush to remember how to live