Creative Work Hour Podcast

Episode: 53: How Can Creativity Be Stunted, and How Do We Heal From It?
Date: May, 24th, 2025

Today's Crew: Greg, Alessandra, Devin, Shadows Pub, Hillary

Episode Description

In this deeply personal and insightful episode, the Creative Work Hour crew explores the painful yet universal experience of having creativity crushed and the challenging journey back to creative confidence. Each host shares vulnerable stories of how authority figures, family members, and institutions stunted their creative pursuits—from cooking and singing to writing and performing. What emerges is both heartbreaking and hopeful: a collective understanding that creative stunting often stems from fear, societal expectations, and lack of support systems rather than malice.

The conversation reveals how these experiences can create what Alessandra calls a "cognitive limp"—a lasting impact that follows creatives for decades. Yet the crew also demonstrates that recovery is possible through community support, reframing past experiences, and building confidence in areas of strength. From Singers Anonymous to therapy and hypnosis, they explore various paths to healing creative wounds and reclaiming artistic identity.

This episode serves as both validation for anyone who's had their creativity dismissed and a roadmap for healing those wounds. The hosts' candid sharing creates a safe space for listeners to examine their own creative blocks and consider how they might begin their own recovery journey.

Key Quotes & Insights

Alessandra: "It's a little bit like kind of like a cognitive limp. If there's something that you had a creative experience with... But if someone was in your life that was like, no, that's not a thing, or one of my personal favorites sucks all the fun out of it. How would you make money with that?"

Greg: "You know, it's surprising what a little confidence will carry you a really long way."

Shadows Pub: "She called the idea of getting paid to write pie in the sky... now anybody wants to pie in the sky me, they can fuck off, put it mildly."

Hillary: "It's not always stunted with malice... the message comes across that it's hard to be successful in the arts. Most of the time, you are just getting by... that is its own form of squashing creativity, of just not having the support on how to accelerate it."

Devin: "It would be hard for someone to stunt me in my writing, because my confidence is so high. I would say, you obviously don't know what you're talking about, so I'm not going to listen to you."

Main Topics Covered

Creative Stunting Origins (00:31-03:35) - How family members, teachers, and institutions dismiss creative pursuits through discouragement, gender stereotypes, and practical concerns about making money

Personal Recovery Stories (03:35-09:38) - Individual journeys of overcoming creative blocks, from Singers Anonymous to finding new platforms and building confidence

Systemic Issues in Arts Support (08:07-09:33) - How society values arts consumption but fails to provide pathways for creative careers, and how social media is changing that landscape

Healing Strategies (09:53-10:39) - Therapeutic approaches including reframing past events, therapy, hypnosis, and meditation to overcome creative trauma

Building Creative Confidence (12:50-13:18) - Focusing on areas of strength and developing immunity to criticism through established competence

Resources & Mentions

• Singers Anonymous course at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas
• The Devil's Own (movie) with Brad Pitt
• Creative Work Hour community and website
• Social media platforms for content creators
• Therapy and hypnosis as healing modalities