🧠🎨Community and Corporate Creative Mental Health Care 📚 Studying Mental Health + Neuroscience. Permission to Play Members Community - Join Now. Artist/Designer/Mentor ❤️💛🖤 Meanjin
Times, they are a changin' (sorry Bob)
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Today marks the first day of the last week of the second month of 2025 - and with it, I feel like I’m stepping fully into a new stage, Reader. My second year of Mental Health and Neuroscience postgrad study begins today. My youngest starts full-time kindy, making this the first time in 14 years that I won’t be pregnant or have a child at home every day (🤯), I’m expanding my dream of supporting creative mental health for all by stepping into a casual disability support and community worker role and I’m deepening my work on Permission to Play, refining the core concepts and framework for the membership group and finding ways to offer more additional in-person workshops. Alongside all this, my ongoing art practice and commercial lettering work continues as a way to fuel my own mental wellbeing and health. It’s a lot of change. Right? Transitions are complex, and growth never happens all at once. Much like a painting, it’s slow, layered, sometimes uncomfortable. But what I have learnt is that personal growth isn’t meant to follow the kind of obsessive expansion that capitalism celebrates. Our progress isn’t about a constant upward movement, moment-by-moment measurable output, or squeezing more productivity into every spare minute of our lives... Real expansion comes in waves, like creativity. It needs space to pause, question, and pivot without constant justification. Creative play has taught me that growth isn’t about how efficient I can be with every moment I have but how flexible and fluid I can be when change presents itself. Tell me, Reader, how do you feel when change is required of you? Do you think you are caught up in the productivity trap and unable to really tap into your true, creative, and beautiful self? ​If you’re craving a space to explore your creativity in a way that supports your mental well-being, Permission to Play is here for you. Before I sign off, I wanted to share a PTP member reflection from an anonymous survey I sent out recently:
"PTP’s focus on giving something a go solely to find the feeling of play is what makes it so special. The unexpected thing for me was how incredibly welcoming the group was and how it feels like a family! I just love seeing everyone’s mark making - it’s so varied and we all have what we’d call success and some not so much. What is interesting is that we each see things from our own perspective so one person’s “absolute mess” is enjoyed by everyone else - “we love it!” We’re all on the same page, enjoying the vibe of the whole exercise. Add to that the chat and it’s really quite special."
If you are looking for a personal and safe space to be whole-heartedly yourself, create and play, join us and see where creative play can take you! Hit reply with 'PLAY' and I will send you the link to join this Sunday for our next free LIVE session! I wish you the confidence and courage to tackle whatever is handed to you this week, my friend, until soon xox. With Kindness, PS, I am working on the updated page and fee structure for the PTP group, so you can STILL join at the founding rate for a little bit longer. You can come and trial for 14 days free and attend the live session to see if it's for you; there's nothing to lose! Just reply with PLAY, and I will email you the details.
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Delphie Joy
🧠🎨Community and Corporate Creative Mental Health Care 📚 Studying Mental Health + Neuroscience. Permission to Play Members Community - Join Now. Artist/Designer/Mentor ❤️💛🖤 Meanjin
“Through others, we become ourselves.”- Lev S. Vygotsky NOTE: I have had some time today to write as we waited for the tropical cyclone Alfred to arrive. The preparation and anticipation were full on over the last week, and in the end, it fizzled out, and we had a bit of wind and rain only. I am grateful to avoid any damage personally, but my heart goes out to those affected. Okay, back to the story… Three weeks ago, I was fortunate to travel with friends to watch Gabor Maté speak. If you...
Just this morning, a person at the kindy playdough table asked me something that completely stumped me. “Oh, so you don’t want to be creative anymore?” Um, what? They asked this, almost flippantly, after I mentioned I wasn’t doing much graphic design work these days. I stumbled over my words, wondering how to explain that creativity is so profoundly a part of my life that it's almost THE WHOLE reason I have pivoted my career to creative mental health care... Reader, you see, working as a...
Hello dearest Reader, How many emails have you received slamming you into 2025? My guess is ***way more than is necessary***. This email is far from that. As the new year begins, we often feel the weight of expectations pressing down—an endless push to do more, achieve more, and be more. But what if we gave ourselves permission to do something radical instead? What if we rested? In a world that glorifies productivity, rest can feel indulgent, weak, and even shameful. Capitalism has taught us...