About Me
Leda van der Post
I am Dr Leda van der Post, and I now divide my time between my own personal creative expression, collaborative projects and programs that all have some form of CREATiVE iNTELLiGENCE in common.
I have used my combination of CREATiViTY, understanding of technology, education experience, and business skills to create the CREATiVE JOURNEY® process. Over the years, my work has taken different forms: painting, writing, consulting, teaching, coaching. I studied Fine Arts, then travelled and lived abroad for a number of years, before finding a way to fully express my own purpose.
These days, you are as likely to find me at my easel as in front of a computer; dressed in tailored pants and jacket or more eccentrically arty; outside in nature, or curled up reading. Happy to be in my own space, loving my work, and comfortable in my body.
But… it wasn’t always that way!
I have always been creative, but did not always know how important it was to CREATE space in my life for my personal expression.
There are always flowers for those who want to see them.
Henri Matisse
You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
Maya Angelou
The CREATiVE JOURNEY® process has evolved over the years as I grappled with my own situation. I have been stuck many times in my life, in a range of different, difficult circumstances. Circumstances which could have been overwhelming or kept me despondent. Yet I seem to always come through, embarking on new creative projects with a sense of excitement.
I have managed to get through moving to a new country four times, divorce, completing a PhD, cancer, and life-threatening surgery. And those are just the BiG things that I have had to navigate.
I believe the reason that I have managed to get myself UNSTUCK and start thriving each time I found myself in a challenging situation is because of my creative practice. It has developed through facing problems, big and small, and finding solutions to move my life forward.
I analysed what I had done intuitively, and developed it into a 10-step creative process that I have successfully used to help others rethink and regenerate their circumstances, leading to creative insight, deeper healing, and new hope.
As I have learnt about my own creative intelligence, read books, and done courses containing other people’s ideas about creativity and personal growth, I have refined my process. However, the essential elements remain the same.
Some of the key elements of the CREATiVE JOURNEY® originated in the work of eminent thinkers and authors in the creative, education, psychology, and spiritual fields. Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way helped me in my late twenties to develop my painting. Parker J. Palmer’s The Hidden Wholeness and other works formed the basis of my approach for my PhD. I read Caroline Myss’s Anatomy of the Spirit when my father was diagnosed with cancer, thereby developing a strong belief in the connection between mental and physical wellbeing. Thomas Moore’s Care of the Soul gave me an appreciation of the beauty and compassion available in our everyday lives.
I use my wide experience in facilitating learning and development, at university, in the corporate environment, and with private clients to create a safe, nurturing space for you to explore your own self-expression. This enables you to develop your unique form of creativity, and then use it to transform from whatever is keeping you STUCK and move towards becoming UNSTOPPABLE.
Creativity is the way I share my soul with the world.
Brené Brown