MEET ZOË

 

Zoë Dearborn is a rock-n-roll poet, expressive arts healer, counselor, improvisor, heart & soul revivalist, integrative philosopher, champion for the inside arts, student & teacher of the Self, child of the 70’s and mom in the process of reinventing motherhood. 

As a multicreative artist, writer & performer, expressive arts therapist, creativity teacher & coach, Zoë is continually creating and developing her multifaceted approach to living life as art to help people discover their soul’s code and to create an authentic life of meaning that flows from deep, compassionate and creative inner work.

Zoë's Three-Part Mission

  • to help humans awaken to wholeness by bringing her counseling, expressive arts & meditative practices to as many people as she can

  • to help artists rediscover their creativity and express their authentic voices

  • to share with compassion, courage and creativity her own artwork and multifaceted process of self-actualization

Zoë believes:

  • The secret to tapping into the limitless power of human potential is the healing process of becoming all your selves

  • The expressive arts are a powerful & inspiring way to access and integrate all of one's selves

  • We need to reweave the arts back into the fabric of our daily lives so that we can uplift our culture from its current state of fear, isolation, shame, apathy, and scarcity towards one of love, connection, acceptance, creativity and abundance.

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First Resume: Illustrating Artist Writer Dancer

Training

Zoë holds an MA in Counseling Psychology, with a focus in Expressive Arts Therapy from California Institute of Integral Studies and a BA in Studio Art and East Asian Studies from Oberlin College. Zoë is a certified Yoga Teacher trained at Yandara Yoga Institute and Reiki Practitioner trained with Allison Eaton and a graduate of Tara Moh’r Playing Big Women’s Leadership program.

Zoë also has 6 years of professional training & experience as an actor, improvisor and dancer in New York City. She trained in the Meisner Technique at Gushee Anania Studios and at Upright Citizen’s Brigade Training Center (in improv) in NYC and was a performing member of the improv troupe Awkward Face with Pan Theater in Oakland, California. She was the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist for all NYC all woman rock band, Social Service, and started blogging in 2012, with ZOELAB 365, when she committed to a year of breathless, daily multimedia blogging as away to lift herself out of postpartum depression. She continues to blog, sharing her philosophy, the creative process, motherhood and off-the grid living. Since 2017 Zoë has performed and recorded in art rock band, Zoë & The Mischief . Zoë also studied filmmaking at The New School in New York City, made a short 16 mm film that was featured at the first Williamsburg Film Festival and produced a staged reading of her feature length screenplay If You Close The Door. She continues to create video, is developing her animation skills and is in development of a pilot for improv-based musical sitcom about therapy & narcissism.

Since she was a child, Zoë has been dedicated to making art and to helping others make art. She has continuously woven between many art forms, including: photography, graphic design, ceramics, drawing, painting, fashion design, film, video, theater, dance, poetry, essays, screenplays, journaling, comedy, songwriting, guitar and singing--and has no plans to specialize.

Todos Santos Community Building

Pre-pandemic Zoë was a community leader in the burgeoning art scene in Todos Santos. She hosted the Todos Santos Open Reading, a monthly event where writers of all types gathered to share their work, as well as host of the legendary Munchies Open Mic, creator of Mariposa Night, a multi-arts event an open community gathering. Zoë was also a co-founder of La Baja 100 , with artists Brian McGuffey, Leif Holland and Jimena García, a community of local emerging and established artists in Todos Santos and was a 3 time Co-Creator & Presenter at Women Awakening, an International Women's Summit in Todos Santos, Mexico

Zoë’s Presentations at Women Awakening:

Classes & Workshops

Zoë taught art journaling and Dance Lab at Modern Elder Academy - the world’s first midlife wisdom school. She also illustrated the coloring book Land of Yet, written by Chip Conley, the founder of MEA, which they also produced and distribute to their students.

Art Journal Lab, Zoë’s self-development class, ran for over 7 years, which combined spiritual & psychological theory, meditation, journaling, art therapy, imagination exercises and discussion. Zoë also created and has been teaching Dance Lab: Movement Therapy For All Your Selves for over six years at Cuatro Vientos - her signature class that combines meditation, movement, imagination, and of course, dance!

Zoë also hosted an online Art Journaling & Blogging Challenge for three years, where hundreds of participants, inspired by Zoë’s prompts and guidance, blogged and/or did art journaling everyday for a month. She also created a self-paced online course designed for anyone who wants to commit more deeply to their art or creativity: 31 Days of Deep Creativity , which is available for purchase.

Additionally, Zoë has been an arts educator for the past 20 years. Zoë has taught filmmaking, art, creative writing and theater to both children and adults in San Francisco and Baja California Sur. For a complete CV of Zoë’s training and work, you can contact Zoë.

Life As Art in Baja, Mexico

15 years ago, Brooklyn born and bred, Zoë and her California redwoods born then husband transplanted to a stunning piece of raw desert in the foothills of the Sierra de Laguna Mountains, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, on the Southern Baja peninsula of Mexico, where they pioneered both a homestead & careers that suited and engage their idiosyncrasies, while raising their wild & kind-hearted Mexican-born son. Eschewing the needs for comfort, ease and certainty, in order to embrace a do-it-yourself life in the desert, with lots of tools (digital & analogue), inspiration and bugs. This was the backdrop and inspiration for her blog.

Favorite Things

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Zoë's greatest loves, besides friends & family, people in general, especially children & even certain dogs, include: passionate & clever indie rock, dance of all varieties, comedy, improvisation, social practice art, fashion & graphic design, true deep stories, sad songs, mythology & Jungian psychology, children’s books, Fisher Price toys, tarot, embracing duality, inspiring documentaries, the open sky, wildflowers, hugs, creative collaborations and elegant theories that connect everything in the universe.

Virtual Home of Love & Art

This website is a testament to the love & creativity, truth & beauty that continuously flows out when we are present and engaged with everyday life, when we are listening both to our inner world of intuition & heart, as well open to the inspiration that our environment provides. It is also a record of the creative byproducts of life fully lived. It emphasizes process over perfection. Compassion over judgment. And love over fear. It is a celebration of nature & culture, and their fascinating exchange. It is a form of integration of Zoë's many selves, including especially, the more vulnerable shadow—giving space for expression of both darkness and light, the deepest longings and breakings of the heart. 

Working with Zoë

Zoë loves counseling, mentoring, coaching, teaching and collaborating with people of all backgrounds, abilities, ages, sexualities, ethnicities and identities, who are looking to discover their inner purpose, heal their past and re-imagine their future according to the person they were meant to be in this world.

She particularly loves helping people with: identity, gender, healing shame, self love, shadow work, inner child work, authentic spirituality, soul's purpose, self actualization and creativity.

It is never too late to be yourself.

Be All Your Selves.

Zoë  would love to hear your story. Send her an email.

For more about working with Zoë.