HELLO, MY NAME IS
The idea for the Cry Baby Club began when I started referring to myself as an aspiring cry baby. I was a really sensitive kid, and shoved all those big feelings away because of how uncomfortable people around me were [and how uncomfortable they made me feel about] my big feelings. Turns out if I wasn’t having big feelings, I wasn’t feeling much of anything at all. I’d love to get access to those tears, again.
Learning about my neurodivergence, and reclaiming my sensitivity, is allowing me to soften and feel safe in the world. It’s also really hard and uncomfortable and sometimes, I hate it. A big part of making my way through all of this has been writing and art-making.
I’ve been thinking about the fact that this next month has many of us interacting with family and other folks who we don’t see often. This session of the Cry Baby Club will invite you to explore your own emotional identity, and orient yourself so that when Uncle Hector sneeringly says “You used to be SO loud/rigid/sensitive/quiet” you can smile and say “Actually, I still am.” (Either out loud. Or in your head.)
You’ll leave Cry Baby Club with notes or pictures or art you can turn to when you need to remember that who you are is NOT a failing. Your writing and art can help you gain courage and calm from your emotional identity, so no one (including you) can make you feel like cr*p, instead of the star you are.
Cry Baby Club is offered on a sliding scale at $25/$40/$55. A recording of the event will be provided for all who register. Refunds are not available. If this is your first time joining the club, please read below for information, inspiration and an important note about the Club. (It’s not therapy!) The Club is a conceptualization of a group coming together to process and hold space for big feelings- it’s not an actual club. You can come to one event, or many.
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Cry Baby Club meets around the beginning of each month. You can see upcoming events here.
Cry Baby Club is offered on a sliding scale, $25/$40/$55. A recording of the event will be provided for everyone who registers. Refunds are not available.
Please email Meg to inquire about a fully or partially funded seat.
There is time for conversation and to be held in community, however the focus is on practice over product and not on sharing our work.
All sessions will be recorded. If you know ahead you would prefer not to appear in the recording, or if you share anything you would like edited out of the video, I’ll happily accommodate.
No art supplies are required- bring what you have and explore in whatever capacity feels good for you. All invitations/prompts will be open to interpretation through words or art, and suggestions on how to incorporate the tools you’re less familiar with will be offered.
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The idea for the Cry Baby Club began when I started referring to myself as an aspiring cry baby. I was a really sensitive kid, and shoved all those big feelings away because of how uncomfortable people around me were [and how uncomfortable they made me feel about] my big feelings. Turns out if I wasn’t having big feelings, I wasn’t feeling much of anything at all.
Learning about my neurodivergence, and reclaiming my sensitivity, is allowing me to soften and feel safe in the world. It’s also really hard and uncomfortable and sometimes, I hate it. A big part of making my way through all of this has been writing and art-making.
[Meg will begin a Therapeutic Arts Practitioner Program through the Ciiat in January 2024, which will inevitably change both her personal practice and the path the Cry Baby Club takes as it develops.]
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This is not therapy. It is peer-led by facilitator, artist and writer Meg Max, and based on her lived experience and personal practice using writing and art to explore and express and her own identity and emotions.
Though we’ll be discussing themes that seem heavy and difficult, the focus will be on practice over product through art and writing as we explore and I do my absolute best to walk the line between useful exploration and not leaving you mired in sadness. If you have any questions about whether the Cry Baby Club is right for you, Meg would love to chat.
If you’d like to work with a registered art therapist, Meg recommends Shauna Kaendo at Hey Shauna.