Laetitia's learning process
I believe that I have been an active learner ever since I took my first steps.
With my strong but flexible roots, I flit between the inner and outer worlds, and from one environment to another.
I have lived in many different cultures. This has taught me to widen my understanding of the world, to open up to the richness of diversity, and to adjust and adapt to situations with awareness and clarity without losing sight of my inner essence and freedom.
I have been involved in the field of design as a creative practitioner and a problem solver for the last twenty years. My studies in Industrial Design gave me the fundamental tools to sense and define ways to fill gaps, and to access, synthesize and give shape to the intangible. This, together with my passion for life, knowledge and truth, means that I constantly scrutinize information and every process I go through in order to bring the experience to the outer world in an intelligible and tangible way.
At a certain point I reached burnout, experiencing boredom and isolation. I believe what brought me to this place was the intensity of creative engagement combined with life events and trauma, without awareness of the psychological characteristics of the creative person. I needed some kind of transitional bridge to move again and to become regenerated.
When I discovered the field of creativity, viewed from a wider perspective than just through designing, Immediately jumped into it; it corresponded to so many aspects of my interests and needs. The first academythatopened its doors to me was the department of Creative and Critical Thinking at UMass, Boston, where I obtained a “Creativity at Work” Certificate in 2009. The approach at the Graduate School of Art was to bring students to fully engage through the creative process and to grow with and through it.
I then moved on to complete a Master of Science degree at the International Center of Creativity, SUNY, in order to gain further tools and a more systematic approach for facilitating others and transferring knowledge.
Both approaches were complementary and very much worth the investment.
Each course allowed me to regain aspects needed by creative practitioners in order to function healthily.The entire creative learning process has had a powerful transformational, regenerative and therapeutic impact on me personally. It has also given me an understanding of the needs of each individual and how to transmit this impact in my facilitations and workshops.
“Creativity at Work” Certificate from the Department of Critical and Creative Thinking, UMass.
“Seminar in Creativity” Course (Summer 2009) --
This was one of the most powerful courses I have experienced and was what pushed me to pursue studies in the field of creativity. I learned about the psychological characteristics of the creative person, which made me more aware and able to let go of the guilt I held for being different from others. The paper I wrote reflecting on my creative life brought me to a real “rebirth.”
“Critical Thinking” Course (Fall 2009) --
This consisted of many online and collaborative exercises to practice ideas gained from the readings. It opened me up to the positive and constructive aspects of Critical Thinking by learning how to scrutinize, assess, discern between information, bias with a balanced skepticism. The paper I wrote on meta-cognition allowed me to connect and rationalize some of my mystical thinking about rebirth and initiation.
“Creative Thinking” Course (Winter 2010)--
This course was revelatory, involving me in the practice of many creative tools in order to become more creative and to open up again. I succeeded in gaining back my intrinsic passion and motivation.
“Process of Research and Engagement” Courses (Winter 2010)--
This allowed me to engage, discover and experience a real creative problem solving cycle in a cognitive, emotional and plysical way. I realized the importance of a governing question, a vision, swaying within ambiguity, and the constant rephrasing of it along the process. I learned how we can struggle and avoid, before accepting to plunge into the real problem in order to solve it. It was painful and very constructive. I also became aware of the necessity to activate both our creative, divergent thinking and critical, straightforward thinking in order to reach a creative outcome.
“Collaboration and Change Leadership” (Summer 2010)--
I have always had a high awareness of elements that are at play in inter-personal relationships and in groups without really knowing what to do with that knowledge. This course has provided me with very useful tools to learn how to deal with this knowledge and awareness.
“Creative Leadership” Master of Science from the International Center for Studies in Creativity, Buffalo State College, SUNY.
“Principles of Problem Solving” (Summer 2010): This opened me to something completely new. With initial discomfort at having to follow a particular model, I eventually realized that mastering the Creative Problem Solving process was very useful if adapted to the needs of the situation
“Group Facilitation” Course (Summer 2010): This provided me with many tools to facilitate the process and pulled me out of my creative isolation. The card set project (Buildestiny) I designed is a great tool to be used for facilitation and creative coaching and is now ready to be published.
“Creativity Assessment and Measurements” (Fall 2010): All the creative assessment tests helped me to ask some pertinent questions and discover my own needs to better function as a creative person. As a final project I designed a masterpiece, a top toy (EcolonovArt) synthesizing the “interactionist” approach to creativity.
“Foundation of Teaching & Training Creativity” Course: This was a very intense course that allowed me to master all the creative tools learned in an integrative manner and to become progressively professional at facilitating groups. I never learned as much in terms of collaborating and learning how to teach and learn.
“Foundation of Creativity” Course: This helped me to deepen my knowledge of other scholars’ work and processes in creativity. I became involved in fun, constructive and collaborative projects.
“Creative Leadership” (Summer 2011): This was the first time I learned to create with joy and seriousness at the same time, as well as to regain a vision lost after years of traumatic events. I came to the full therapeutic cycle, being able to step, refreshed and fully regenerated, into my new personal and professional life. It was the most binding course of all, integrating all the tools learned in a natural manner.
“Current Studies in Creativity” Course (Fall 2011): This taught me how to access and connect with the current world of creativity and to learn interactive, internet 3D platforms. The flexible space in the course allowed me to research in the field of my interest -- the possible therapeutic impact of creativity -- and to become expert in creative art facilitation.
