There are thousands of books and courses about creativity - but not much material that addresses the needs of professional creatives.

If you have a creative role in an agency, studio or another type of creative business, you know there’s more to creativity than simply ‘thinking out of the box’ and coming up with off-the-wall ideas. You often need to discipline yourself to think inside the box of a client brief or specific format. In some media, the execution is more important than an original idea. (Hamlet didn’t have a new plot, but the execution was pretty good.) And you know from experience that what worked in the past won’t necessarily help you in the future.

So you will probably get limited value from the usual ‘creative thinking’ seminars or standardised models of the creative process.

Which is why I typically work with professional creatives one-to-one or in small groups, so that I can work with the idiosyncratic patterns of their creative process. Over the past 10 years I’ve coached clients from the full spectrum of artistic and commercial creativity - including copywriters, novelists, designers, film directors, actors, photographers, painters, architects and musicians.

As a poet and poetry editor, I have first-hand experience of the creative process. And having consulted for large and small organisations, I understand the commercial pressures at work in a creative business.

I don’t use set models of coaching or creativity, although I draw on a range of disciplines, including business coaching, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), hypnotherapy and the latest developments in bodymind healing and learning.

If you’re curious about how coaching could help your creative team build on their current creative and commercial success, have a look at the Imagination section of my creative coaching site. You may also be interested in the sections about creative Collaboration and the management and Direction of creative teams.

And you’re welcome to ask me about any aspect of coaching or creativity.