Me & My Philosophy
Hi I’m Elora! I'm a Los Angeles based ICF Certified Creative Coach, Artist, and Mom! With over a decade of experience as a professional character designer in the animation industry at major studios like Warner Brothers, FOX and Rick and Morty, I now use art and creativity as a tool for personal transformation, through my own art, mentoring and coaching.
My mission is to help self doubting creators befriend who they really are on the inside, so they can create positive change on the outside. Together we practice tools for quieting the mind and soothing emotions to build courage, compassion, and clarity for the path ahead!
I believe that our true power as human beings lies in our creativity. It's way more than just art. Creativity is how you show up. How you live in the present moment. How you problem solve and handle change, loss, and the unknown. Specializing in working with creative industry professionals, teens and women in transition, I love witnessing my clients start to truly believe in their own magic, building courage, compassion, and clarity in their life purpose in the process.
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You create your entire world from the inside out, so if you don't feel safe on the inside, you won't feel safe on the outside.
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Inner Team Building is my unique Creative Life Coaching method that combines art therapy, storytelling, neuroscience and psychology to help you befriend your left and right brain for inner world peace to take outer world action. It began after a dissociative suicide attempt, after which my Higher Self showed up (as seen in the drawing), took me in as a client and urged me to get serious about my mental health by putting together the puzzle pieces of my life.
Inner Team Building is a practice. A lifestyle. A choice to take responsibility of your own reality rather than accept a reality marketed to you. This is about taking your power back.
Swiss psychologist Carl Jung theorized that we all have many parts to us, conscious and unconscious, that, like it or not, affect our thoughts, emotions, and actions. He called this the Collective Unconscious, a collection of "archetypes" -- universal symbols, patterns, instincts, and beliefs inherited from our ancestors that connect us all. The most obvious use of these archetypes is through the power of story, as demonstrated by the "Hero's Journey" model by Joseph Campbell, popularized by Star Wars and widely used today.
Many scientific studies have supported this concept, my favorite being the work of Harvard Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor. In her book Whole Brain Living, Dr. Taylor assigns four archetypal characters to the left and right brain thinking and feeling centers. We ALL have versions of these characters, similar to each other but unique to our specific life experiences and brain wiring. ​
I call these voices in your head the “Inner Team.” Learning to understand where they came from and what they need helps us accept our whole selves to live in harmony with the world and integrity with our souls.
The first therapist I saw back in 2014 told me I had to rebuild my entire inner world from scratch, and I was shocked that this was even a thing! Apparently I wasn't able to live my own life because the negative voice from my mom that I had grown up with had become my own inner monologue. As someone who grew up processing the voices in my head through creativity, this naturally appealed to me. The seeds for Inner Team Building had been planted!
Jung believed we could explore unconscious parts of ourselves through dreams, art and speaking to our inner parts through symbol based “Active Imagination,” which I do my own version of in my sessions. So far this metaphorical type of "alternative therapy" has been most effective for a creative mind like mine...and I want to share it with the world!
​​Growing up as the only mixed race kid in a small town, I felt like a total WEIRDO. With an overprotective immigrant mom from the Philippines and an introverted hippie artist dad, I was raised on identity confusion, cultural divides and repressing how I felt about all of it. As a lonely only child unable to openly express my emotions, I looked to stories for comfort, along with my own art and imagination. I especially loved anime and videogames (before they were cool) which made me further feel like a loser. Even though I sucked at socializing in "real life," I thankfully found others with similar interests in online communities just as the internet was taking off in the late 90s. I was always searching for somewhere to belong, not realizing the only place I had to belong was within myself.
After graduating from UCLA with a BA in Design Media arts, taking supplemental entertainment art classes at schools like Concept Design Academy, Schoolism and the Animation Guild helped me land my "dream career" as a character designer. But of course drawing for a living actually DISCONNECTED me from my authentic creativity. I lost myself in perfectionism, comparison and fears of being fired or disliked. My imposter syndrome led to extreme anxiety and depression on the inside, but at least I did a good job of making people think I was doing great on the outside. I was so affected by my external environment that I had to focus on pleasing people to survive, which turned my life into one big lie. ​​​​
​​​​It wasn't until my world turned upside down when my dad died in 2015 that I decided to start shifting my narrative. Struggling to function at work while attempting to cope with loss magnified the disconnect between my inner and outer worlds and I spun out of control which often resulted in suicidal ideation. I ended up being diagnosed as bipolar, and in desperation traveled to Peru to do Ayahuasca with Shipibo shamans which completely changed my perspective on the world and how I wanted to live my life. Returning home, I focused on integrating this spiritual experience with physical reality, immersing myself in psychology, sociology, and neuroscience to understand my total brain rewiring.
I sought out wisdom from teachers from all different cultures and walks of life to learn how to manage grief, change, emotional extremes, obsession, suicidal ideation, anxiety and depression — many themes that I help my clients manage today.
​I became a certified Kundalini Yoga Instructor and Reiki healer, started attending women’s circles, facilitating groups of activists and changemakers, and mentoring creative teens. This led to becoming an ICF certified life coach through Martha Beck's Wayfinder Life Coach program. Combining the medicine learned from shamans, healers, scientists and artists from all over the world with my love of cartoons, multimedia storytelling, nature and psychology, I hope to make mental and emotional health fun, practical and accessible! ​
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I’m now committed to sharing what I've learned on my own journey of self-discovery to hopefully help you through yours...because the relationship with your Self is the most important one there is :)
"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate." - Carl Jung
Private Coaching is currently open!
Fill out the form and I'll contact you via text or email and we'll schedule your free discovery call to figure out how best to support you :)