Melinda Rothouse
Patrick Larson Melinda Rothouse, PhD / Austin Writing Coach, Facebook page

Creativity is more important today than ever before, and business experts are saying that it is one of the most important qualities to succeed in business and professional life. However, there are also many misconceptions about creativity, including that only certain people can be creative while others cannot, as well as there's only one type of creativity, which is most often associated with the visual and performing arts.

Melinda Rothouse, Ph.D, wants to challenge these misconceptions. Melinda is a creativity, leadership, and career coach, as well as a consultant, educator, and facilitator, based in Austin, Texas. She is also the co-founder of Syncreate, which offers creativity coaching and consulting services, as well as a musician, singer and songwriter. With a variety of experiences and pursuits, both professional and personal, Melinda is indeed qualified to speak on creativity.

"My goal is to help people appreciate the various creative processes and help them better understand creativity, because, for many, creativity is a mysterious thing. It's either inspiration strikes you, or it doesn't. However, psychological studies have shown that it's possible to cultivate creativity. There's a wide-ranging misconception that only certain people are creative and I really want to dispel that myth. The more we understand how the creative process works, the more we can create the conditions for it to show up," she says.

Since her childhood, Melinda has been involved in numerous creative pursuits, particularly singing. She studied classical voice and opera, as well as musical theater. In college, she studied cognitive science and biopsychology, and she was very interested in how the human brain worked. After completing her bachelor's degree, she explored her various other interests, including obtaining a master's degree in religious studies. She also became a teacher and joined a band.

Melinda was based in the New Orleans area when Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, and she was among the numerous people who were displaced. In response to the trauma she experienced, she was drawn to mindfulness and meditation, beginning to follow a more spiritual path in life. She also realized that, while she enjoyed teaching, she also wanted to work with individuals on a deeper level, so she obtained her coaching certification, as well as a Ph.D. in psychology.

"I was doing so many things, then I realized that everything that I'm interested in revolves around this common thread of creativity," Melinda says. "That realization was really helpful to me to focus. I still continue to do many different things, but they all are toward a common purpose, which is my own creativity and empowering creativity in others."

To date, Melinda has authored two books. ''A Mindful Approach to Team Creativity and Collaboration: Creating a Culture of Innovation,'' was published in 2020 and it draws on insights from her doctoral research and her experiences working with organizational leaders and teams. She also co-authored ''Syncreate: A Guide to Navigating the Creative Process for Individuals, Teams, and Communities''with Charlotte Gullick, a novelist, essayist, and educator. Published in 2021, the book won a Silver Nautilus Award for Creativity & Innovation. Melinda is the host of the ''Syncreate Podcast,'' which explores the intersections between creativity, psychology, and spirituality and expands the boundaries of what it means to be creative.

"Through my many years of engaging in and studying creativity, I learned that so many people come up with really great ideas, but relatively few are able to actually bring them out into the world. This is why I really want to help people take their ideas, and guide them on how to follow through and turn these ideas into tangible things, whether that's a book, music, an entrepreneurial venture, or an innovative concept within an organization," Melinda says.