Testimonials

“Gail is a rare and compelling guide to what it can look, sound, and feel like to fully embody your life and leadership. She alchemically shapes CreativeSelf by holding its myriad creative tensions with the kind of subtlety that can only come from a lifetime’s commitment to refining her own process. In a single moment, she combines the wisdom of an elder with a playful lightness, encouraging your childlike nature to reveal itself. She tempers her generous presence with fierce inquiry, illuminating pathways toward your full potential. She invites personal transformation in the safety of the collective she has masterfully curated, inspiring the kind of vulnerability that is essential for deep creativity and change. It has been a brilliant experience in the company of exceptional women! ”

“Gail Hill is truth. I have been mentored for only 10 months and she has transformed my life. I came to Gail spinning ... and she helped me find my creative being - the one pushed aside in the service of others. She is able to listen and help me facilitate the change. She is creative, driven, smart, talented, inspirational, a fantastic listener and a powerhouse of knowledge. Gail is a game changer. I leave each meeting able to navigate the world with a clear head and I leave energized, believing in the human spirit and truth. My relationships both professionally and personally have benefited. She has taught me to be a better listener of others and to also hear my own spirit. In a world where potential is seldom realized, Gail Hill and her Creative Self process are leading the way towards inspiration and enlightenment.”

“Gail is a remarkable person, and working with her has been life-changing. Artist, mentor, spiritual guide and truly gifted communicator, Gail’s inventive workshops are unlike any experience I’ve had before. She creates a graceful environment in her beautiful, peaceful studio, where participants listen deeply and reflect back to each other in the manner that Gail models brilliantly. Rarely have I felt more “seen and heard”. It is a privilege to listen closely to others and reflect back to them, and that dynamic is itself fundamental to the listener’s own transformation. Through this process, I am learning to take myself seriously as a creator and to manage my fears - and am downright excited to be making significant advances in my artistic endeavours! ”

“Gail Hill has been my mentor for 20 years, ever since I approached her as a 15-year-old high school student who wanted to be a photographer. She welcomed a naive kid into her studio and from day one treated me as a colleague in the unpredictable world of life as an artist. She spoke to me with respect and slowly taught me to verbalize my own thoughts and find my own approach in an image-saturated world. Hill taught me to really see and to listen. Having the opportunity to explore the world through her eyes was invaluable. Gail Hill taught me to trust my instincts, believe in beauty and not to be afraid to voice my opinions.

I moved away from Toronto in 1998 but our mentor relationship has continued, stronger than ever. Gail Hill is the woman I write to or call when I start to doubt my work or my vision or my path. She provides excellent guidance that is perfectly catered to me. She has the instincts to know when to push, when to listen and when to guide (gently or firmly). We still meet in person whenever possible (at least once a year) and she continues to provide invaluable feedback on my photography.

Her total commitment to her goals and to supporting those around her never wavers. If it weren’t for her I wouldn’t still be on this path, following my dreams around the world and successfully working as a photographer. The skills I learned watching her make art all those years ago go into every photograph I make to this day. I still hear her voice when I am pouring over images, trying to find the right ones to tell my story. Through all the ups and downs of living a creative life, Hill’s example and unwavering support has been the driving force behind my success and fearlessness in following my own path. ”

“Gail Hill did an exceptional job delivering a motivational artist talk to our members at Visual Arts Mississauga on the expansion of creativity. With over 40 years of experience in the arts, Gail inspired our artists with her personal stories of overcoming the challenges of a life in the arts. Honest and engaging, Gail captivated our artists while teaching them how to use her tools to navigate their process and careers. Gail explored the relationship of creativity and fear while teaching artists how to ultimately overcome challenges and take their artistry to the next level. We loved having her at Visual Arts Mississauga and hope to have her back again soon.”

“God has not left us without our teachers, and Gail Hill is one of the best. She is a guru who teaches clarity and navigation. Through her ability to truly listen, she understands the root of all problems and teaches practical techniques for navigating through those problems. Gail is never about what cannot be done, only about what can. Her sessions are enlightened and inspiring and make the world wondrous again. I have also been witness to a miraculous transformation in two of my best friends. In a matter of months they have both become confident, spirited people that have not only taken their personal and professional lives to another level, but have found happiness inside of themselves. I personally wake up each day with gratitude instead of fear, blessed to have Gail in my life.”

“Gail Hill’s CreativeSelf workshop is a profoundly transformational experience! While Gail has many talents as an artist, I have found that she has exquisite gifts for witnessing the unseen, exceptional abilities for listening to the thoughts between the words, and graciously, generously, and lovingly sharing that which may be invisible or unreachable to each of us while we search independently. Gail illuminates the dark spaces we all have within us while firmly encouraging and guiding our discovery of our own vast potentiality. She literally radiates warmth and visionary wisdom…teaching us how to fan the sparks of our own inspirations. What a life enriching opportunity!

Through Gail and the CreativeSelf my inspirational inner-journey has revealed to me the tremendous significance of being present with compassion, with grace, with responsibility, with truth, and with authenticity. These are empowering gifts available to all who share this quest called living…for I now believe that it is within this context that we may all hear our own heart’s songs…and dare to live them to the fullest! CreativeSelf is a life changing gift that you can give yourself today, for all your tomorrows.”

“Sitting down with Gail has been a spiritual experience for me. I am not prone to such proclamations, so this is a big deal. I have never felt so comfortable or so deeply understood in such an immediate way with a stranger. She seemed almost to know me already and is able to articulate ideas and feelings I have thus far been unable to express with any real coherence. She grasps in a very real way, what others (including myself) have found hard to understand - that as a creative and energetic being, my emotional state directly affects the way in which I work and what I am producing. Consequently, she doesn’t shy away from the nitty gritty details and her studio is the safest place I have found my entire adult life. As an artist, it can be difficult to feel understood. With Gail I feel like I am meeting a stronger, wiser, more magical part of myself. With a combination of her intuition and practical guidance, Gail is able to succinctly cut through mental and emotional noise and leaves me with positive, constructive steps with which to effectively structure my daily life and working practice. My biggest takeaway from Gail has been her incredible energy and her immense generosity. I feel like I can accomplish anything after one of our talks, to say nothing of the very real hand she has played in connecting me with other influential figures and clients.

I am beyond grateful for the work we’ve done together and this has led me also to taking part in the Creative Self Group Process. Congregating with other creative women has been quietly, steadily and foundationally transformative. Little by little, as the weeks and months rolled by, a group of what started out as strangers, have deeper revealed both themselves and indeed, myself to me. As a result of their collective, consistent reflection I end up hearing the group as a whole and as individuals guiding me and my inner voice as I go back out into the world and begin to make the choices necessary to create. It is with palpable intuition that Gail has woven together this collection of people who so sincerely compliment and test each other’s ideas and practices around creating. This process is remarkable and has changed the way I feel in myself and about my work forever.

I think of Gail as a kind of fairy god mother. As someone I am supposed to know. Instinct, synchronicity and luck led me to her and she has rapidly become a very important figure in my work and in my life.”

“The wisdom of Gail Hill is noetic. I have known, respected and appreciated Gail for many years and began working with her in 2012. Gail’s CreativeSelf process has provided a deep well of inspiration and creativity that has allowed me the courage and confidence to re-write my own journey as well as discover and follow my purpose and passion.

Having spent much of the first 60 years of my life pursuing my own personal development, I can say definitively that the beautifully artistic structure of the CreativeSelf process provides an environment for growth and transformation that is unlike any I have ever experienced. I am deeply grateful to Gail for her work, and the opportunity to be part of it.”

“It was an enlightening experience to receive artistic mentorship from Gail Hill, an accomplished Canadian artist who exhibits grit and resilience in all spheres of her life, sharing hard earned wisdom and creative process strategies with clients.”

“My chance encounter with Gail Hill 18 months ago, and the wisdom she has generously shared with me through individual mentoring sessions and her CreativeSelf group process, has resulted in an amazing and magical transformation in my own life. At that time, I was a successful and senior international tax partner who led a major practice group at a Bay Street firm. Yet, I felt that something important was missing in my life; that I had not found my purpose; that my leadership role, my clients, my intellectual and business challenges were not things that fuelled my soul.

When I met Gail, I recently had had vivid dreams about painting large and beautiful canvases. These dreams filled me with a yearning, yet seemed to have no basis in reality. I had never held a paint brush. I was not a child to whom people would point and say, “She’s so artistic!” My family did not value artists or creativity. Our values were academic achievement and financial security. Apart from my own feelings of being drawn to art and architecture, to moments of beauty, to feeling at one with nature, there was nothing in my life to suggest that I had any artistic leanings or talent.

Gail and I began to work through her carefully designed process, which she built drawing on her years of artistic and creative experiences and her time mentoring other creative souls. Gail was the first person to see me as an artist. Through her process, I started to understand that I had within me the capacity to create the life I wanted. Her group allowed me a space where I could be witnessed and heard, and supported in my transformation.

Within 6 months of meeting Gail, I resigned from my position on Bay Street and began to create my new life as a painter, learning the technical skills I needed, and using the tools I learned from Gail to move forward. I feel deeply satisfied with my life now that I have found my purpose. I love the process of painting, time flies, and I feel a deep contentment with what I am doing. I am producing paintings that feel exactly right to me. I recently participated in an art show and sold my first large painting. I am confident that through this process and continued work with Gail, I will continue to develop and grow.

I would highly recommend Gail, her CreativeSelf group process and individual mentoring sessions to anyone who has a dream about transforming his or her life and wants it to happen.”

“Gail Hill is an inspiration from the moment she enters the room. Her energy, her glow, her curiosity and generosity of spirit create an energy field that propels everyone in the room forward. I cannot think of a better godmother for my dreams than Gail Hill.

CreativeSelf workshop is a time set aside bi-weekly to listen and be listened to on a level rarely experienced in our modern lives. It has astonished me how the consistent support and attention of a group of individuals, working together in Gail Hill’s unique framework, has allowed me to excavate the creative self that has been buried for so long under to-do lists, obligations, busyness, fear and uncertainty.

Every time I meet with my group, I deepen my understanding of self, and take a giant step in my own creative process. The unconditional support, the structure of accountability, and the deepening group dynamic make my CreativeSelf meetings an important part of my creative development.”

“I trust Gail Hill with my life. I could rarely say that about anyone. As I write this review about Gail’s CreativeSelf process I become emotional. There are tears of “Wow, where would I be if Gail hadn’t been so perceptive and encouraging?” I would most likely still be on my couch in a very blocked dark state living for everyone else but myself. After just one year of working with Gail, I have moved to a new city (something I wanted to do for years but kept making excuses); I received a Vidal Sassoon Scholarship because I learned to believe in myself and own my creativity; I bought a new car because abundance all of a sudden started knocking on my door; and I found a new love because I am learning to open up my heart after 10 long years of being completely closed.

CreativeSelf gave me the tools I desperately needed and moved me in directions I had only ever imagined. The group creative process is work and that’s what I was initially afraid of. I was afraid of what would come up and what kind of judgments might be made. And please, I want to reassure you, CreativeSelf is absolutely the safest place to be and grow. I have grown mentally, emotionally and creatively. I have made genuine friendships with people in this group process who truly care and never judge. I have shared things that I couldn’t imagine I would ever share with others. I have released toxic relationships and let go of experiences in my life that have been weighing me down for years. And as I peeled away layers, I made room for new creative expansion and I am now living for me. Imagine living for yourself? I know it’s hard to imagine right? This CreativeSelf process is different from anything I have ever encountered. It’s Incredible. It’s Authentic. It’s a safe home. Yes, that’s it. I found a safe home with love and growth.”

“Gail is one of the wisest, passionate, supportive women I have had the privilege to travel with on this path called life. As a participant in her CreativeSelf workshops I have been witness to her unique ability to hold sacred space for every member of our group. She has provided a nourishing place to explore and overcome perceived obstacles that have held me back from stepping fully into the extraordinary vision and opportunities that my life holds. Through unwavering commitment she offers such profound reflection and insight that has helped me become clearer and more focused in order to ultimately reach for my dreams and make them a reality. She definitely knows how to guide you in asking those challenging questions and she truly is wholeheartedly dedicated to helping you uncover what only your heart knows. I am blessed to know her, and will forever be grateful for her faith in me and my soul’s purpose.”

“We tend to be unconscious of the most basic but necessary elements until they are restrained - until we have to hold our breath, we tend not to give it a thought. Then we do something, like take CreativeSelf, and recognize that we don’t need to go as extreme as holding our breath to realize how passive we have been. Listening and hearing people is just as overlooked an activity and just as fundamental for our day-to-day survival. Gail Hill is such an expansive woman - her soulfulness, love, energy, attention, genuineness and flexibility (and the list could go on) make her a special mentor. There is only one of her and Gail is the loudest secret I share with everyone.”

“I have known Gail Hill for over 13 years and she has always been a highly present and creative force. As I live in the US I never thought I would have the honor and pleasure of working with her. Fortunately, Gail now offers mentoring over the phone. It has been over a year and Gail has been the inspirational catalyst that is allowing me to become the best possible version of myself. She is remarkably supportive, gentle and compassionate yet skillfully adept at helping me reflect and focus on what is important to me, what stands in my way and the next steps I want and need to take to accomplish my goals. Honoring our time, she is an objective and non-judgmental listener. I feel completely heard, and that has been key to my trusting Gail’s CreativeSelf process. Although I am not a practicing artist, she has allowed me to see that I am a highly creative being. Through the CreativeSelf process I am building lifelong habits that inject creativity in all aspects of my life. ”

“Turning 40 was a revelation for me. I was at a place in my life where I wanted to re-define my purpose, live up to my full potential and be in wonderful connection both as an artist and as a woman. Enter Gail Hill … or rather the moment I entered her studio - I felt instant ease and safety aware that I had just crossed the threshold into what would become my journey to be in devotion to my highest creative self. Our sessions are the highlight of my week and as Ms. Hill always says, “We are in co-creativity together here.” I deeply trust Gail’s awareness from experience and her unwavering faith that anything is possible. And I get to create it. If you want to really step up into your aliveness all the way, meet Gail Hill. It’s wonderful up here.”

“I was so fortunate to have been introduced to Gail Hill based on the recommendation from one of my best friends. My relationship with Gail, since 2011, has only ever been via phone. The experience has been very powerful and instrumental in helping me work through a number of personal and professional issues. Gail’s prompting and well-placed questions helped drill down to the heart of the areas that involved examination and ultimately, change.

Gail’s skills do not easily fit into one category, as her talents and special abilities are truly unique. She is a gifted mentor and guide who leads you to a different plane of thinking - one that leads to feeling happier, contented and fulfilled. And along that path she shares her inspirations, humour and most certainly a dose of tough love. ”

“The power of being heard, really listened to, by people who are united in the work, without judgment, opinion or advice is remarkable: freeing, cleansing, the feedback you get from each person….not advice or opinion…but a reflection of “what I heard you say” at a minimum validates that you have been heard. But the astonishing thing, as often as not, is that people hear something that you were not aware of in your words. The simple process of reflecting back to you what they heard opens up new vistas, new thinking, new perspective.

The exercise of being in the present is like a form of meditation to me. It is two and half hours when I am completely and totally in the room, with these people, focused on what they are saying, or I am saying. The rest of the world is outside the door. I leave feeling lighter, more clear headed, and filled with the wonder of witnessing a group of people working so hard together to make themselves the better self they know they can be. It is a wondrous process to be part of and I am deeply grateful to have had the privilege to experience it. It was challenging. It was transcendent. It was life changing.”

“Witnessing self transformation is rare and almost unheard of. My experience with Gail Hill as Mentor and Facilitator of CreativeSelf has been highly transformative, informative and enlightening. Gail’s compassion, love, intuition, insight and listening skills have helped me reconnect with my artistic self and feel whole again and for that I thank Gail. It is rare to find a Mentor that is capable of seeing you for who you really are and helping you tap into your creative self. Gail is a rare diamond.”

“If I could only use one word to describe Gail Hill it would be “inspiring”. If I could use two, it would be “inspiring & luminous”. Gail’s CreativeSelf workshop and highly tuned facilitation skills have been a welcome catalyst towards my own personal and professional growth during this very experiential process. Unexpectedly, I have also had the honour to witness the extraordinary growth of others within our circle. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to participate and look forward to a creative process that, as Gail notes, “never has to end.””

“Gail Hill is a “one of a kind person” who walks in grace, taking in and honoring all of her surroundings. She has a gentle persuasive approach that allows people the space to reflect on her feedback and ideas. She is a master at the art of communication and leaves you feeling like she hangs on your every word. Gail offers you a lifeline, a chance to view your world through a creatively different lens. And her visual art is a further reflection of who she is - big – bold - brilliant - beautiful - creative and ever welcoming. If you have the opportunity to partake in Gail’s CreativeSelf workshop, jump at the chance. When you spend time with her you know you are in the presence of greatness. ”

“I have been in a group with Gail Hill for many years. She is a profoundly respectful and highly focused listener with extraordinary skills of perception and reflection. Gail is someone you can trust to deliver insight with high emotional intelligence and sensitivity to others. She is creative, devoted and hugely inspirational. If you can get an opportunity to be in a CreativeSelf group process with her I fully recommend it.”

“Gail Hill is a highly gifted and talented artist. She is also a great human being —- a giant of a person, philosophically. Gail is also a deeply spiritual person and highly capable as a Mentor of effecting change in those clients that engage her. She is an experienced, caring and wise individual and it is a privilege to know Gail. She is without a doubt, a very special, ‘one in a million’ type of person.”