Padric Payton is a Creative Empowerment Advisor who blends narrative coaching, poetry therapy, and mind-body practices to inspire his clients into more meaningful, courageous, and creative lives. He holds a B.A. in Rhetoric from UC Berkeley and has over 15 years experience as an educator, mentor, and artistic collaborator. His primary field of interest is the capacity of imaginative thinking to liberate individuals to experience and communicate their emotions more powerfully.

Padric spent much of his youth as a songwriter, singer, and guitarist in several Los Angeles based bands and was privileged to work with world-class musicians and producers along the way. His songs have been featured in numerous movies and tv shows. In addition to his experience as a songwriter, poet, and teacher, Padric’s work draws on his studies in the fields of positive psychology, psychoneuroimmunology, narrative coaching, and rhetoric. He also has extensive personal experience using mindfulness, somatic experiencing, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to relieve chronic physical and mental/emotional pain. Above all, Padric brings deep empathy and compassion for his fellow human beings into his practice.

Padric says, "At our best and most pure we are music, but the world requires us to be numbers and words - statistics and stories to situate and define us, to make order from the wild and beautiful chaos of our natures. To live poetically is an act of constructive rebellion against the rules and right angles of culture, a decision to be a part of society but not let its often flat language constrict our true essence. We can choose to live at the frontier of our selves, courageous enough to feel fully and to express fully. We can be like poetry, halfway between language and music, bridging the gap between logic and imagination."