Acton, Massachusetts – Niela Miller
By Valerie Franchi, Contributing Writer Artist and educator creates ‘second life’ online Posted on 26 February 2016. http://www.fiftyplusadvocate.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/FEA-Niela-Miller-rs.jpg Niela Miller and her avatar “Marly Milena” By Valerie Franchi, Contributing Writer Acton resident Niela Miller, 81, is a multi-talented artist, musician, author, life coach and therapist. As if that wasn’t enough for one life, Miller has embarked upon a new adventure, taking her myriad skills online. In “Second Life,” a virtual 3D program on the Internet, Miller has created a whole new world with her alter-ego or “avatar,” Marly Milena. She uses all aspects of her creativity – photographs, paintings, music, theater improv and movement – as tools for awareness, problem-solving, community building, spiritual development and building cultural bridges. But when she first heard of “Second Life” in 2007, Miller, like many seniors, was reluctant to approach the new technology. “I was a serious technophobe,” she explained in a 2010 article in Online Therapy Institute’s TILT Magazine, “afraid of things going wrong on my computer, trouble with remembering how to use electronic devices like recorders, and, in general, intimidated by anything structural or mechanical with moving parts.” Fortunately, creative curiosity overtook her fear. “As soon as I heard about Second Life, I got excited and curious since I saw its potential for creative projects of all kinds, for doing teaching and therapy in new ways, for meeting people from all over the world, for finding just about any interest group I could think of, and for having a lot of fun,” Miller noted. Miller began her creative endeavors as a child when her parents enrolled her in the neighborhood music school in New York City. She attended an arts-focused high school and studied voice, guitar and piano. She became interested in social work in high school while teaching music at the Lighthouse for the Blind. At Antioch College, she majored in creative arts and theater. She joined the Association for Humanistic Psychology at the end of the 1960s. “I was hooked by different forms of working with people,” she said, adding that her focus was humanistic psychology rather than psychoanalysis. “We viewed people as not broken and in need of fixing, but looked at their strengths and how to help them develop their potential,” she explained. Miller and her then-husband moved to Lexington in 1969 and joined the Associates for Human Resources. She developed awareness workshops and graduate-level courses which she facilitated for years, as well as training to corporations, nonprofits and individuals. There and elsewhere, Miller studied with top therapists, including Fritz Perls, founder of Gestalt therapy and other pioneers of the human potential movement. She designed and implemented over a thousand workshops in areas of personal and professional development and presented them in learning centers, at conferences, in hospitals and mental health centers. Among her many accomplishments is her 1995 book, “Counseling in Genderland,” in which she attempts to help counselors who work with the transgender community, two manuals, a self-published book of short stories and poems, and CDs of piano music, choral music and original songs. She has lived in Acton since 1984 in a house that is equal parts home, art gallery and music studio. Now, she has combined her artistic and coaching skills into one all-encompassing medium. “I always wanted to combine arts processes with therapy and coaching,” she said, “and I have developed some original ways of using arts processes for organizational and personal growth.” Read more by viewing the PDF attached to this celebration…
- Start: 15 April 2020
- End: 15 April 2020
- Attendance:
- Location: N/A , , United States
