“we must be able to imagine otherwise.”
hello, i’m
tasha golden
I’m an international speaker and consultant, career singer/songwriter, and PhD health scientist. As a leading expert in Creativity and Wellbeing, I help leaders, organizations, and change-makers of all kinds link creativity with wellbeing to grow their work.
As an artist, I know creativity’s an essential part of how we navigate and improve the human experience. It’s “how we human.”
As a health scientist, I know that every aspect of our lives and communities plays a role in health.
As both, I help my audiences and clients discover their role in wellbeing.. so they can grow their work and drive positive change.
I lead research for the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and I’m Adjunct Faculty for the University of Florida’s Center for Arts in Medicine. My peer-reviewed studies help shift health paradigms, and I speak and consult around the globe.
Here’s what’s clear: Creativity is part of wellbeing. Knowing how to integrate these two will transform your work.
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What I do
When I’m not in nature or hanging out with my partner and cats (or tbh, even when I am), I spend my time imagining how clients can grow their work and change the world. As a neurodivergent creative, my wheelhouse includes questioning assumptions, bridging silos, and helping leaders re-cognize their work. As Baldwin wrote, “The world is before you, and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.”
✔️ keynote speaker
I speak internationally for a variety of audiences, and would love to connect with you. Drawing on my history as a performer, I create dynamic, memorable experiences to support your work.
✔️ training & workshops
I offer professional trainings, workshops, and courses that help clients enhance their work, generate new partnerships, and grow their impact.
My custom frameworks are rooted in a combination of research and practice. My research suggests new paths for growth… And what I really love is helping people discover those paths and take their next steps.
Workshops are where we address real barriers and questions… and turn ideas into action.
✔️ CONSULTING & ADVISING
I consult for clients ranging from global institutions to local nonprofits—helping them think creatively about their growth potential, strategies, evaluations, and communications. I bring an entrepreneur-creator lens to research and practice… Stir in my passion for real talk and real-world impact, and we make things happen.
✔️ research & evaluation
See PUBLICATIONS for examples of recent research.
“We can’t heal what we can’t talk abouT”: A STORY
Over years as a touring songwriter, I noticed that songs about domestic violence or depression made these topics "talk-about-able." All over the world, listeners stayed after shows to share with me their own experiences with these issues, often telling their stories for the first time.
What was it about those shows—about the art, music, setting—that allowed people to tell me what they’d never even told their doctors? Their loved ones?
And what does this tell us about humans’ literal need for creativity?
How have healthcare, businesses, nonprofits, governments, and education suffered because leaders expect humans to think and communicate in limited ways?
Similar questions came up when I founded Project Uncaged: a trauma-informed creative writing program for incarcerated girls. Writers shared very different experiences in their poems than in conversations or questionnaires—often revealing critical insights into their needs and strengths.
What was it about poetry that made these stories shareable? And what did this mean for girls’ well-being? After all, most decision-makers in juvenile justice aren’t reading youths’ poems. What are they missing by relying on data that don’t include art?
More broadly, what opportunities do we ALL miss when we fail to build creativity into our practices?
Driven by these questions,
I now research well-being, how it’s affected by creativity, and how we USE this knowledge to drive real change.
I lost my music career due to severe burnout and major depression. I had to reimagine my life, identity, and path—the hardest and most creative work I’ve ever done.
I know the deep value of asking hard questions, of sustaining our wellbeing, and of learning to Imagine Otherwise.
In my life, my research, and my clients, I’ve seen that creativity helps us understand ourselves, our work, and our worlds.
We either dig into this truth, or we miss great opportunities.
Ready to dig in?
