Bear Academy Season 4. Lee Young spent nearly 20 years as a designer, most recently as Product Design Director at Xero in Auckland, where he and Bear were colleagues. Then he left, retrained, and became a creative arts therapist.

He now works at two ends of life: neurodivergent children at Rainbow House, and hospice patients nearing the end at Dove Hospice, while running his own private therapy practice.

In this conversation we discuss why his 20-year detour through web design, e-commerce, product design, and design leadership was not wasted but necessary. We talk about the illusion of corporate job security, why "design is creating for others and art is creating for yourself", the relationship between creativity and play, and practical ways to find presence in a distracted world. Lee also shares stories from his practice: the woman who spent an hour filling a page with yellow pastel, the six-year-old who released his anger by throwing clay at a tree, and his involvement in New Zealand's first psilocybin-assisted therapy programme.

Chapters

00:00 Intro: Lee made a choice most of us think about but rarely make

00:52 Monday mornings now vs as a designer

01:12 The 20-year detour: web design to product to leadership to coaching to art therapy

03:00 Was the career counsellor's advice a wrong turn?

04:30 Trust your gut at each stage

05:20 What transferred: Double Diamond and the coaching process

07:30 Freelancer skills that most therapists do not have

08:20 Corporate salary as a runway for career change

09:50 The first weeks after leaving: freedom or void?

11:20 Golden cage: high salary makes it hard to leave

14:00 The illusion of corporate job security

15:50 Freelancing gives you more transparency and control

17:00 Creativity in corporate vs agency vs independent work

18:30 "Design is creating for others. Art is creating for yourself."

20:00 Creativity and play share the same root

22:00 Xero Design Jam: the most fun project was in month one

23:00 What is art therapy? Using things other than words

26:00 Pastels, clay, twigs, drama, dance: all languages

27:30 An art therapist is a guide, not a fixer

28:30 The woman who filled a page with yellow pastel for an hour

30:30 The six-year-old throwing clay at a tree

33:00 Measuring impact: why CBT gets funded and art therapy struggles

36:00 How therapists maintain their own wellbeing

38:00 Systemic challenges for neurodivergent children

41:00 Working with adults vs children: adults have more wiggle room

42:00 Hospice work: a privilege and an honour

44:00 Presence is a rare commodity

46:00 Anxiety lives in the past and future; presence anchors you

48:00 Neurographic drawing: a 5 to 10 minute stress release

50:00 The simplest reset: face the sun, close your eyes, two minutes

51:00 Mini nature therapy: prioritise touch, sound, smell over sight

53:00 What's next: peer supervision training and psilocybin-assisted therapy

55:00 Dr Fee Caracott and NZ's first psilocybin prescriptions

56:00 Possibly returning to Whitecliffe as a guest lecturer

57:00 "Enjoying beginner's mind, not rushing to the next step"

Hosted by Bear Liu. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FFu5nH4V_tA

More at https://bearliu.com