BIO

Fern is a queer writer, facilitator, musician, and storyteller who lives in Chicago, IL. She is the owner and founder of Bespoke Healing, which is home to many of her creative projects as well as where she provides therapy to Chicago’s queer community as a Licensed Clinical Psychologist. 

Fern comes from a lineage of strong women who farmed their own food, worked as riveters in Detroit during World War II, and were vegetarians before it was cool. She was brought up in a rich storytelling tradition, and family gatherings were often punctuated by tales and music told around the campfire or dinner table. Fern stayed rooted in the power of narrative as she went on to pursue her career, and she has practiced psychology in Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Texas in settings including inpatient residential, community mental health, college counseling, and private practice. She also teaches in the Counseling Psychology masters program at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. 

Fern’s current projects include The Show and Tell Show, a 90-minute artifact-based storytelling experience; Return to Sender, essays about heartbreak and healing told in episodic vignettes; an award show for emails; and her annual Grief Party, which encourages attendees to celebrate losses both zany and profound. Fern has told stories at The Moth, Story Lab, and Gilead Chicago, and she likes setting trite 90s dance music to a minor key to really dampen the mood. 

Fern’s attention to how we narrate and who gets left out of those narratives is a theme across her work. She often finds herself working with artists and organizers, and she is interested in making that centers grief, ancestry, and anti-colonial work. The goal of her work is often to bring justice, joy, and clarity to those who witness and partake in her making, and her favorite thing is hearing what others were inspired to do or reflect on after communing with her. Fern hopes her work continues to evolve and expand into more workshops, retreats, and community spaces.

WHAT I MAKE

Big words & big feelings

EXPLORING:

I’m trying to take The Show and Tell Show up to Three Oaks, MI! The Show and Tell Show is a 90-minute artifact-based storytelling experience co-created by myself and the audience, and I’d like to run it at a local theater or virtually through one of my old professors who has an interest in it. I’m also still editing my personal essay collection, Return to Sender, about a turbulent period in my life where everything was coming up grief. And…I’m still writing other stuff too! So mainly I’m looking to submit things for publication and performance this term.