Bethany Hiitola
Creative, Writer, Explorer
I’ve spent much of my career helping people find language for what they know and what they are trying to do. My background spans writing, design, multimedia, marketing, and brand strategy, including leading teams in content, communication, and creative. I’ve also worked in the creative field, in corporate settings, and in consulting and curriculum development, and authored books on open-source tools. Across that work, I’ve paid attention to the distance between what someone means and what they (are able to) say.
In my marketing and brand experience, the question has always been around what people hope a product, an identity, or an imagined future will give them. As a marketer, you speak to that hope (and if you are good at your job, you also solve a problem or need). However, that is not the same as giving someone meaning and purpose.
We search for meaning in families, relationships, social groups, or through our careers and inner work. The more I explore my inner experience through writing, art, self-inquiry, imagination, contemplative practice (and consistency), playful experimentation, and deep relational work, the more meaningful my life has become.
I have studied dreamwork, archetypal patterns, active imagination, image work and have ongoing interests in depth psychology, somatic approaches, and esoteric studies of past and present. This has helped develop my own methods of Narrative Creativework and Imaginal Pattern Studies that approach meaning-making and spiritual exploration through a lens of imagination, narrative, relationship, and symbol.
I created Mirth & Myth to give this work room to develop. I’m writing and creating guided inquiries that invite people to look more closely at their inner experience, consider what they have assumed, and broaden their inherited identities. As people work with these inquiries, I also guide contemplative and creative practices that invite more symbolism and meaning into daily life. My goal is to stay curious, foster imaginative thought, and allow others to feel met in their inner world.
