A Pioneering Framework
for Holistic Education
Empowering Adults to Help Young People Thrive
Creative Lives offers training in a pioneering, holistic approach that helps adults—and the young people they guide—address today’s most urgent learning, behavioral, and emotional challenges.
Based on educator Ellen Tadd’s discoveries about the human energy system (commonly known as the chakra system), A Framework for Wise Education® supports foundational strengths that underlie meaningful growth and resilience.
Adaptable to any setting, age group, or individual’s unique potential, this practical training equips you to help young people:
Cultivate wonder & connection
Develop focus & wisdom
Express curiosity & confidence
Convey caring & courage
Gain emotional well-being
Foster healthy relationships
Express their creativity
Build self-care & discipline
Thousands of educators, counselors, and parents have already seen these benefits in action. Explore how Creative Lives can be a vital missing piece for your teaching, parenting, or counseling work—and help children truly thrive.
Whole-Child Learning.
Whole-Community Impact.
Curious how our approach supports your work or parenting?
Schedule an introductory workshop for your team or community, or join a training today:
Free Webinar
The Epidemic of Disconnection:
3 Root Causes — and a New Way Forward
Explore today’s growing crisis of disconnection through the lens of A Framework for Wise Education®. Uncover common missteps that contribute to this challenge—and essential new ways to remedy it. You will gain a deeper understanding of the Framework approach that will help you appreciate the benefits of further training.
Self-Paced Online Mini-Course
The Inspiration Factor:
Fostering Inner Happiness & Intrinsic Motivation
This self-paced mini-course is a powerful next step in applying the Framework approach. Beginning with you, it uncovers key ways to strengthen inspiration and address stress, discouragement, disconnection, and more—offering insights you can apply right away. Available July 7. Note: In 2025, we will be releasing self-paced mini-courses for each Framework category.
Live Online Training
Join our in-depth training series and gain powerful, practical tools that support strengths in every Framework category
Designed for educators, counselors, and parents, this professional development experience helps adults and youth overcome today’s most pressing challenges—and grow in lasting ways. Graduate credit and PD hours available.
The Basis of Our Approach
The basis of A Framework for Wise Education is simple but profound: each of the seven main energy centers expresses a distinct aspect of our human nature—such as wisdom, curiosity, self-discipline, or empathy.
You know more about this system than you may realize: butterflies in your stomach, a swell of love in your chest, or a tight throat before speaking—these are your energy centers at work.
Helping our human energy system function well supports optimal learning and development for every individual.
A Critical Missing Piece
Why It Matters
In an age of rising challenges—stress, disconnection, and uncertainty—Creative Lives offers a holistic approach rooted in strengthening the core aspects of our essential selves.
A Framework for Wise Education® distills Ellen Tadd’s discoveries about the chakra system into seven universal areas of human development that support every individual’s potential for learning, contribution, and fulfillment. Tadd’s approach provides a vital missing piece in our collective effort to help young people thrive.
Join us and be part of the solution.
Meet Our Director
Creative Lives Director Maureen Burford invites you to explore our free webinar, The Epidemic of Disconnection (register above), and discover how our approach addresses today’s pressing challenges.
Hear From a 4th-Grader
In this video, a young boy shares a powerful Framework strategy he learned and used to navigate a challenge with friends.
Note: Although this child uses chakra terminology, children can experience the same benefits using alternate language, such as “Wise View” in place of “Third Eye.”
Based on Tangible Outcomes
Creative Lives has introduced Ellen Tadd’s Framework for Wise Education to thousands of youth, yielding remarkable outcomes. Now we’re scaling the impact by training the adults who guide children every day. Here is a sampling from our 2024–25 Outcome Data:
93% of our trainees report significant improvements in their ability to help children learn and develop their unique potential.
73% of our trainees can consistently help children make wise decisions and assess next steps with clarity, compared to 27% before training.
81% of our trainees report experiencing regular joy in their work and/or parenting, compared to 30% before training.
“I have never encountered a more powerful or meaningful approach to education.”
— Ree Webster, Educator