Kelli Bertram is a Family Specialist at Crisis Nursery and has always had the goal of one day writing a book.
“I kept pushing it off, because I didn’t even know where to begin,” she said, admitting to not know much about the book-writing process.
Being home-bound during the COVID-19 pandemic left her feeling moody, agitated, angry and overall unwell mentally—so she turned to adult coloring books to ease her stress and help her mindfulness.
“I’ve always been very creative and artistic,” Kelli said. “Coloring is a way for me to feel in control again, especially during a time when we have little control over the world around us.”
Coloring is an outlet, allowing the artist to choose the colors, the utensils, everything. It’s Kelli’s therapy—and other adults will agree it helps them too.
Coloring can help reduce stress and anxiety, improves motor skills and vision, improves sleep and improves focus, according to Beaumont.
Crisis Nursery incorporates aspects of art in a variety of ways. Family Specialists, like Kelli, include art during home visits with families, as well as offering art therapy groups. The Nursery also uses art with children and parents who attend play groups. The Family Specialists see just how big of an impact art has on our families as well as themselves!
After a few weeks of coloring and seeing her mood increase, Kelli had a conversation with her sister Lacey. Next thing you know, Kelli is on the road to creating an adult coloring and activity book.
“I’ve seen coloring books (for adults),” she said. “But I’ve never seen adult coloring books that also have self-help activities.” 
So she combined the two to create the "Freaking Awesome Adult Activity Book." All of the activities were created by Kelli, with Social Work concepts in mind. There are activities that work on thought interruption, positive self-talk, mindfulness, self-care brainstorming, self-esteem, feeling in control, journaling and more!
“Overall, I wanted to create a book that people can color, while also working on their mental health,” Kelli said.
The book is spiral bound, so you can lay the book flat while coloring. It is also single-sided so if you use markers, it won’t bleed through to the next page. This feature also makes it handy if you want to tear a page out and hang it up.
“This book is 100% what the reader makes it,” Kelli said. “I just provided the prompts to get you started.”
Interested in purchasing Kelli's activity book? Click here.