"Art Isn't a Real Career": Creative Blocks and Immigrant Identity in NYC

You've always been creative. Drawing, writing, making, performing—it's what makes you feel alive. But every time you try to create seriously, pursue it as more than a hobby, or consider it as a career, you hear the voice: "Art isn't a real career. We didn't sacrifice everything so you could struggle like an artist."

Maybe it's your parents' voice. Maybe it's your own internalized immigrant anxiety. Maybe it's the entire cultural weight of generations who survived by being practical, not by being creative.

So you create in secret. Or you don't create at all. Or you have a "real job" and make art in the stolen hours, feeling guilty for wanting something your family can't understand, something that feels selfish when they gave up everything for your stability.

Your creative block isn't just about inspiration or discipline. It's about permission—permission to want something your culture doesn't value, permission to prioritize your creative soul over practical success, permission to disappoint the people who sacrificed everything for you.

As a first-generation Greek-American art therapist working with immigrant creatives in Brooklyn and throughout New York State, I understand this specific creative block. I know what it's like to love making art in a family that doesn't understand why you'd choose it. I know the guilt, the split, the feeling that your creativity is both your truth and your betrayal.

Why Immigrant Creatives Face Unique Blocks

Your creative block isn't just typical artist resistance. It's culturally rooted, family-embedded, tied to survival and sacrifice.

You're carrying messages like:

• "Art is a hobby, not a career"

• "We didn't come here so you could be poor"

• "You need stability/security/a real job"

• "Creativity is selfish when people are struggling"

• "Artists starve—we already starved so you wouldn't have to"

• "What will people think if you're an artist?"

These aren't just limiting beliefs—they're survival wisdom from people who knew poverty, who fled instability, who learned that creativity is a luxury you can only afford after basic needs are secured.

The problem is: You can't not create. It's not a luxury for you—it's necessary. But choosing it feels like rejecting their sacrifice.

When "Practical" Means Suppressing Your Soul

Many immigrant creatives end up in practical careers that slowly kill their spirits:

• Engineering when you wanted to paint

• Business when you wanted to write

• Medicine when you wanted to make music

• Law when you wanted to dance

You're successful. You make good money. Your family is proud. And you're dying inside.

This creates:

• Depression that looks like success from the outside

• Creative blocks because you've suppressed your creative self for so long

• Resentment toward your family (followed by guilt about the resentment)

• Identity crisis—who are you if you're not doing what you love?

• Grief for the artist you could have been

The practical choice might have made financial sense, but it came at a psychological cost.

The Guilt of Choosing Creativity

If you're pursuing creativity despite family disapproval, you carry enormous guilt:

• Guilt for "wasting" the opportunities they gave you

• Guilt for struggling financially when they wanted you secure

• Guilt for choosing passion over stability

• Guilt for disappointing them

• Guilt for being "selfish enough" to prioritize your art

This guilt doesn't just make you feel bad—it actively blocks your creativity. How can you make art freely when every stroke feels like a betrayal?

When Your Culture Doesn't Have "Artist" as an Option

In many immigrant cultures, there are acceptable careers (doctor, lawyer, engineer, business) and everything else is not a real job.

Artist isn't on the list. Writer isn't on the list. Musician, dancer, painter, actor—none of these count as viable paths.

This means:

• You don't have role models in your family who chose creativity

• You can't explain your career to relatives back home

• Family gatherings become interrogations about when you'll get a "real job"

• Your success as an artist doesn't translate to your family's definition of success

• You feel invisible and misunderstood by the people who raised you

The pain isn't just about creative blocks—it's about being seen and valued for who you actually are.

Art Therapy Practice: Permission to Create

You'll need:

• Paper and art materials

• Something that represents your family (photo, object)

Part 1: The Forbidden Art

Create something you've been afraid to create—the art that feels too selfish, too impractical, too much of what your family wouldn't approve of.

Don't censor. Don't make it "good." Just make the forbidden thing.

Notice what comes up:

• Guilt? Fear? Excitement? Relief?

• Where do you feel it in your body?

• Whose voice is commenting in your head?

Part 2: Dialogue with the Disapproval

Draw or paint a representation of the disapproval, the judgment, the voice that says your creativity isn't valuable.

Then have a conversation with it:

• What are you protecting me from?

• What do you fear will happen if I choose creativity?

• What would you need to feel safe letting me create?

Often, the disapproval is trying to protect you from poverty, instability, or struggle. It loves you—it just doesn't understand that suppressing your creativity is its own kind of poverty.

Part 3: Integration

Create an image that shows both honoring your family's sacrifice AND honoring your creative calling. They're not mutually exclusive.

You can be grateful for their sacrifice AND choose your own path.
You can honor their values AND have different values.
You can love them AND disappoint them.
You can succeed as an artist AND make your immigration story meaningful.

Both/and. Always both/and.

Therapy for Creative Blocks

In therapy, we work with:

Parts work for the internal conflict
The part that wants to create, the part that feels guilty, the part that's terrified of disappointing your family—helping them integrate.

EMDR for creative shame and criticism
Processing specific moments of being told your art doesn't matter, that you're wasting your time, that you should be practical.

Somatic work for creative flow
Learning to recognize when your creative energy is blocked in your body and how to release it.

Narrative therapy for rewriting success
Examining whose definition of success you're living by and creating your own that includes creativity.

Gestalt work for the conversation you need to have
Practicing saying to your family (or to yourself): "I'm choosing this. I need you to support me even if you don't understand."

When You Need to Choose Yourself

At some point, you might need to choose your creative path even when your family doesn't approve. This is terrifying and necessary.

This might look like:

• Quitting the "safe job" to pursue art

• Going back to school for an MFA

• Moving to pursue creative opportunities

• Saying no to family expectations

• Living with less financial security for creative freedom

These choices require immense courage. They also require support—from therapy, from chosen family, from creative community.

You're Not Betraying Them

Here's what I need you to understand: Choosing creativity isn't betraying your family's sacrifice. Living a half-life, suppressing who you are, being miserable in a "practical" career—that's wasting their sacrifice.

They left everything so you could have opportunities. The opportunity to be fully yourself, to pursue what makes you come alive, to build a life that feels meaningful—that IS honoring their sacrifice.

Your happiness matters. Your fulfillment matters. Your creative soul matters.

Support for Creative Immigrants

If your creative blocks are rooted in immigrant family expectations, cultural guilt, or the split between your artistic soul and your "practical" life, let's work together.

As a creative arts therapist who understands the immigrant experience, I help immigrant artists and creatives in Brooklyn and throughout New York State (virtual) heal creative blocks, process family expectations, and claim permission to create.

Ready to unblock your creativity? Schedule your free consultation in Brooklyn or anywhere in New York State.

Irene Maropakis, LCAT, is a first-generation Greek-American Creative Arts Therapist specializing in creative blocks, immigrant identity, and helping artists navigate family expectations in Brooklyn, NY and throughout New York State.