Free workshop "Healing Through Comics" uses creativity to help process grief

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Jeff Morris, a comic book writer in St. Petersburg, has one heck of a superhero origin story.

When he was just 15, he watched his father — whom he adored and loved to watch pro wrestling with — die from cardiac arrest.

Inspired by his dad, he later became a pro wrestler himself, a villain, a heel.

WATCH Free workshop "Healing Through Comics" uses creativity to help process grief

But years later, still wracked with guilt over his father's death, "I was surprised to find I had hidden feelings I hadn't addressed," he said.

So, he embraced another love in his life to find some peace and understanding: Comic books.

He wrote a story about a boy and his father and their mutual love of wrestling.

"I thought, hey, let's maybe work through these things through a comic-book form," he said.

It worked wonders and then some.

Through creativity, he found something illuminating: Hope.

And a way to process life's harder moments.

Jeff recently published a beautiful collection of short comics — each using magic realism to tackle themes of grief and loss — called "True Believer" (available through Bent Box Comics).

Through a partnership with Creative Pinellas and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI Pinellas), he'll soon be hosting a free workshop for young people called "Healing Through Comics" (register here).

On June 10 and 12, at NAMI Pinellas in Clearwater, young adults will create their own comic books based on their own complex emotions.

"The goal is not to make something that rivals Marvel or DC," Jeff says. "We want it to be focused on the process you're going through, what you're discovering about yourself."

For more mental wellness programs for young adults, visit Youth Move Pinellas.

For more information on "Healing Through Comics," go here.

To follow Sean Daly on Instagram, go to @seandalytv.