Our Team

Jessica Blank is an actor, writer, director, speaker, and coach. With her husband Erik Jensen, she is author of THE EXONERATED, a play based on interviews they conducted with over 40 wrongfully convicted death row inmates across the United States. THE EXONERATED won Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Ovation, Fringe First and Herald Angel Awards; it has also received awards from Amnesty International, the American Bar Association, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Death Penalty Focus, and Court TV, and was listed by the New York Times as “the number 1 play of the year.”  It was made into an award-winning movie adapted by Jessica and Erik, starring Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, Brian Dennehy, Aidan Quinn and Delroy Lindo, has received hundreds of productions across the United States and internationally, read into the Senate record, and translated into Mandarin, French, Spanish and Japanese.  LIVING JUSTICE, their book about the making of THE EXONERATED, was published by Simon and Schuster. Their documentary play AFTERMATH, based on interviews they conducted with Iraqi civilian refugees in Jordan, directed by Jessica, was a New York Times Critics’ Pick, toured internationally for two years and was nominated for two Drama League Awards.  Their latest play, HOW TO BE A ROCK CRITIC (based on the writings of Lester Bangs), recently completed sold-out runs at the Kirk Douglas Theater, South Coast Rep, ArtsEmerson, Steppenwolf, and Off-Broadway at the Public Theater, with Erik starring and Jessica directing, and is in development for feature film with Likely Story.  They are at work on a new documentary play under commission from the Public Theater, about the 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, with original music by the Grammy-Award winning musician Steve Earle.

Jessica is also active as a writer, director and actor for film and television; she and Erik recently completed their first feature, ALMOST HOME, which they directed and adapted from Jessica’s first novel (Hyperion, 2008), and which premieres in fall of 2018. Their second feature, HOW TO BE A ROCK CRITIC, is in development with Likely Story. They wrote the pilot THE NEGOTIATOR for Gaumont TV (Tom Fontana, EP) and have developed for TV with Fox TV Studios, 20th Century TV, Avenue Pictures, Sunswept Entertainment, Virgin Produced, and Radical Media.

As an actor, Jessica appeared regularly as the lead’s loudmouthed big sister in CBS’ MADE IN JERSEY.  Additional TV credits include BLUE BLOODS, ELEMENTARY, THE FOLLOWING, THE MENTALIST, HBO’s HIGH MAINTENANCE, BORED TO DEATH, RESCUE ME, LAW AND ORDER: CI, THE BRONX IS BURNING, and several more. Film acting credits include THE NAMESAKE (dir. Mira Nair), YOU’RE NOBODY TILL SOMEBODY KILLS YOU  (prod. Spike Lee), SLENDER MAN, and over a dozen indies including CREATIVE CONTROL (Grand Jury Prize, SXSW) and ON THE ROAD WITH JUDAS (Sundance). 

As a story consultant and narrative coach, Jessica works with TV showrunners, Sundance-supported filmmakers, Off-Broadway playwrights, published novelists, Broadway actors and series regulars.  She also works with thought leaders, changemakers, and progressive candidates to harness the power of story, including national and state level progressive candidates and numerous national and international NGOs. She was a founding mentor for the Writers Guild Initiative’s Veterans’ Writing Project and, has taught writing to vets, wounded veterans’ caregivers, formerly incarcerated individuals, and death row exonerees for eight years. Jessica is a resident teacher at several New York acting schools, a mentor for the Firelight Documentary Lab, and has guest-taught at numerous colleges and universities including Brown, Stanford, Vanderbilt, NYU, The New School, Northwestern, Indiana University, Macalester College, and Hamline University. She is a frequent speaker and panelist on the arts and social justice, and has a thriving private practice in New York and Los Angeles as a story consultant and performance coach for professional writers and actors. 

Jamie Marich’s friends and colleagues describe her as a renaissance woman. A dancer, musician, performer, writer, clinical counselor, and registered expressive arts therapist, Marich unites these elements of her experience to achieve an ultimate mission: bringing the art and joy of healing to others. Marich’s career in counseling and human services began while she worked in Bosnia-Hercegovina from 2000-2003. While in Bosnia, Marich served as an English and music teacher, in addition to working freelance for other humanitarian aid projects.

Marich, currently working in private practice after obtaining many years of experience in inpatient mental health, inpatient chemical dependency, and outpatient dual diagnosis treatment, travels the country for several professional continuing education providers, offering instruction on a variety of clinical topics. Jamie is the author of five books: EMDR Made Simple (2011), Trauma and the Twelve Steps (2012), Creative Mindfulness (2013), and Trauma Made Simple (2014), and her latest book, Dancing Mindfulness: A Creative Path to Healing and Transformation, which was released in the Fall of 2015 (SkylightPaths Publishing). Jamie was interviewed as a master clinician in the DVD, Trauma Treatment: Psychotherapy for the 21st Century (2012) alongside icons like Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Dr. Peter Levine, Dr. Robert Scaer, and Belleruth Naparstek. Jamie had the privilege of offering trauma recovery retreats at the Kripalu School for Yoga & Health in the Fall of 2012, at the Esalen Institute in the Spring of 2013 and Winter of 2014, and at Amrit Yoga Institute in Salt Springs, Florida in the Fall of 2015 and 2016. In 2015, Marich launched her own EMDRIA-Approved EMDR Therapy training curriculum and now enjoys training a new generation of EMDR clinicians alongside her collaborative faculty members (and friends) Amber Stiles-Bodnar and Dr. Stephen Dansiger. Marich and Dansiger are working collaboratively on a book EMDR Therapy & Mindfulness for Trauma Focused Care, due out with Springer Publishing later in 2016.

Jamie strives to incorporate music and other forms of creative expression into her practice. As her career developed, Marich’s love for experience-oriented methods of healing and trauma resolution intensified, prompting her to explore the conscious dance scene and various ways of applying these wonderful, “come as you are” practices into the healing process. Having completed several trainings and experiencing other conscious dance practices at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Massachusetts, Marich was encouraged and inspired to develop her own, unique practice, which now exists in the form of Dancing Mindfulness. To date, Marich has taught conscious dance seminars at various conferences nationally and internationally and has trained more than 170 facilitators in the Dancing Mindfulness practice. She completed her Reiki Master teacher training in the Usui Shiki Ryoho system of Reiki under Master Valerie Spitaler. Marich is a Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT) through the International Association of Expressive Arts Therapists and offers a full certificate in Expressive Arts Therapy through her Institute for Creative Mindfulness. Trained in several modalities of recovery and trauma-informed yoga, Marich recently launched the Yoga Unchained method of trauma-informed yoga with Jessica Sowers.