After retiring, as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in April 2010, I was ecstatic for the first four months. Let’s face it, listening to people’s crisis, tumult and sad tales for 18 years took a toll on me Don’t get me wrong doing Jungian Dream Analysis, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy was fun and interesting and most of all helping people gain clarity and solace was rewarding. The first thing I did was take a well deserved break, but then what to do next? The only thing I had done prior to Social Work was acting.
I loved acting. I acted on stage since I was 9 years old and was in every play in Elementary school, Junior High, High School and College. I loved theater, the classics, avant garde, improv and writing scripts, but most of all I dreamt of being a famous movie star since I could talk. I had the acting bug seriously, seriously. I was possessed with being an actress and quit the State School I was attending to consider moving to Hollywood and start auditioning for a professional career. Prior to moving my parents insisted I finish up some General Education at Pasadena City College. I took a Shakespeare Literature Course and met Martin Sheen’s brother Joe Estevez. We did a scene from a Midsummer Night’s Dream together and Joe encouraged me to follow my dream and move to Hollywood and so I did. I lived in Hollywood from 19-23 years old.
The world of Hollywood was a pretty harsh place during the early 80’s but I was persistent. I took lessons from the best Stella Adler and Uta Hagen and I did a few, very few silly movies. Noone took me seriously, seriously. It was hard no matter how hard I hit the pavement. You really had to be the daughter, or niece of so and so to make it at the time. I was talented, attractive, in great shape and to no avail. I also had some pretty scary experiences, so after 4 years I moved back home and went straight through to get a Master’s Degree in Social Work. If I couldn’t help myself I would help others.
After retirement I remembered my sweet and small and insignificant career as a young actress and was watching a movie one night called Venice Venice by Henry Jaglom. I had never seen such a magical, touching, in touch movie that touched me so deeply. I cried and laughed and cried and laughed I don’t know how many times. I had never in my life felt so attracted and drawn to a film. It inspired me to want to act again. I felt a welling surge of desire that I had not felt since my youthful desire to be an actress. I also had never written to a production compnay, but I had to because I didn’t think I could live without more of Rainbow Film’s Henry Jaglom’s work. So I found the website http://www.rainbowfilms.com and wrote an email stating how much I loved Venice Venice. Henry responded and we became friends. Henry even cast me in his film The M Word which will come out in late 2013. I also did commercials, infomercials, a play in Newport Beach and some student films. It was so fun! I realized that I could just slip easily back into acting, but something ached from inside about helping people. I still wanted to help people, not just myself.
I started I-Deal-Lifestyle a Professional Organizer business in Orange County, Los Angeles and San Diego offering organizer services, home organizing, office organizer systems, business organizer services, Feng Shui, Interior Design and Lifestyle Coaching. The past two and a half years I have helped hundreds of people organizer their lives. We organize paper, kitchens, closets, garages, storage units, help move people, we help people who hoard, collect and acquire way too much. We help people downsize, upsize, relocate, re-evaluate their values in order to see what they want to keep in their lives, provide life coaching, business coaching and mental health advocacy and consulting. I even spoke publicly for three major conferences this last couple of years on cures and remedies for hoarding challenges. I have become a Hoarding and Cluttering Expert with new and innovative techniques to stop hoarding behaviors permanently. Acting went on the back burner, but the dream, desire and determination is still there.
I am now positioning the company to run without me full time so I can get back into the acting more. I cannot let the idea of acting go. The theater haunts me to return. The call of the new and improved film industry call my name ….Marla Stone….. Marla are you organizing your life too?
Marla Stone is a Professional Organizer in Irvine, Orange County California. She specializes in organizing people’s lives from the outside in and the inside out. Her areas of expertise are organizing hoarding clean-ups, coaching people with hoarding, helping them figure out what they truly value in life and learn how to protect their stuff, interventions for people with ADD, ADHD, Depression, Anxiety, Grief and Loss, Chronic Pain, Physical Challenges and or Chronic Mental and Physical Health Challenges organize their lives.
Marla can be reached at 949-709-7000 for a free 15 minute phone consultation.
www.i-deal-lifestyle.com
Marla also owns www.organizersnow.com
