Meet Sunshine and Friends
Meet Sunshine and Friends
The imagination behind Group Therapy.
Sunshine Avery
Owner and Creative Director
Sunshine Avery is a lifelong artist and the founder of Group Therapy with Sunshine & Friends. She is passionate about bringing people together, inspiring positivity, and destigmatizing mental health struggles. Through Group Therapy, Sunshine highlights the artists she meets and showcases unique local businesses. As the African proverb says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Kristin Streetman
Art Director
Kristin sees the world through a designer’s eye. As Art Director for Group Therapy with Sunshine & Friends, she brings visual harmony to our beautiful chaos. She balances color, texture, and emotion with an intuitive touch. Her work guides each issue’s aesthetic journey from spark to story.
Beyond her design sense, Kristin is a grounding presence and creative compass for our team. Whether she’s sketching late into the night or curating our next visual theme, she approaches every project with quiet brilliance.
Janey Porter
Writer
Janey Trivette Porter is a published author, entrepreneur, and advocate for women, minorities, disabled,and special needs children and Lupus Foundation. She is one of the founders of Natural Elements, a holistic dispensary, in Lenoir, NC and Wildwood Heart Farm, a glamping and herbal farm in Boomer, North Carolina, where she blends her Appalachian heritage with a natural vision of wellness, storytelling, and environmental stewardship.
Her work has appeared in multiple magazines and newspapers, and her forthcoming book, Ashes & Ancestors: A True Story of Appalachian Blood and Becoming (Summer 2027), offers a raw and lyrical account of family, heritage, and survival in the Southern mountains. Written in her Melungeon voice, the memoir highlights the struggles of a woman growing up in the Appalachian mountains.
Through her writing, her farm, and her passion for others, Janey celebrates the enduring spirit of Appalachia while standing fiercely for love, equality, and the right of every voice to be heard.
Chaotic Rogue
Poet
There are some souls who move through life like a storm and a lullaby all at once. Choatic Rogue is one of them. He speaks from the quiet edges of longing, where love and pain still hold hands. A true Cancerian at heart, he feels everything deeply; the ache of the past, the ache of beauty, the ache of wanting to belong.
His words drift between romance and rebellion, weaving tenderness into chaos. Every poem is a message in a bottle, tossed out to the universe in hopes that someone, somewhere, will open it and understand.
He writes for connection; the kind that transcends small talk and lands right in the soul. Through poetry, Chaotic Rogue turns vulnerability into art and heartbreak into something sacred. Beneath the ink, he’s just a boy who still believes that love- real, unguarded love- can save us.
Kia
Tarot Bites Creator
A retired mother of two from New York City, Kia now calls Massachucets home. A lifelong Yankee fan and artist, Kia now advocates for food security and cultivating community supports. She shares her soulful tarot reflections with Group Therapy. Through her writing, Kia channels the stories written between the cards.
Before making Massachucets her home, Kia ran a thriving interior landscaping business in NYC, transforming urban spaces with living art and tropical beauty. Over the past two decades, she’s poured that same nurturing energy into her community, helping grow food security programs, supporting neighborhood gardens, and uplifting others through kindness and creative connection.
The Mewses
Directors of Morale... and Chaos
Every great creative collective needs a little mischief- that’s where The Mewses come in. Furry and opinionated, these felines are the true keepers of inspiration at Group Therapy. They remind us to pause in the sunlight, stretch between ideas, and knock over whatever isn’t serving us (literally and metaphorically).
As Directors of Morale...and Chaos, The Mewses oversee all important operations, from naps to dramatic stares. Their supervision style is intuitive and mysterious, being one part cuddle therapy, and one part creative anarchy.
At the heart of it, The Mewses teach one essential truth: all art begins with curiosity… and maybe some cat hair.
Hamilton
Chief Hamming Officer
Hamilton is our resident mood-lifter. Whether he’s sonic borking the Mewses in line, going on sniffari, or just keeping Sunshine on task, he makes sure the team remembers to have fun.
Group Therapy with Sunshine and Friends
ISSN: 3067-1051
Your favorite grass roots publication featuring art, poetry, ideas, and local stuff, like community. We're always a good time, like kicking back on the couch with your favorite comfort items! Join us and be our friend!