Cultivating meaning and authentic expression is an active and creative process with the mysteries of life. Embarking on this journey of becoming a co-creater with life can lead to richer connections and relationships, increased confidence, and a greater sense of wholeness.
It is time to become an active author in the life you were meant to live.
– Carl Jung
What if becoming whole was about cultivating and transforming our capacity to carry a heartbreak that has been entrusted to us? What if our joy is directly connected to our capacity to live into the fullness of our pain? What if we aren’t meant to do this alone?
“The purpose of life is to be defeated by greater and greater things.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke
– Stephen Jenkinson
Connection. Creation. Witnessing and being witnessed.
These are some of the essential qualities that are needed in order to transform the stories that keep our authentic expression trapped and locked away from the world.
Creativity is a living entity; it is a circuit that is completed through human sustenance and devotion. We are rewarded with its transformative alchemy when we hold true in our devotion – not to ourselves and desired outcomes, wants or preferences, but to the Greater Mystery that art-making transmutes through us.
Art sends messages through a non-verbal language as old as the ocean tides and the birdsong in spring. Like a wild animal, we must learn its ways, behold it without trapping it, and cultivate a careful ear and unique language to translate its messages.
Creativity is an act of surrender. It takes us where language cannot go and thrusts us into direct contact with something greater than the “self”. It reveals and disrupts narratives and beliefs through its honest and direct reflections of our unconscious realms.
When we use our hands with deep presence, trust in the therapeutic container, and intentionality, in glory and pain, the nebulous experience of the soul becomes external, malleable, transformational, and alive.
You do not have to be an artist or have ANY experience to benefit from the alchemy of art therapy.
Materials, interests, goals, and comfort levels are all taken into consideration and adapted to each unique individual and the themes that are surfacing. It is an intuitive collaboration that comes to life through connection and careful listening.
This approach includes time for art making as well as discussion and reflection. Creativity can also be explored in-between sessions, leaving our scheduled time together for verbal connection.
If we could explain in words what art therapy does, there wouldn’t be a need to do it. I invite you to book a free consultation call to hear more and see if it’s a good fit…
Becoming whole means moving beyond “good” and “bad” and learning to shed, grieve, transform, and integrate all aspects of our lives. By gently shifting the focus away from the mind’s desire to problem solve and “fix”, we can begin to connect to our innate, primal, and intuitive abilities to help us dance with the depths of our heartbreak and pain.
Becoming whole means moving beyond “good” and “bad” and learning to shed, grieve, transform, and integrate all aspects of our lives. By gently shifting the focus away from the mind’s desire to problem solve and “fix”, we can begin to connect to our innate, primal, and intuitive abilities to help us dance with the depths of our heartbreak and pain.
My lived encounters with creativity, wholeness, and connection inform the way in which I move through the world and what I bring into our time together.
The medicine is in the Mystery.
To create is to die many deaths, over and over. In this dance of destruction and creation, we remember ourselves back together beyond linear time and space, and into possibility. When we let go of pressure to be “good enough” the potential of creativity as an inner source of wisdom becomes infinite.
Wholeness is at the core of our humanity.
Mythology and archetypes, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Nature-Based Therapy (NBT) approaches inform the undercurrent of “wholeness” that flows through my practice. Drawing on different therapeutic modalities we weave these threads together to support you in cultivating the capacity for fullness of life.
You aren’t meant to do this alone.
It is in the relational dynamic of witnessing and being witnessed, that we can access and rewrite the stories that are no longer serving us. In this space of deep presence, I listen to what is surfacing in your life and together we lean into our connection as the scaffolding to “draw out” and down into the deeper realms that are inaccessible in solitude.
Thanks for being here.
I see my life as being a constellation of many rivers that lead to one sea; it is hard to know where I begin and where I end. As I reflect on the stories of my life, there have been many threads winding, knotting, breaking, twisting, and turning; all of which, have delivered me to my life on the farm I call home on the traditional territory of the Algonquin Nation, Manitou Ewitchi Saga, known as “the Trembling Mountain” (Mont Tremblant, QC).
I grew up on the shores of Niigani-Gichigami (Lake Ontario), where I cultivated a deep respect for nature through my strong imagination and playful curiosity. As a child, I found solace in art-making, and when sent to my room for time-outs, some time would pass until my worried mother would come back to check-in, only to find me completely enthralled in a new drawing. The creative realms of nature and art-making are where I have always felt most at home in the unpredictable and overwhelming journey of what it means to be human in these times.
Carefully listening for the path I am being asked to walk continues to be an embodied practice of life as ceremony and full-spectrum living. The threads that compose the warp in the tapestry of my life are: nature and farming, creativity, my body, mythology, ancestry, and connection.
…with my hands in the garden soil during spring planting, I set my intentions and feel the tenderness of new growth and possibility…
…the winter winds whisper the necessities of slowing down in order to listen for what I need to cultivate next…
…my ancestral tongue and cultural practices re-member me back together and connect me to my roots…
…my feminine cycle, once cursed as an inconvenience, is now one of my wisest allies as the rhythm of my body leads me deeper and deeper into my intuition…
…the fall slaughter reminds me what it means to be embedded in this web of life, to need one another, the responsibility of acknowledging all our relations, and to be truly heartbroken in the face of death and endings…
As I continue to be shaped by these governing forces, the weft has become my life’s work of translating deep listening through creative and embodied practices alongside others. With every new relationship forged, the tapestry of who I am becomes a form of prayer in homage to the Great Mystery that weaves, breaks, pulls out, and pulls in the threads that make up who we are in the greater web of life.
Let us see what stories we can draw out together.
In a therapeutic container, we explore the threads that make up the fabric of who you are, as well as untangle and re-weave any stories and beliefs that are keeping you stuck through different creative and verbal approaches. This varies for each individual and can look like:
Therapy & Art Therapy (Virtual only)I approach this work with a non-pathologizing lens, treating each person as a whole being and with a firm belief that we all have a unique path that has been entrusted to us; a path that encompasses our pain as well as our joy. Together, we craft a space for nuance and multitudes to emerge. It is here, where we create with, dance with, and transform the stories and beliefs that are keeping you from growing down into your full potential and living a meaningful life.
Psychedelic Preparation & IntegrationThe cultural fabric of the West makes it incredibly difficult to prepare for and translate the poetic and metaphorical realms of the psychedelic experience. My work as a therapist is heavily informed by creativity as a vehicle to deepen your relationship with the mystery of life, death, and transformation, with an emphasis on cultivating inner resources and integrating insights outside of the psychedelic space.
Together, we create a path forward that is most supportive for you. The duration and frequency of our preparation and integration sessions are dependent on each individual and the unique stories they carry. Psychedelics have incredible potential for change and transformation, however, they are not for everyone.
*Disclaimer: I do not promote/source or encourage illegal substance use or activities.
Group Work Community and village-minded connections are necessary in order to create lasting change. To be witnessed and to witness others is powerful medicine that has its limits in a one-on-one context. It is in this spirit that I offer women’s circles, gatherings, and group psychedelic integration workshops throughout the seasons. Stay tuned for group offerings and virtual integration circles (coming soon).
“In the absence of this depth of community, the safe container is difficult to find. By default, we become the container ourselves, and when this happens, we cannot drop into the well of grief in which we can fully let go of the sorrows we carry.” – Francis Weller
– Richard Wagamese
Schedule your complimentary 30-minute consultation today and take the first step towards a life of wholeness and connection. Together, we’ll explore how art therapy could support you on your path of self-discovery and transformation.
― Rilke
