Sharing stories of motion: Embracing the capacity creativity gives for us to speak, choose, and act.
Transformational change: Reflecting on the power of art-making as a medium for resilience and growth.

Amanda Gee (Lower Sackville, NS)

I forgot about all of the spiders in Nova Scotia and have found myself fascinated by them since moving home. They are always ‘creating’ and ‘recreating’ building functional structures that are full of beauty when caught in the sunlight or glistening with dew. As an artist and an art therapist I am also always creating and recreating, always growing, and always trying to create and recreate safe creative spaces in which my clients can do the same.

Sarah Gysin (Ottawa, ON)

This issue, we invited art therapists to share stories of how they use artmaking as a tool for action or have witnessed the impact art-making can have in their clients and community as a way of stirring, drawing out and forward, or instilling motion—whether on a personal level or a systemic one.

Art Therapy Conversations
Rebecca Montgomery (Vancouver, BC)

LIFE as Medicine is a Circle of First Nations, Metis and Inuit Creative and Expressive Arts Therapists whose work promotes collaborative relational healing with Indigenous Peoples and communities. This month, Rebecca had the pleasure of connecting with the three members of its leadership team, Dr. Fyre Jean Graveline, Jen Vivian, and Jean Tait.

Featuring artwork by Dillon Lewchuk (Victoria, BC), Sherry Lynn (Grimsby, ON), and Sarvatmika Rajeev (Chennai, India).

Shae Anthony (Vancouver, BC)

In offering art therapy, therapists support an individual’s ability to choose and access art materials, to sit in a calm space, and to take rest. Despite facing circumstances that people can’t change, when art making, an individual is free to express themselves on their own terms.

Anna Nike Leskowsky (Toronto, ON)

Every time I passed by the photograph displayed on the wall of my dining room, I thought to myself, “I must draw this image.” Many years ago, my grandfather, an architect and an artist, captured the tranquility of his daughter’s rehearsal by taking a picture. I suspect that then he wanted to do exactly the same thing I was now planning to do: make a drawing of the young dancer.

Pascale Laberge-Milot (Sherbrooke, QC)

A travers un processus créatif favorisant l’interconnexion des deux hémisphères du cerveau, tout en revitalisant les sensations, le corps et les émotions, cette démarche m’a permis d’expérimenter en quoi cela pouvait apporter plus de vitalité et d’entièreté à l’existence.

Emmanuelle Cesari & Aline El Ramy (France, Lebanon)

D’où l’importance de l’art-thérapie qui vient remplacer l’expérience traumatisante de la personne par une autre expérience de création, de plaisir et de joie de vivre. A long terme, l’art-thérapie peut modifier le fonctionnement cérébral et donc permet de court-circuiter la transmission transgénérationnelle de traumatismes et de problèmes psychologiques.

Elisabeth Ioannides & Maria Konti (Athens, Greece)

Response art functions as the intermediate space where the art psychotherapist’s personal experience meets something else. The participants were invited in this workshop to answer/explore/wonder particularly on this “something else”: through a case study, their own experience, and the experience gained in the workshop, they were invited to ponder on how they connect response art to their practice as art psychotherapists.

Christy Herdman (Calgary, AB)

The overarching goal is to be a catalyst for change and to use art as a medium to enhance the emotional intelligence of the next generation; encouraging one to feel the feels, knowing all feelings are valid. CRATE Workshop for Kids series provide children the tools to build their vocabulary of different emotions to enhance their emotional competence.

Nature’s Way
Taylor Bourassa (Ottawa, ON)

Nature’s Way is a regular column in Envisage that explores eco-art therapy and invites practices of enhancing our relationship with the earth. In this issue, Envisage writer Taylor Bourassa shares the importance of recognising, reflecting, and expressing gratitude for the important places in our lives.