HEY SHAUNA ART THERAPY ABOUT
SHAUNA KAENDO | BFA, DVATI
she/they/hey
Art therapist in Victoria, British Columbia – the traditional and ancestral territories of the Lekwungen speaking (Songhees and Esquimalt) peoples. Thankful for their historical and ongoing stewardship of these beautiful lands, and the opportunity to step into collaborative stewardship, community care, learning, and being better.
I hold a BFA from Emily Carr University, completed my Art Therapy training at the Vancouver Art Therapy Institute, and am trained in Brainspotting (phase 1+2). I am a past member (and Board Member) of the BC Art Therapy Association (BCATA), and member of the Canadian Art Therapy Association (CATA).
I LOVE THIS WORK and every minute that I am fortunate enough to do and share it. If you have ANY questions, please ask.
I AM A NEURODIVERGENT THERAPIST. And have lived experience with some of the challenges and richnesses that are wrapped up in what that means …what it looks like, and feels like.
I work with a lot of Neurodivergent folks around understanding their experience(s) differently …in the world, in their bodies, in relationship. So that they can navigate them differently. With more agency, curiosity, and creativity. Less overwhelm.
I AM A POLITICAL THERAPIST. I am not neutral. I have biases and values that will absolutely affect the “space” that we will work in together – and the ways that I will hold that space…. with generosity, but also accountability. I REALLY love my job. I’m grateful and honoured to be able to do this work, and am very much interested in supporting you in your work of healing. And to be very clear, the work of healing IS political.
MY PRACTICE IS INCLUSIVE. All genders, colours, orientations… binary & norm busters, queer minded & bodied. My clients include a spectrum of folks who are wanting to dig into the work of getting unstuck… including healthcare professionals (therapists/counsellors, doctors, social workers), front-line, support workers, those doing (or wanting to do) the work of social action, artists, non-artists… folks who want to feel differently than they do.
THIS WORK IS COLLABORATIVE. The work of liberating ourselves from old narratives & stories is personal AND collective. Understanding (and re-imagining) our values, habits, and behaviours that are steeped in patriarchal and capitalist systems (that reward and celebrate our exhaustion & depletion), white supremacy (centering & normalizing of the white body experience), and a multitude of other oppressions that harm. Having conversations is what allows us to understand what that means… and how that meaning is different for folks in different bodies, of different colours, genders, divergences, and with different lived experiences.
I collaborate with and support folks in exploring ways to notice, express, process, understand and re-imagine outdated narratives and stuck bits. To unlearn what we’ve been simmered in, and to enlist our creativity and our curiosity in imagining, creating, and co-creating alternatives to “norms” that don’t serve all of us. To unlearn our quiet complicity, and fear of discomfort.
I AM ACTIVELY LEARNING how to show up better. I see the personal work of healing as inseparable from the work of anti-oppression, and of de-stigmatizing our need(s) for support. Personal healing is political. Collective healing is political. And part of this work is understanding that our healing doesn’t happen in isolation, but in community, with support of (and for) others. With responsibility, and accountability.
THE WORK THAT I DO is informed and supported by research in art therapy, somatics & trauma, polyvagal theory, neurodiversity & sensory processing divergence, therapeutic movement, and anti-oppression… in balance with a plethora of resources created by folks from diverse backgrounds and experiences …authors, artists, musicians, practitioners, scientists & researchers, storytellers, and community builders.
I CAN WALK BESIDE YOU. If this is something that you’d like to do together… if you want to learn to align your body, emotions, and life with your values. I can listen, bounce, pivot, create and bumble with you. We can explore tools and processes that can support your movement into and through all of it. I will be in it with you, collaborating.
If you have ANY questions, please ask.
I OFFER private sessions, support groups and workshops – with a focus on nervous system regulation, boundaries, neurodiversity, embodied creative curiosity, building self-trust & liberating practices. Finding ways to understand ourselves differently.
SOME OF MY AREAS OF FOCUS
- Neurodiversity/Neurodivergence (including, but not limited to: ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, Sensory Processing Divergence, HSP...)
- Building Creative Care Practices
- Getting unstuck (overwhelm, underwhelm, complacency)
- Nervous system health & regulation
- Living in alignment with personal values
- Social activism, self & collective care, liberatory practices
- Women's support (empowerment, decisions around/considering childfree living, the aging body, peri/menopause)
- Burnout & compassion fatigue for caregivers (prevention & recovery)
- Creative blocks (artists, writers, creatives)
- Anxiety, depression, fatigue, shutdown
- Trauma-informed grounding & processing
- Anger, irritability, frustration, stress management
- Developing (or re-igniting) a creative practice
- Brainspotting
CREATING SPACE TO...
- Learn how to notice how you're ACTUALLY feeling in any given moment, how the world (and it's sensory information) is affecting you - not how you should feel, but how you DO feel. Without judgement, without fixing... learning how to understand your experience differently.
- Explore different ways to be present and aware in your body, in discomfort, in transition - with creativity and curiosity.
- Learn and integrate small practices to help you to show up for yourself, and build self-trust.
- Build capacity to imagine, initiate, and create change in your life.
- Explore a collaborative approach to the work of personal healing - through a combination of talk, art-making, creative process, movement, and somatic awareness.
“As we engage the unconscious and imagination in creative process, we experience ourselves as active participants in life, explorers with the power to reshape our responses to our life stories – rather than victims of our circumstances”.
– DARIA HALPRIN
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Located on the traditional and ancestral territories of the Lekwungen speaking (Songhees and Esquimalt) peoples. Thankful for their historical and ongoing stewardship of these beautiful lands, and the opportunity to step into collaborative stewardship, community care, learning, and being better.
