HEY SHAUNA ART THERAPY WORK WITH ME
I AM NOW OFFERING IN-STUDIO SESSIONS!
…in my new art therapy studio in Fernwood Square. See my PRIVATE SESSIONS page for more information about how I’m unfolding into this ….with collective care & awareness around us still very much living amid a pandemic.
WAYS TO WORK WITH ME…
PLEASE NOTE that I work with adults only. If you are looking for support for a child/youth I would be happy to make a recommendation.
ART THERAPY
Art therapy is a combination of talk therapy and art-making… mucking about with art materials, and words, and ideas, and emotions to see how they make you feel. To see how they can bend, and move, and intersect. We’ll dig in. We’ll pause, and express, and notice. We’ll make some space for all of it to unfold, and be. Some space (literal and metaphorical) to breathe – to make a mess, to see, to ask questions, to let yourself feel what you feel… and move through it towards a different sort of understanding. Space for a different kind of conversation, one that enlists creativity and curiosity in understanding YOUR lived experience – in the world, and in your body. A movement forward. Unstuck.
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BRAINSPOTTING
Brainspotting is a neuroscience-informed practice that works with locating gaze spots (brainspots) outside of our body …in our visual field… that connect with and “light up” pathways to deeper (older, subcortical) parts of our brain. The parts that hold unprocessed trauma – and an assortment of other unresolved, unprocessed bits & bobs…fragments, chunks, and shards. The parts of our brain where our fight, flight, shutdown/freeze responses happen.
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NEURODIVERGENT SUPPORT GROUPS
These groups are for folks who are interested in stepping into more creativity and curiosity around understanding, managing and supporting themselves in their experiences of Neurodivergence. Sharing and gathering resources, building creative care practices that reduce and soothe overwhelm… and support day-to-day balance and grounding… that allow us to step into agency and choice… to create more ease in our lives, individually AND collectively.
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MENTORSHIP & CONSULTATION
These are for peers, art therapists, student… at many different stages of career, private practice, and studies. A space to chat about the logistics of business/private practice, to ask any questions you’re pondering about entering the field of art therapy (or therapeutic arts in general)… super casual chats.
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NEURODIVERSITY / NEURODIVERGENCE CONSULTATION
These consultations are for anyone wanting to step into more ease and understanding around working with folks (in any capacity) who locate as Neurodivergent – with and without formal assessment or diagnosis.
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If you have any questions – please ask.
ohHEY COMMUNITY
This community space is for folks identifying as women, queer, non-binary, and genderqueer. I don’t make this decision lightly, or without a lot of thought. AND… in this moment, in this world, with all that is whirling around and IN us …we need pockets of reprieve. This is a wee pocket of reprieve, from SOME of the (often invisible) patriarchal care-taking.
This is a space for us to gather, pause, bend, fold (and unfold), meander, linger, wander, bumble, flail… be curious, be creative… together, IN community. Into this space where we can get to know each other, share stories and experiences. Where we can have conversations about ALL of the things. And where we can support those conversations …reflections, insights, challenges… with creative care practices …like art!
This is a space for us to show up as we are – to get curious about building (and maintaining) creative care practices, and community.
GROUPS & WORKSHOPS
Currently online only.
Building practices of noticing, managing and processing all of the stuff …the new stuff, the old stuff, the stuck stuff. Things that are coming up amid this crisis that we find ourselves navigating… historical and ongoing oppressions… uprisings of awareness, the unsettling that’s happening in our bodies. Some of the things are BIG (and complex, and existential) and some are small …like, how the heck to get through each day.
In my groups we look at ways to ground ourselves, calm our nervous systems, make space for ALL of the emotions and responses, and ways that we can EXPRESS all of it. We practice slowing down, pausing, noticing, reframing, being curious, taking up space, sitting with discomfort, and digging in.
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BILATERAL DRAWING CLUB
At its most basic, Bilateral Drawing is drawing with both hands. But it’s also a way to access FLOW, to attend to our nervous system health, to process difficult interactions, feelings, emotions, memories. It’s a space that we can create for ourselves to allow for integration ….of our experiences of thought, emotion, and body. Of all of the things we’re learning, unlearning, feeling, experiencing, avoiding, holding.
This is a space and practice for those who are wanting to BUILD a practice …that’s creative, intentional, integrative, and regenerative. A way of supporting ourselves, IN community.
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NEURODIVERGENT SUPPORT GROUPS
These are therapy support groups for folks (adults) who identify as Neurodivergent (with or without a formal diagnosis). We will be sharing stories, experiences, time, space, resources, strategies …and taking some practical steps towards building CREATIVE CARE PRACTICES to support ourselves and each other.
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PRIVATE GROUPS
Experiential workshops for groups to muck about with art materials, enlist creative thinking, curiosity, collaboration, explore different avenues of personal and collective growth. Maybe it’s a gaggle of work pals, friends, family, peers. Maybe it’s a conference, celebration/milestone, meeting, retreat…
Workshops are tailored to each organization/group’s needs, please reach out to chat in more detail.
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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.
Author Ursula Le Guin describes our imaginations as the single most useful tool that we possess – a tool that we have to learn how to use, “to invent our lives, make them up, imagine them” – that the learning, teaching, and exercising of our imaginations is something foundational to our basic life skills “for growth, for health, for competence, for joy”.
JOIN MY MAILING LIST
Sign up if you’d like to receive information about upcoming art therapy workshops, and some occasional what-have-you’s!
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.
