Lori Boyko was working as a high school teacher when she first became interested in the benefits of Art Therapy. As a classroom teacher, she took an active role in counseling the youth she taught and wanted to explore new ways to help them deal with emotions.
Lori’s learning path took her to the Vancouver Art Therapy Institute to train and all the way to Athabasca to obtain a Master’s of Counselling with Art Therapy Specialization. This trajectory led her not only to a career in Art Therapy but also allowed her to be self-employed, providing art therapy and other therapeutic services to clients from her private practice – Valley Art Therapy and Associates – located in Birtle, Manitoba.
Lori finds that Art Therapy is particularly effective in trauma work as creative expressive allows individuals to make sense of the sensory aspects of trauma that are hard to reach verbally. “Art therapy allows for unconscious material to surface,” she says, “so that we can make sense of it and it is often less threatening and scary for clients work on intense issues.” She also points out that, with Art Therapy, clients are in charge of the process – selecting the materials they wish to use and charting a creative course – and that this sense of control can be very empowering.
Wanting to help as many people as possible with Art Therapy, Lori opened another location in Minnedosa in 2016, with student expressive arts therapist Kim Burgess as the lead therapist. This summer, Kim will be taking over that office under the name of Satori Counselling.
Because her career is always evolving in new and exciting ways, Lori will be establishing a new private Art Therapy practice in Gimli, Manitoba in fall of 2017. Her current practice – Valley Art Therapy – has been sold to Dana Corr, a therapist who has worked with her part time since 2008 and who is furthering her studies in Art Therapy at WHEAT Institute.
Lori is extremely proud to have been instrumental in the development of these three therapy practices and is excited that Art Therapy is becoming a more mainstream and available treatment option across Manitoba.
December 18, 2017