What Does It Mean To Be A Practitioner In The Arts: Faculty Edition
WHEAT Institute | April 25, 2023
Creating a Place for Everyone
PowHERhouse champions the changework of relational leaders and social impactors. Together, as allies, PowHERhouse and WHEAT are walking the path of truth and reconciliation for all our relations. This current transition and collaboration hopes to reflect and bring forth healing, empathy, inclusivity, listening-focused circles, and relational, open, arts-enhanced communication – the founding values of WHEAT that remain solid and unwavering.
Check out our Profile with PowHERhouse
Bonface Beti
Image Description
“I see myself as a storyteller, merging with conflict analysis, interventions, awareness & healing.” Bonface Beti: international expressive arts director.
Expressive art means different things to different people and the field is relatively new. I am an expressive artist and I am also a peacebuilder. Whether you’re talking about anti-oppressive practices, or trauma informed practices, or you’re thinking about dealing with issues of gender based violence or any forms of oppression, think about the frame of what justice means. The motivation for my work comes from the complexity of all of that. I am an advocate for social justice and the Expressive Arts becomes the medium for symbolizing and metaphorizing the complexity of social conflict.
Bonface
Meet Bonface Beti and Learn More About His Work as a Changemaker
Lindsay Ashmore
Image Description
“It is the aesthetic experience that enlivens our senses and brings all of us fully alive.” Lindsay Ashmore: art and expressive arts therapies director, Indigenous community outreach, supervisor.
The Expressive Arts awakens our senses to sound, sight, touch, smell, and movement. It engages all our faculties and brings us alive, and opens new possibilities. As a Somatic Expressive Arts therapist, I create a safe container for the creative process, the liminal transitional space where change and self-awareness can flourish, and be embodied.
Lindsay
Meet Lindsay Ashmore and Learn More About Her Expressive Arts Practice
Tayler Schenkeveld
Image Description
“Art therapy reflected in ceremony, and on the land and using traditional art materials.” Tayler Schenkeveld: Rivers of Solidarity research navigator, practicum support, supervisor, instructor.
Working from an Indigenous and relational approach, I align with my clients to create safe and sacred spaces for healing and growth. My art therapy practice is unique, as I integrate culture into sessions whenever possible such as ceremony, smudging, beadwork, natural and traditional art material and storytelling into my practice. I am particularly interested in working with Indigenous peoples presenting complex trauma, loss of culture, and mental health obstacles. Words aren’t always available. Art therapy has a way of reaching parts of ourselves that we never knew about. You do not have to be an artist to benefit from art therapy. The emphasis is on the process and self-expression, not the final product.
Tayler
Meet Tayler Schenkeveld and Learn More About Her Practice
Stephanie Scott
Image Description
“Two things I case about: the arts and international development.” Stephanie Scott: registrar, outreach & practicum coordinator, MA
Expressive Arts is an opportunity to express yourself when words cannot do the job. When children have experienced trauma, it is not always going to work to have them sit down with a therapist in a traditional setting. That therapist is a stranger to them; but an opportunity to be painting, drawing, participating in a drama play, or a music production, is often easier because it is fun and creative.
Stephanie
Phoenix Song
Image Description
“I see myself as a storyteller, merging with conflict analysis, interventions, awareness & healing”. Phoenix Song: writer, musician, teacher, healer, transformer, expressive arts facilitator.
Expressive Arts has the opportunity for us to creatively come up with solutions by trusting the wisdom of our bodies and the act of creation to see what wants to come through. Having more time dedicated to the arts, to music, to these other ways is going to help us discover the creative solutions we haven’t been able to find yet.
Phoenix
Meet Phoenix Song and Learn More about their Social Justice Practice
Tereza Gomes
Image Description
“The two most essential aspects of being a therapist are being able to be present and to be compassionate.” Tereza Gomes. Mindfulness instructor, Wheat institute.
[Mindfulness]” is a way of nourishing our joy, our brilliance, our sense of fun. As a therapist, when we talk about resourcing people, this is such a beautiful way to invite them to drop into their body and experience the joy of their feelings.
Tereza
Meet Tereza Gomes and Learn More about her Mindfulness Practice