What if art could help you write a new story?
What if art could help you write a new story?
Deepen connections as you explore art forms.
I believe all humans are creative, and that we thrive when we make art together.
Yearning to feel more connected to yourself and your loved ones? Want to increase your self-compassion? Discovering new possibilities through the creative process can be a powerful journey into mindfulness, enhanced self-awareness, and increased resilience.
Whether you choose art therapy or counselling, our work together will allow you to bring your best self to your alone time and to all of your relationships.
I can't wait to work with you. Relationships are all-important to me, and I believe our collaboration has the potential to be life changing.
As an art therapist and activist, I am curious about how humans interact with one another and with their own creativity.
I believe your unique art-making practice, which will develop during our sessions, can help you build a solid base within yourself, not unlike the trunk of a strong tree. From this centered and grounded place, you can branch out to your fullest potential.
JILLIAN PASCHEN (SHE/HER)
- Art Therapist and Psychotherapist
- Master of Psychotherapy and Spirituality--Art Therapy (MPS-AT) Graduate from St. Stephen's College, University of Alberta Campus
- Canadian Certified Counsellor (Certificate # 10001190)
- LGBTQ2S+ friendly
- I receive regular supervision from a Registered Art Therapy Supervisor
It can't always be cherry blossom time. Access your inner resources through art therapy sessions so that you can be okay, no matter what the season.
Rest assured, you don't have to be a skilled artist for art therapy to be a good fit for you. It's about discovering which materials spark your curiosity and which exploratory methods resonate for you. It's about the journey.
INDIVIDUAL ART THERAPY
During an individual art therapy session, you can choose to enter an art exploration together with me, or you can opt to be left completely open to your own creative impulses.
Either way, you may have the experience of meeting your inner artist for the first time.
COUPLES ART THERAPY
Discover couples art therapy. Making art is especially rich when we are connected with other human beings.
Online or face to face explorations in the creative process can enhance your resilience as a couple. This option can also work wonders for healthy parent and child relationships.
GROUP ART EXPERIENCES
Guided group experiences heal. To work, play, and create in ways that are inclusive and respectful of the fluidity of culture, ethnicity, gender and abilities, we honour and celebrate difference.
Each human being is unique, yet we are profoundly connected. We can build community and resilience, together.
Give yourself the gift of increased harmony within yourself and in relationship with others.
I can work with you online or in-studio, depending on your preference. If you're curious about counselling, it functions just like art therapy, with the art of conversation taking the place of visual art making.
Art Invitations to Try at Home
Transforming self talk: Think of some of your least favourite self talk and make art about it. Now deconstruct and reconstruct (for example, you might deconstruct by tearing your art work into strips--and then reconstruct by weaving the strips into a completely new art work). To finish, journal about what you noticed and what touched you during the process.
Plan for 1.5 hours of mindful art making time with one or two friends. Follow the six step Open Studio Process as per art therapist Pat Allen: 1) Check in. 2) Set an intention for today's art making (for example, "I want to be present with whatever is real for me, today"). 3) Make art for a quiet hour. 4) Take ten minutes to journal about your process. 5) Share your art and/or journal entry with the others if you wish. 6) Close with gratitude.
For an experience of self-compassion: Put on some soft, instrumental music, or go outside to a quiet park or natural area if you can access one safely. Find an uncluttered space and take out your favourite art making materials. Be mindfully present with your unique art making process for at least half an hour. Next, journal about what you noticed and what touched you. Read your journal entry aloud to yourself or to a loved one this evening.
Creative jump start: In need of inspiration for an important project at school, at work, or in your community? Find a quiet spot at home and set up some simple art making materials. Ask yourself the following questions and answer them visually: 1) What do I love and value? 2) What am I good at? 3) What needs doing? This can be a great excercise to get your creative juices flowing and inspire you for your next big thing.
As ancient cave paintings and current cultural practices show, Indigenous people have experience with art making since the dawn of time. Art has long been a way of seeing, being, and knowing. Check out the work of Jean Tait (https://artcanheal.ca) and Fyre Jean Graveline, two Canadian Art Therapists who self-identify as Indigenous. Read Graveline's book Circleworks: Transforming Eurocentric Consciousness (find it at amazon.ca). Make some art!
Take a page from artist Elizabeth Ingram's work, and explore your own connection with Alberta's boreal forest. The human body and the elemental in nature are recurring sources for Liz's art practice. Check out her work at gallerieswest.ca, and read about her exhibition, "Touching Gravitas" at Edmonton's SNAP Gallery. Marvel as she investigates transitional states and issues relating to the fragility of life and the environment. Art yourself in!
Narrative Therapy is a creative approach that honours the story and the storyteller. It also allows you to work collaboratively with me to build upon elements of your story that have been overshadowed. You will receive helpful therapeutic letters after each session. Together, we will transform experiences of being problem focused into new, more connected and hopeful ways forward for you. Interested? Ask me to expand.
Your art therapy sessions with me will involve a check in, some art making time, and a period of reflection. Art making forms the centre piece of our work together, because your creative process functions as your window into wonder. As Pascal observes, "People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered, than those which have come into the minds of others." Your experiences are key. Be still and know.
CATA is the Canadian voice of art therapy, bringing art therapists together to raise standards and advance the profession. Check them out at https://canadianarttherapy.org
Art Hives are a form of public practice art therapy and the brainchild of Canadian art therapist Janis Timm-Bottos. Learn more about the International Art Hive movement at https://arthives.org.
Check out our inclusive community Art Hive at https://alignable.com/edmonton-ab/ebb-flow-art-hive.