Tatjana Jansen graduated from the Vancouver Art Therapy Institute in 1992. Since then, she has worked extensively in a variety of non-profit agencies, with her area of specialization being trauma counselling. She has also worked in the field of grief and loss, and completed a PhD on the topic of grief and the expressive therapies. In her dissertation Taking Leave of Our Senses: Ruminations on Grief and Comprehending the Incomprehensible she focused on the liminality of grief and mourning in embracing the boundaries between life and death; the disenfranchisement of grief in Western culture is such that despite the fact that grief and mourning are universal aspects of our experience of love and love lost, we still silence grief, relegating it largely to a private experience and expression.

Tatjana has been involved with VATI since 1997 in different roles including online curriculum development, course instruction, and clinical supervision.

Laura brings to her work at VATI over 20 years of art therapy experience. Laura graduated from VATI in 1995 and completed her MC:AT in 2006. Her role at VATI includes clinical supervision, instruction, curriculum and program development. She also has an ongoing private practice and is particularly interested in working with vulnerable client populations.

At Tsawwassen First Nation, Raina provides counselling and art therapy services for youth, adults, and elders. She is an enthusiastic folk artist who dabbles in pottery, fibre arts, painting and building miniatures. She believes that art has a unique ability to offer insights and to humanize the clinical experience by creating joy and building trusting therapeutic relationships.

In my practice since 1992 as an art therapist, I have worked extensively in agencies with women who have suffered severe trauma, sexually reactive children, and First Nations children as well as private practice. My work has included methods for treating trauma such as EMDR. More recently, I have completed a Master’s degree in expressive arts therapy (EXA) from the European Graduate School and am enrolled in the doctoral program where my emphasis of study has been on trauma and numinous experience. I am dedicated to the healing arts and as such am enthusiastic to welcome others into pursuing a similar journey.

Gretchen completed her BFA at Emily Carr University with a focus on sculpture and community arts in palliative care. She went on to further her studies at VATI while continuing to work with patients and families facing end of life. For 12 years, Gretchen was the art therapist at Callanish Society; a non-profit organization offering residential retreats, support groups and creative arts programs for people living with cancer. While completing her Master’s in Counselling Psychology at Simon Fraser University, she began to focus her studies on clients who had experienced trauma. Gretchen is currently training in a body-centred approach to trauma resolution through Somatic Experiencing®.

Gretchen teaches art therapy courses locally at VATI, UBC, Justice Institute of BC and Adler University. She also teaches in Asia and works closely with Nepal House Society in Pokhara, Nepal.

I began my counselling career with a Bachelor of Health Sciences in Addictions Counselling in 2007, and later completed a Master of Counselling in Art Therapy in 2015. I’ve worked in elementary and junior high schools, community agencies, and residential treatment centres. I have also facilitated/co-facilitated several ongoing studio art therapy groups/art hives in community settings such as schools, a supportive housing complex and a warm-up shelter.

Since 2015, I’ve also completed Certificates in Foundational Play Therapy Skills and Play-Based Treatment of Trauma with the Rocky Mountain Play Therapy Institute. I’m currently pursuing registration as a play therapist, as well as completing my Level 1 training with the
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute.

I use experiential, somatic and relational approaches in my work. I have special interests in grief and loss, burnout, compassion fatigue, and early attachment. I have a love of walking and gathering inspiration and art materials from nature. I experiment in a variety of creative work, including weaving/fibre, watercolours, installation/sound art, music and poetry.

Encounters with the Authentic Self and false self (or selves) are an inherent part of this deep journey. The Authentic Self and the false self speak in different languages. They have different (and often differing) voices and speak of different things. What are they speaking about? What do they each tell us of ourselves? Therapy can be a place of inquiry into these voices and inner figures they are connected to in relation to the Self, Ego, Anima/Animus and the Shadow archetypes.

I am a Registered Clinical Counsellor and a Registered Art Therapist (VATI graduate) and have been working in this field for the past 18 years. I have been a Clinical Supervisor for the last 8 years in a variety of settings. When seeing clients, I specialize in using a relational psychotherapy approach for attachment struggles, trauma, and interpersonal relationship issues; I also bring this lens into supervision. I continue to have a small private practice and over the years I have held various positions at for-profit and non-profit agencies, health authorities, and educational institutions. I have clinically supervised Counsellors using verbal, play, and expressive arts therapies in a First Nations specific child and youth program, a general child and youth program, a Sexual Abuse Intervention Program (SAIP) for children and youth, a family preservation and support program, and an adult individual/couple/family counselling program. I am an approved First Nations Health Authority provider and have years of training and experience supporting youth and their families who identify as being part of the queer community (specifically Trans, Non-Binary, Gender Fluid, Two-Spirit and Questioning youth). As well, I am currently teaching at Adler University – Vancouver Campus as Clinical Faculty.

My undergraduate degree is in psychology with a minor in fine arts, a master’s in counselling and spirituality from Saint Paul University and I graduated from the Vancouver Art Therapy Institute in 2012. I work from a client-centred and emotion-focused approach through an art therapy lens. I have also completed training in EMDR and expressive arts in trauma.