DECOLONIZING OUR BODY-MIND THROUGH EXA

Hybrid: In person and online, workshop in Vancouver at the historic Sylvia Hotel!
The workshop begins at 9:30PST/12:00EST and ends at 11:30PST/14:30EST.
Meanwhile, on either side, participants are welcome to come connect and network before and after, 9:00PST/12:00EST to 12:00PST/14:00EST.

REGISTER AT THIS LINK:
https://www.universe.com/events/decolonizing-our-body-mind-through-the-expressive-arts-tickets-46FXTG?ref=share-widget-buffer

Cultivate self-awareness and cultural humility by reflecting on personal identity, positionality, and the ways these shape relationships, power dynamics, and therapeutic presence.

Engage in an embodied, intermodal arts process (movement, sound, image, and reflection) to explore emotions of sorrow, anger, and emptiness as pathways toward collective healing and transformation.

Deepen capacity for relational accountability by witnessing one another’s truths and practicing empathy, active listening, and mutual respect within a culturally diverse group.

Integrate insights into professional and creative practice by identifying concrete ways to decolonize language, communication, and ways of being with clients and communities.

BIOS:

Coco

Hi, I’m Coco (she/her), a Registered Therapeutic Counsellor (RTC) and Art Therapist (Professional Member of CATA). I’m passionate about supporting folks in tending to their overall well-being through the creative process in a safe and nurturing space. My approach to healing and discovery is body-based, arts-based, and anchored in the felt sense of the body. Through movement, breath, creative exploration, and sensory awareness, we calm the nervous system and build a foundation of safety and regulation. From this grounded place, it becomes easier to process emotions, shift thought patterns, and invite meaningful change.

I believe deeply in the power of creativity to heal and transform. Together, we’ll cultivate self-worth, reconnect with your inner strength, and explore your unique path toward reclamation and growth. Rooted in the embodied contemplative practices of Daoist, Buddhist, and Yogic teachings, my practice honours the ancient wisdom held within the body and expressed through the creative spirit. I look forward to collaborating, co-regulating, and co-creating with you.

IG @Artwithco

Jotika

Jotika is a queer, Disabled, cis, Femme. Her people come from Northern India by way of Indentureship to Fiji. She identifies as a settler on the lands she lives, the unceded, un- surrendered, stolen lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Indigenous Nations.

She is an Interdisciplinary Artist, a Community Organizer, and Expressive Arts Therapist. She uses and sees expressive arts ( visual art, dance, song,  etc.) as an entry point, a doorway to more self-awareness of our nervous system, our lineages & to creating greater connection to what safety, soothing and connection feel like in our bodies. Creating her own art and witnessing others’ art have helped her cope with the effects of trauma & helped her survive some of the hardest times of her life. In her Expressive Arts Therapy work she brings her passion for the arts as a tool that can help hold the hugeness of life’s experiences; it can hold our pain, suffering, grief & more.

Jotika has been part of many arts-based groups, community workshops, as well as various types of education (outside and inside school settings) which have given her a foundation of understanding Intersectional Feminism and what Social Justice means to her. She has grown up in Queer, Trans, Racialized, Sick, Disabled, Chronically ill and Spoonie communities, and this has shaped how she creates arts based therapeutic spaces to support folks. Her therapeutic style and the way she holds space for folks is trauma-informed as well as rooted in anti-oppression and Social Justice. She brings her knowledge and lived experiences as a Queer, disabled, women into the room with folks.

See more about her and her work www.jotikahealingarts.com  on IG @Jotikart

Estephania

Estephania (she/her) is a latina part of the Mexico/U.S. 1.5 generation, now residing in Canada for the last 10 years. She has made it her personal mission to revitalize connection in creative ways to ourselves, our communities, and the land through Expressive Arts Therapy, Integrative Coaching, and Spiritual Healing. Educating on values and principles for a sustainable way of living. Exploring ways our identity is shaped through language, spirituality, and culture. She has worked facilitating social projects around immigration and assimilation of various groups both nationally and internationally, facilitated values based sessions for indigenous communities in Canada, and integrated people as after care from non-ordinary states of consciousness.

 A dynamic and sensitive soul, that understands the importance of community, nature, and ancestral honouring. The threads she continuously weaves through career and community projects include honouring our inner healing intelligence and expression of our authentic self through art as meditation.This, she believes, is the vital linchpin for healing ourselves and communities. You can find her dancing, singing in community, and taking pictures of flowers as part of her meditative practice.

To learn more about her, connect with her at https://linktr.ee/alkehmiaa