Local artist expands practice to include art therapy
Jinny Nieviadomy, the owner and force behind Meadow Lake’s gallery Artistic Incidents is guiding creative healing sessions not just with words, but with art.
The artist, who already has a Bachelor in Art Education and a Masters in Arts, recently completed her own six-month journey to become certified in Expressive Arts Therapy Training Level 1. The class, which she had to travel to Calgary to take, was an intensive blend of class and studio practice. It consisted of creative writing, art therapy, drama therapy, music therapy, and community building sessions, and the students themselves of course had to go through the process on their own, conveying their own feelings through their work in a final presentation.
While there are few limits on what can be discussed during a creative therapy session, people who take a session can share as little or as much as they feel comfortable, and could deal with grief, stress, change, relationships. The art could be pictures from magazines, paint, pastels, textures, poetry.
“Each one I think I would start very differently,” Nieviadomy said. “It’s about feelings, expressing them, I guide the person to be their own guide. It’s learning to let go of stigma, stereotypes or preconceptions of ‘what is supposed to be.’ I encourage people to trust themselves. And have a whole building of supplies to work with. We dive right in.”