Art Therapy is a licensed mental health profession offering positive, efficient, and cost-effective treatment. It offers traditional and new approaches that are breaking new ground in the way individuals and organizations are engaging in positive mental health treatment. If you are struggling daily to manage or live with your stressors and, or symptoms, there is a treatment plan for you.
"Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain" as suggested by Carl Jung, a Jungian Analyst, referring to the lure of psychodynamic therapy.
Art therapy tools and materials are available to help clients foster greater resiliency and champion positive mental health.Art experience is not required.
Inquire about Art Therapy, its Standards in Canada start here. This is a good place to learn about Art Therapy and the importance of its Standards, which regulate the scope of practice in Canada. You must be a fully trained and licensed Art Therapist having completed a Master's Level Graduate School Program to offer Art Psychotherapy in Canada.
Signature Therapies.
This practice offers Art Psychotherapy and provides a variety of arts-based psychodynamic treatment approaches to treat anxiety, trauma, grief and loss, gaps in developmental concerns and attachment wounding. Only graduate level licensed Art Therapists are allowed to offer Art Psychotherapy in Canada and abroad.
Treatment can be delivered in-person or virtually, through a secure telehealth platform. Please review our signature therapies for children and adults by selecting Signature Art Therapiesin our main menu search.
Client care is a priority.
Treatment is approached with a depth of focus and exploration. The process can provide a sense of richness and self-discovery, often broadening the scope of traditional psychoanalysis and talk therapy. Individuals, groups and organizations can benefit from a variety of Signature Art Therapies, offering a path of least resistance.
Clients often achieve a new found sense of autonomy, resiliency, and positive mood effects in a nurtured, free and protected space with a licensed Art Psychotherapist.
Positive effects of art therapy in non-clinical settings is well documented in research (De Petrillo, L. & Winner, E. (2005): Does art improve mood? A test of a key assumption underlying art therapy. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 22(4), 205-212).
Safeguard Your Mental Health
Help safeguard your mental health and the quality of care you receive. Please work with a qualified and licensed Art Therapist. Unqualified healthcare providers cannot offer art in a therapeutic setting, and claim to do art therapy, or use Art Therapy techniques when working in the public domain or agencies of care, unless they meet the Professional Standards of Art Therapy and have earned their qualifications from an accredited and recognized graduate school training program in Art Therapy (public or private).
There has been a disturbing, growing trend for highly trained mental health professionals in other jurisdictions of mental healthcare who have acquired graduate school licensure and falsely advertise that they can offer Art Therapy to the public. They cannot. It falls outside of their scope of practice and their professional jurisdiction.
Additionally, short-term workshops, programs offering one or two courses do not qualify mental health counsellors/therapists/social workers/psychologists to offer Art Therapy to the public in Canada. This is harmful to public mental health. Also, it is harmful to the profession of Art Therapy. We are a 100-year-old Profession. Proud of the work and of the Standards we uphold.
Please support our Profession by contracting our services to safeguard public interest. Help us continue to meet our community needs through the highest Professional Standards of mental health in Canada, and to help meet the fundamental rights, obligations, and duty of care for all of its citizens who need urgent mental healthcare.
Please note that legal concerns have been filed in North America, and attestations are rising about unqualified practices outside of their scope of graduate studies who claim to offer Art Therapy to the public. Please notify CATA, or any other regulatory bodies, like the CRPO, et al. in Canada, if you have been working with someone who is not a licensed Art Therapist or Art Psychotherapist.
Virtual Mental Health Solutions.
Confidential and private security and encryption measures are in place for therapy services provided by LAS. Virtual sessions can also be booked throughout the week.
This practice does not record therapy sessions, as it may harm clients, interfere with treatment and may present a risk of breaching confidentiality.
In-Person Treatment.
Clients are able to contact Myra Rados directly at info@livingartsignatures.caand book an appointment in St. Catharines. In-person sessions are scheduled on Thursdays and Fridays from 4:00 to 8:00 pm.
Urgent requests can be scheduled on Saturdays from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. upon individual circumstances.
Insurance, direct billing is available.
Some providers will ask for payment in advance of reimbursement, such as Manulife, Sun Life, Empire Life, Canada Life. Please check your insurance for psychotherapy requirements for billing purposes in advance of your first appointment.
This practice is registered with Greenshield Canada and Medavie Blue Cross and can provide direct billing services. Veterans may require medical authorization to begin the billing process. We are always willing to help.
Clients receive a hard copy of their receipt with proof of payment for all services provided at LAS.
Inquire about workplace mental health programs for individuals or groups, with our brief interventions to safeguard mental health for employees here.
Organizations are able to invest in MH treatment workshops for employees and peers, particularly utilized for frontline or essential service personnel.
To receive information about the practice updates, become an organizational member, you can obtain a copy of this project initiative here. To add your organization as a future research participant for the treatment of employee mental health, please enrol here.
LAS Registered Psychotherapist.
Myra Rados is a Registered Psychotherapist and a Licensed Professional Art Psychotherapist (DTATI). She is a Sandplay Therapy Intern (CAST), a Certified Guided Drawing Art Therapist, and a MARI Art Therapy Practitioner. She is an EMDR Therapist (Envision Canada) and a Certified Adult Educator (OISE). Myra uses science-based Art Therapy Interventions and directives that are grounded in contemporary research.
Myra Rados received the Gilda Grossman Award in 2021 for Best Major Project category from the Toronto Art Therapy Institute.
Employees will feel motivated, engaged and empowered in sharing a vision of how their own workplace(s) can support mental health and organizational resiliency. Employees are able to participate and share artwork in a small group setting, and readily create and identify areas of concern, while sharing positive mental health solutions for their workplace with fellow peers. The workshop ends with a final artwork creation in a break-out session. Workbooks are provided.
Organizational, positive mental health is possible if it can be championed by staff through positive, meaningful and constructive art-making approaches during a brief therapy intervention.
This is a 3-hour workshop which provides innovative tools and methods to help an organization prevent and manage employee work-stressand anxiety. This program is an aid to achieve positive mental health for the individual and for improving the overall mental health of a work culture. Six modules are based on proven art therapy directives within a positive psychology framework, utilizing a self-compassion and mindfulness approach.
Who can benefit?
This is an intervention which engages frontline staff (non-clinical or clinical workplaces) in learning how art can heal mild-to-moderate incidents of work-stress/anxiety. This process is meaningful because of their own experiences of working through work-stress and anxiety in this workshop. They experience resiliency and healing through participation and engagement with peers.
Individual or group therapy sessions apply the most recent theoretical approaches in Brief Therapy, Solution-Focused, Person-Centred Art Therapy, Mindfulness (PPI), Self-Compassion (PPI), and Neurological research.
CBT for Social Anxiety, Generalized Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive & Panic Disorders.
Individual, Group, Couple & Family AT
CBTfor Anxiety and DBT-Informed Mindfulness Art Therapy programs are more structured for adults and adolescents in therapy. Social Anxietyfor Children and Adolescents can also be treated. Various art tools and materials are used to supplement CBT and DBT therapy, and are used within a psychotherapeutic framework, from a top-to-bottom approach.
Traditional Art Therapy offers individuals, couples and families ways to access their natural abilities to heal themselves through the tools offered by various art therapy directives and methods while in therapy.
You will be able to process and integrate feelings more readily through art-making, in order to become more aware of your own feelings, thoughts and behaviours within social, community, relational, and family environments.
How it works?
As human beings we create and access meaningful symbolic and inner psychological dialogue through image-making. This is a natural healing process available to every person. Art therapy provides a gentle approach to cope with mental health symptoms. It can help individuals engage in art, provide a much needed respite from rumination, and improve thoughts and behaviours in a creative way which can feel pleasurable and fun during therapy. It often facilitates personal growth too.
Clients learn about their own personal boundaries and beliefs, which often expand and become more constructive during Art Therapy. When expression occurs in a creative and safe space, often emotional regulation and healing trauma can occur. Clients often improve upon their own communication skills and how they relate to others.
Family Art Therapy offers dyadic and family member participation in opportunities for therapy. This session includes the direct observation of the nature of the familial relationship, between mother and child, in couple's therapy, or with respect to the whole family system; particularly with close observation how members create artwork together. These sessions are open and do not have a time-limit, lasting from 1 to 12 weeks or can be ongoing.
Additional Family Art Therapy Assessments can be provided prior to the first family art therapy session or after the Clinical Intake Process. This method was developed by Dent-Kwiatkowska and involves six procedural steps.
Mindfulness Art Therapy in combination with body-focused art therapy deepens a healing response.
Sensorimotor-Art Therapy & Archetypes
Treatment is specific to a variety of mild-to-moderate Mental Health Concerns or Disorders, including some non-verbal MH-Developmental Challenges or ASD cases.
Creative Expressive Sensorimotor Art Therapy utilizes creative expressive AT directivesto help clients find meaningful healing through the breath, the body, and the five senses during response art-making. We breathe then we draw, we move with the body then we draw it out, and we use our senses to express what we feel during the art-making experience(s). Sand, aromatherapy and sensorial art materials stimulate the nervous system and provide a soothing and calming affect.
How art materials heal trauma?
Therapies that are sensorimotor-based treatment approaches and, or bilateral hand-movements can include clay-making, tissue paper sculpting, paints, soft-pastels, oil pastels and others. They foster archetypal body/ hand massaging movements. Also, journaling often explores and regulates the emotions. This process can remove grief/loss and trapped trauma that has been stuck in the body, in the form of cellular memories -- a nervous system disposition that has failed to carry out a physical fight or flight response. These stalled responses (at the time of initial trauma) need to be addressed through a mitigated art-making response.
EMDR - Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR)utilizes Bilateral Stimulation, the taxation of the working memory to desensitize (negative cognitions) and optimize adaptive cognitive patterns of thinking about oneself (positive cognitions) to lessen traumatic memories and the effects of trauma on the body for the treatment of PTSD and, or Preverbal trauma in children and adults.
Grief & Loss Art Therapy includes addressing bereavement (0-6 months) or general circumstances of grief and loss for children or adults, within the discipline of art psychotherapy and meaning-making.
Treatment of mild-to-moderate Mental Health, Developmental or Behavioural Concerns in Children.
Sandplay, Jungian AT & Healing Archetypes
Kalffian Sandplay involves sensorimotor engagement and applies archetypal knowledge. The initiation of play in a sand tray employs miniature figurines, natural sand and water. It is rooted in Jungian analysis, within the scope of self-discovery. Archetypes and fairy tales are referenced by the way the client plays with their own selection of miniature figures in the sand (provided by the sandplay facilitator). Clients of all ages are encouraged to play in a free and protected liminal space; and, thisis where the Self is held in a sacred manner. The client is encouraged to explore their own process and goals within the scope of a treatment plan.
Jungian Art Therapy for self-healing is an approach which works with unconscious (unknown) images while using one's imagination as an active and engaged aspect of the art-making process (i.e. active imagination). This process engages the 'image' as 'psyche' (Jung) and the 'soul' as a representation of the 'centre force' of our life (Hillman) -- making something 'sacred' through active imagination.
Mandalas for Relaxation workshop is based on Jungian Art Therapy and Mindfulness Art Therapy. This program activates the nourishing and healing qualities of the self. It is a process whereby we try to slow down our pace and focus, while we observe how we are making a mandala. Concentration on breathing slowly and intentionally can calm the nervous system and becomes a restorative parasympathetic response.
Photo-Art Therapy is a creative art-making approach and utilizes photographs during an art therapy session. The photos culminate in a theme(s) of a personal project/ composition of one's life. A journaling or photo-collaging assignment can be given and then shared with the art psychotherapist. Finding new meaning about personal goals, concerns, or relationships, often lead to new associations with the images and symbols in the photo-artwork composition. For example, nature walks awaken spontaneous meaning or associations, and themes bring about new awareness and healing.
Registered Psychotherapist (RP), Professional Art Therapist (DTATI), EMDR Therapist, Kalffian Sandplay Therapy Intern (CAST), MARI Practitioner
Welcome to Living Art Signatures-LAS.
Currently, I am offering in-person therapy at Safe Harbour Psychotherapy, in St. Catharines, Ontario, and virtually in my practice. I look forward to our sessions together! Available Thursday and Friday evenings from 4-8 p.m.
Accepting New Clients.
I am accepting new clients (all ages) and conducting client Intake sessions and art-based assessments for children. It is a good time to make your plans and find time to undergo meaningful self-reflection in addressing future therapy goals. It does take a deep commitment to begin your healing process.
Servicing The Community.
In my practice, LAS, I have been contracting my services to various programs in the community, as well as in forensic treatment and for employee wellness. I have enjoyed facilitating innovative art therapy programs over the years for children and adults with mental health conditions and developmental concerns.
I volunteer my time to educate people about what the profession of Art Therapy is, and communicate its Standards. These Standards apply in various community settings, and I continue to advocate for public interest, health and safety with my peers in Canada and abroad.
Finding Balance and Resilient Mental Health.
Imagine using art-making to help you master stuck or painful feelings, alter any thoughts, behaviours, or uncertainties about your future, which you have tried to modify over the years. Art Therapy is a tool which can help you regain your inner balance and manage symptoms. During psychotherapy treatment, you will explore your personal language of symbols and images to activate a deeper healing response. When engaged in various art psychodynamic therapies at LAS, you will begin to connect with and embody your own implicit healing abilities. Many clients have experienced first-hand how art therapy helps to manage symptoms through various positive self-care approaches.You can book an informal online information session to discuss your goals in therapy. You are welcome to contact me by registering a consultation, here.
About LAS Practices.
This practice works within the discipline of Art Therapy and Psychotherapy and offers individual therapy and workshops for improving and healing mental health conditions for individuals, couples, families, groups and organizations.
New at LAS, EMDR + New Therapy Protocols
Myra Rados has obtained her Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy Certificate in January of 2023, for the treatment of trauma. She specializes in a pain, physical symptoms, sleep and nightmare relief through EMDR and basic protocol for memory and symptom desensitization for frontline workers or emergency personnel. for domestic violence, and for preverbal trauma in children and adults. For further information about EMDR Therapy and other supplemental assessments, book here.
MARI now available!
Myra Rados has obtained her Mandala Assessment Research Instrument (MARI) Therapy Practitioner status in September of 2022, and you can go to the MARI International website. For further information about MARI therapy and this assessment please select inquire here.
Fall Art Therapy & Kalffian Sandplay, New Office
IN-PERSON Art Therapy and Sandplay Therapy has resumed this Fall at a new location: Safe Harbour Psychotherapyin West St. Catharines (Ontario). The address is 320 Vansickle Ave., Unit 6, St. Catharines, Ontario. If you are travelling East on the QEW you would exit off of 7th Ave., travel South to 4th Ave. Then turn left on 4th Ave. driving East to Vansickle Ave. (turn right) and travel South to 320 Vansickle Ave. The office is on the left side past the railroad tracks and Beatties Office Supplies. For more information about art psychotherapy and sandplay therapy offered at Safe Harbour Psychotherapy, please email Myra Rados here.
Fall Practice Hours
In-office sessions are Thursdays and Fridays from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and for special circumstances can be provided on Saturdays between 1:00 p.m. to 4 p.m. Virtual sessions can also be booked directly at LAS for an initial free 15 minute consultationto help you determine a plan of therapy for your needs. Virtual art therapy session are Thursdays evenings and Sunday afternoons.
We take e-transfers, and insurance billing is available with various providers. Some providers will ask for our clients to pay in advance of reimbursement. This practice is registered with Greenshield, Blue Cross and Sun Life and can provide direct billing. Psychotherapy services are also covered by Manulife and others, however clients will need to notify them in advance to obtain coverage and to determine how to cover their therapy sessions. Clients can receive a copy of their receipt with proof of payment for all services provided at LAS. Payment is made 24 hours prior to one's session or on the day of one's scheduled appointment, by e-transfer or by credit card payments. Direct billing must be secured /discussed by providing policy number(s) during the intake session (first visit). A 48-hour cancellation policy applies.
This is the latest practice information available until further notice in the province of Ontario.
Informed Consent
Informed consent during therapy is an ongoing practice and is necessary for mental health practices to abide by in Canada. I adhere to these guidelines and regulations for the privacy and security of my clients, and equally for the practice (LAS), as a member of the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO). This practice is also compliant with the Guidelines, Regulations, Ethics and Procedures of Art Therapy, as a member of the CRPO, the Canadian Art Therapy Association (CATA) and the Canadian Association of Sandplay Therapists (CAST).
Safety 1st.
Since March of 2020, Safety Measures have been in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and this practice uses secure virtual telehealth programs and encryption if clients prefer virtual therapy. Art Therapy modalities are offered in these virtual spaces and a list of materials will be provided. If you are not feeling well please reschedule your appointment, providing 48 hour notice in advance of your scheduled appointment.
Virtual Services
Virtual sessions are open for clients who reside outside of Ontario within the guidelines provided by the CRPO. Please keep in mind that art therapy requires a commitment of a minimum of "6 to 8 sessions" to ensure the client is able to integrate his/her/their process(s) in a safe and responsible manner. Art Therapy can also be extended as "ongoing" (i.e. addressing long-term goals and, or a path of providing supportive care or for the maintenance of ongoing symptoms) after a review of a client's mental health has been made (by the 6th or 8th session).
Art Therapy Assessments
To clarify, art therapy based assessments are arranged within a one-time appointment and supplement an art therapy program; but art therapy in its totality requires a minimum commitment of 6 to 8 weekly sessions. This is the latest practice information available until further notice is made available in the province of Ontario.
Art Therapy Assessmentsinclude various psychological drawing tests and can be requested by a client or at the discretion of a team of mental health providers, when a client is working with an art therapist. This is a service which employs a variety of evaluation and assessment tools and includes report writing. These are not tests for clinical diagnosis of clients/patients but can be used to support treatmentand add information to a pre-determined or pre-existing clinical condition, a comorbidity review, or a general concern of a client/patient, only. Informed consent is always necessary before providing therapy or testing of any kind. These assessments are completely private and confidential, and are not shared with any 3rd party, without prior consent of the client/patient in therapy. Inquire about assessments here.
Art-making and sandplay embody an implicit healing response; a life generating, nurturing and transformative quality which comes from inside of you -- it is an implicit aspect of our creative self-expression (of feelings and thoughts). It is a healing opportunity which works through a tacit and mindful therapeutic intervention. Art-making (Art Therapy) or making expressions in a sand tray (Sandplay Therapy) with various art materials, figures, objects, sand, or water, are both modalities that can be our faithful companions. They can guide us explicitly through our personal journey. These non-verbal approaches can capture a glimpse of what our minds, hearts, and bodies require, in a resting state, during stressful times (i.e. work or home life), or in support of life's many transitions, we can grow into. We are then able to find balance and regulate our emotions better. Speaking through the power of the hands and senses with a sensorimotor approach called Guided Drawing Art Therapy, or working with the language of inner symbols and images (and dreams) with Jungian Art Therapy, everything will reveal itself for the optimization of mental health, and for healing and living your best life, NOW. An arts-based healing path will be made of colourful expressions of many layers, textures, and feelings, of the parts of you that can be identified in therapy.
Art-Based Life Coaching, Available in Groups
Life Coaching is an alternative service which can supplement signature art therapies in this practice. I am a Certified International Soul Coach (2009) and I offer (1) Introduction to Soul Coaching and (2) Health and Vitality Soul Coaching in my practice. Virtually provided, life coaching can address many personal transitions or concerns, and can be a life-enriching process of self-discovery (in groups or individually). Some art-making is included in these sessions. Each program is a 28-day program and offers a one-hour coaching session per week (4 weeks, 4 hours of personal coaching and unlimited e-mail contact for 4 weeks). Soul journeys, soul collaging*, life/past life mapping or drawing, soul journaling (art form), or dream studies, are available to support an individual's intuitive and expressive life coaching session, when needed. Group workshops are available for soul collaging. This is an art form which uses prepared cut-outs of a client's favourite images, symbols and art materials. This is a structured approach and includes a workbook. Contact me directly about a coaching program that may interest you.
Art kits are available at a minimal cost, and are subject to availability. Drop-off or a Canada Post delivery can be arranged in advance of therapy. Fees may vary. Inquire here.
Paint Nights Virtually!
Mindfulness Art as Therapy 'Paint Nights' are available in a virtual space. Simple to follow with relaxing painting techniques. Inquire here.
Notice: Sandplay Therapy is now available at the Safe Harbour Psychotherapy in St. Catharines, on Fridays and Saturdays (in-person). Due to the nature of sandplay, sessions will be spaced apart for proper cleaning of materials during therapy hours. Please inquire here.
Group Art Therapy Workshops
Four adult-day programs will be starting in the Spring of 2023. The first is a 3-hour workshop for frontline workers coping with work-stress and anxiety every other Saturdays (April to May). The other 3 groups will be a 4-week group therapy program commencing in a virtual setting commencing in June for 4-weeks on Saturday afternoons, except for Transpersonal Art Therapy.
Please call Myra ore-mail to discuss areas of interest to help you manage your symptoms or inquire about how art therapy can help. Ongoing Art Therapy Workshops are 6-weeks in length, and occur once a week. In general, these workshops begin every other month, with mid-month start dates, when spaces fill-up with 4-8 members per group virtually. They are...
(2) Mindfulness for Chronic Pain and Stress (all year round, virtually by zoom). This is a 6-8 week workshop for individuals who are looking to manage mild to severe chronic pain or stress through establishing a mindfulness practice. Various materials are provided throughout the program. Art-based activities are also included when available for participants who wish to engage in a more fulsome practice.
(3) Grief, Loss and Spirituality Workshop (June, Virtually). Thisis a workshop for individuals who are looking to creatively find healing and greater purpose and meaning in life after a significant loss. I highly recommend that participants should engage in group work after a 6-month period when experiencing an initial/acute stage of loss and grieving, or when working in a therapeutic relationship with an art therapist (individually) about one's grief experience (i.e. an acute intervention in a private therapy session) for about four-to-six-months. I will recommend this group if you have been referred by another therapist or agency, and group work can be a productive option for you; and, or when you have been stuck in an earlier life event about grief or loss and have concerns/memories which need to be addressed and resolved.
(4) Mindfulness with Mandalas for RelaxationWorkshop (June, Virtually). This workshop is for individuals who are experiencing health concerns, like mental stress or anxiety and are having difficulty managing, et al. This program has a structured agenda (not open) as well as offering art-based mindfulness approaches for addressing individual concerns. Group sharing is always optional, and privacy is respected.
(5) Introduction toTranspersonal Art Therapy & Entura Art Workshop (June, In-Person). Thisis a deep, mindful, and a meaningful art-making process, where individuals can learn a new art-making technique. It allows you to tap into a higher level of awareness gaining access to a broader level of understanding of your psyche, self, personal energy or auric field, through the use of soft pastel techniques. It is both a soothing and reflective art-making technique, which will offer you an expansive form of healing to help you reconnect with your own spiritual self and find greater soul purpose. The book I recommend to purchase is The Holy Science by Swami Sri Yukteswar, and it will be used for the advanced workshop.
Members in the healing profession are encouraged to register to nurture their own healing energy and potential in developing a greater connection to their higher self, the innate self-healing potential which lies within and has access to the nourishment you need in a broader sense; when working with other clients/patients on a daily basis. This group will learn how to meditate to connect with their incorporeal self, which oversees your path in your life, and can offer many journeys to your spirit and your potential for peace and understanding: hence, why it is called a transpersonal art therapy workshop, using meditation and pastels to reach this inner well-spring of knowledge, insight and guidance.
Group age and experiences/concerns of cohorts will be best matched according to the stage of your condition/experience/severity; and, individuals will be carefully matched in groups as close as possible to their expressed concerns/needs. Please book your spot and, or for an initial consultation here.
Background: Originally, some of these workshops were created and piloted for the Joshua Creek Heritage Art Centre (JCHAC) in 2018, and facilitated by Myra Rados. The workshops were received well and supported by the art centre's visionary founder Sybil Rampen. It was her personal interest to introduce art therapy workshops to promote wellness for her members. This initiative began as an internship and was supported by the Toronto Art Therapy Institute (TATI). These workshops worked well to meet the needs of adults who were interested in addressing transitional issues in life, loss, spirituality, mindfulness, managing stress/anxiety and health/pain issues. Often times, the exploration of personal mental health concerns became a natural outcome of these programs; and self-empowerment through sharing artwork as a response to these concerns provided healing and support for workshop participants.
Gilda Grossman Award 2021
June 12, 2021 - Toronto. Executive Director Helene Burt of the Toronto Art Therapy Institute announced RP (Qualifying) and DTATI Professional Art Therapist, Myra Rados, the winner of the Gilda Grossman Best Major Project Award with other recipient, Mindy Alexander, the winner of the Dr. Fischer Thesis Project Award for 2021.
Judges and reviewer Karen Anderson, PhD, Associate Professor at York University, writes "Myra Rados’ major project, Healthy Minds at Work: Engaging Employees in a Healthy Dialogue about Workplace Mental Health Through Brief Art Therapy, is chosen for this year’s prize in recognition of Rados’ original and innovative work developing a brief art therapy workshop (BRIEF-MAT) protocol."
Each winner receives a prize of $1000 dollars for the merit of their graduate work and for making a contribution to the field of art therapy.
Myra Rados explains that engaging frontline police service staff in this innovative mental health treatment protocol, and piloting this intervention, allowed employees to have the opportunity to work through their work-related mental stress and anxiety through a positive mental health approach -- the novel Brief-MAT workshop (i.e. Brief Mindfulness Art Therapy). Myra introduced this organizational consulting opportunity to two community leaders, the Niagara Region Police Service and the Canadian Critical Incident Stress Foundation, and she is grateful for their participation and contribution to this project, recognized for its merit and contribution to the well-being of frontline workers in Canada.
For more information how you can provide this workshop to your organization in a virtual workshop setting for your employees, preventing work stress and anxiety, contact Myra Rados by e-mail at info@livingartsignatures.ca or call 289-210-7023. The full memo of finalists and criteria for the award selection process is here.
Healing Through Art
By: Beth Audet
This article was published by Torstar Media in three newspapers: The Grimsby Lincoln News (Front Page 1download, Page 2 download), The Niagara-on-the-Lake Advance (download) and Niagara This Week (download). Use this link to find the Internet Article (Toronto) "Art Therapy for Workplace Mental Health".
