Faculty & Staff

Michelle Winkel, MA, MFT, ATR, REAT, RCAT
CiiAT Clinical Director

Michelle Winkel is an art therapist, trained facilitator, and supervisor with twenty years of experience working directly with groups, families, and individuals.

Since 1999, Michelle has used art therapy with businesses and organizations in group settings. Michelle has taught art therapy at Loyola Marymount University, IPATT in Bangkok, BCSAT in British Columbia, and has served as the Executive Director of the B.C. School of Art Therapy. As a supervisor at a local school agency in California for five years, she co-designed and implemented a reflective practice program that worked with the Child Protective Agency and other agencies in the area to improve supervision, performance, and morale of front-line staff.

Michelle’s credentials include a license as a Marriage and Family Therapist in California and Registered Art Therapist in North America as well as Registered Canadian Art Therapist. From 2004-2005, she held a fellowship in Infant-Parent Mental Health from Harvard Children’s Hospital. Currently she serves on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Art Therapy Association.

Amber Channell

I am a Registered Art Therapist with 20+ years of experience working in a variety of settings, including a women’s shelter, a group home, a hospital and private practice. The majority of my art therapy experience has been within a school division, where I had the opportunity to work with over 700 children and adolescents through individual sessions, art therapy groups and classroom presentations. Most recently I took on the role of Clinical Manager of a private practice, where I provided supervision and professional development to practicing therapists. I have never strayed from my passion for art therapy, and now I am thrilled to be a part of CiiAT, where I can pass on my experience to new art therapy students and therapeutic arts practitioners.

Haley Toll, Ph.D. Cand., CCC, RCAT, RP (inactive) is the Editor in Chief of the Canadian Art Therapy Association Journal and Ph.D. Candidate in the Faculty of Education at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. She is also the Co-convener of Arts & Health Research Exchange Group at the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Applied Health Research.

As a Registered Canadian Art Therapist and Certified Canadian Counselor, she has worked with children and adults internationally and across Canada in primarily trauma-care related to cancer diagnosis, sexual abuse, and other psychological and emotional challenge since 2010. She has worked in the capacity of an art therapist, counsellor, policy and/or psychosocial support advisor in: the Mongolian Ministry of Labor and Social Protection in Ulaanbaatar, the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton, the Sea to Sky Community Services Society in Squamish, the Miriam Foundation in Montreal, the Botswana-Baylor Children’s Clinical Centre of Excellence in Gaborone, and Stepping Stones International in Mochudi. As an educator, Haley has trained mental health practitioners and students in Botswana, Thailand, Edmonton, and Mongolia in art therapy, arts-informed, and crisis intervention practices.

Haley was the President of the Canadian Art Therapy Association from 2016-2019 and the Director of Communications from 2013-2016. Her current doctoral research intermixes multicultural and international art therapy and arts-based research, with a focus on supporting newcomer women in Canada. Haley is a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships Doctoral Award Recipient (2019). She was also awarded the Lakehead Arts Integrated Research Award (2021), School of Graduate Studies Dean’s Award (2019), Ellen Gillis Memorial Scholarship (2019), Edith Creighton Scholarship (2019), Women’s Association of Memorial University Doctoral Scholarship (2018), School of Graduate Studies Baseline Scholarship (2017), and the Campaign for the New Millennium Contribution Scholarship (2009).

Tehani Burnett, MSW, RCSW, BT

Tehani Burnett is a Registered Clinical Social Worker and has worked for the BC Ministry of Children and Family Development. She graduated with a Bachelor’s of Technology in Aviation Flight in 2001, and a Master of Social Work in 2004. In 2020, she graduated from the CiiAT Clinical Art Therapy Diploma Program and is currently working towards registration as an art therapist. She loves working with a variety of clients. While she has considerable experience with children and youth, her emerging focus is on relationships, attachment, vulnerability, emotional safety, and trauma.

Tehani was born in Jamaica and raised in Ontario. She has two cats and is a lifelong artist. Things really took off for her in the art department in 2014, when she began to learn to paint intuitively from people like Jesse Reno, Flora Bowley, and Kelley Rae Roberts.

Oona McClure has deep respect for artistic communication and is passionate about celebrating the gifts
of the healing arts. She views art-making processes as enriching places for inquiry,
empowerment, imagination, comfort, and relational connection. Her education, professional
experience, and comprehensive skill set bridge the spheres of arts-based therapy and
community arts programming.
As an art therapist and founder of Hearten Art Therapy & Creative Wellness, Oona delivers
engaging arts-based therapy in private practice and in partnership with local community
programs. Oona fosters an environment where the unique stories of each client are honoured
and where confidence, resiliency, and healing can roam.
Oona has spent much of their career working with children and young adults in group and 1:1
settings. They have extensive experience facilitating groups and using arts-based therapy to
address anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, attachment, neurodiversity, and complex mental
health issues.
Oona’s roles at CiiAT are diverse and include being the site supervisor at the Art Wellness
Studios and Clinic program (based out of the Eric Martin Pavilion at the Royal Jubilee Hospital
in Victoria, BC), providing clinical supervision to students and facilitating APD courses.
Oona is a graduate of the Vancouver Art Therapy Institute and a Registered Canadian Art
Therapist.
Oona lives in Victoria, BC on the unceded Coast Salish Territory of the lək̓wəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ
nations. She is grateful to live, learn, play, make art, and raise her family on these beautiful
lands.

Sarah Bradley, BA, DipATh, MA, BCATR, RCC

After completing high school, Sarah Bradley attended art college. She didn’t aspire to be a “successful artist” but was fascinated by the ‘person behind the painting’ and the way less conscious material became evident through art. After arriving in Victoria in the late 70’s, she discovered Kay Collis’ Art Therapy Department at the Victoria Mental Health Centre. She trained as an art therapist with Kay and went on to participate in the BC School of Art Therapy for many years.

For the past 2 decades, Sarah has utilised art therapy every day as she works with children, youth, and families who have experienced abuse or relationship violence. She has also completed extensive training in the use of somatic approaches to therapy. Visual art is her raison d’etre and she also loves music and dance.

Kim O’Leary was born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario and moved west to Edmonton, Alberta to pursue a diploma in Child and Youth Care Counselling. In her work with youth, she was introduced to the use of art therapy and psychodrama in working with groups. Her interest in working directly with people was strengthened through her completion of a Bachelor degree in Social Work at Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario and she has been registered to practice through the Alberta College and subsequently the BC College of Social Workers since 1995. Her Social Work training provided her with a foundation of understanding and skill in the areas of structural and anti-oppressive practice as she gained a diversity of experience working in non-profit, institutional care, psychiatric care and private practice.

Inspired to explore the intersection of healing, human creativity and spirituality, in 2009 Kim completed a Master of Psychotherapy and Spirituality degree with a specialization in Art Therapy through St. Stephen’s College in Edmonton, Alberta. At the same time, she completed an Expressive Arts Apprenticeship through the World Arts Organization and pursued additional training whereby she achieved certification as a Hakomi Therapist. Since coming to Vancouver Island in 2011, she completed training to support her designation as a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner. Balancing between teaching and her private practice, she continues to pursue post-graduate studies in the area of developmental trauma and build her capacity to support individuals and community in the use of sensory motor art therapy techniques.

Rebecca MacLeod believes creativity is a core component of health and wellness. As an advocate that creativity lives both within the arts as well as in all aspects of our daily lives, she strives to support students and clients to live out their inherent creativity. After completing her Bachelor of Social Work at the University of Calgary she became a Registered Social Worker and supported youth, families, and parents in various settings. Now Rebecca enjoys dairy farming with her husband and raising their growing family. In addition, she currently provides individual art therapy online and pre/post natal art therapy groups for women.

After thousands of heART-centered therapy, workshop, classroom, and one-on-one conversations grounded in solid research and science, Marilyn is more convinced than ever that transformation is possible!

She is a Professional Art Therapist with a Bachelor’s degree in Education and a post-graduate diploma in Art Therapy… and married, widowed, remarried, mother, grandmother, teacher, and friend. So many life experiences have added up to years of witnessing transformation: teaching children and adults, facilitating therapeutic and narrative writing workshops, designing curriculum, life and business coaching, workshopping, personality typing (Myers Briggs and Enneagram work), grief counseling, and now establishing a face-to-face private therapy practice in South Surrey-White Rock, British Columbia and an online therapy platform serving heart-seekers from around the world.

Marilyn was drawn to art therapy after teaching her last high school class with too little support, where almost half her students were “high needs” with below-grade academic skills. So she used art to help kids learn – not textbooks or blackboards -and witnessed incredible transformations in their academic abilities, confidence levels, and respect for the Other. She came to discover, after resigning her teaching positions to attend CiiAT, that art-making in the classroom was what heART-making is in the therapeutic studio, transformation. After hundreds of direct client hours, she knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that limitations, anxieties, depression, relationship challenges, loneliness, confusion, poor self-esteem, etc., when companioned by therapeutic art-making and safe conversation, can be transformed into joy, beauty, and healing. Marilyn now commits her “retirement years” into refirement hours, where she both gives and receives time and space for safe conversations, expression of raw emotions, self-care and creativity, growth and, of course, transformation.

I am an art therapist in Victoria BC – located on the unceded, traditional and ancestral territories of the Lekwungen speaking people, the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations – in awe and gratitude for their historical and ongoing stewardship of these beautiful lands. And honoured to step into a commitment of learning, unlearning, and collaborative stewardship of land and community.

I LOVE THIS WORK and every minute that I am fortunate enough to do and share it. The spaces that I facilitate are inclusive – all genders, colours, orientations, binary and norm busting, queer minded and bodied folks are welcome and respected. The work that I do is rooted in embodied creative curiosity …in building an understanding of what our experiences ARE in this world… and enlisting our curiosity & creativity in building care practices for supporting ourselves in that. Learning how we can BE in this world in ways that feel good. BE in our relationships, in our communities in ways that feel supportive, curious, creative.

More information: www.heyshauna.com

Sharona is an Organizational Development & Leadership Associate at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. She has also been an Art Psychotherapist for 28 years has specialized in geriatric, dementia, cancer care, and palliation. She is a Registered Psychotherapist with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario. Sharona completed her Doctorate in Leadership research, with a focus on the business of healthcare, stakeholder relations, and leadership; and has her Masters of Business Administration specializing in Innovation Leadership. She had also completed Post-MBA certificates in Social Enterprise and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for Business. Sharona has experience in curriculum design and implementation of health leadership competencies within an anti-oppressive and cultural humility framework. She is a creative problem solver and critical thinker with extensive knowledge of the health care field, having worked with internal and external partners. Sharona is pleased to be teaching at The Toronto Art Therapy Institute, Canadian International Institute of Art Therapy, Winnipeg Holistic Expressive Arts Therapy Institute, and guest lecturing at the University of Toronto.

A CiiAT APD graduate and professional member of CATA, Shawna now runs a private art therapy practice and teaches from her studio in the heart of Mexico City. She has special interest in the area of complex trauma and continues post graduate studies in somatic psychology, neuroscience, and communication. Shawna is also an award winning multidisciplinary artist and a creative professional with over 12 years of experience in art education, health and community development.

Nadine is an Art Psychotherapist and graduate of OCAD; the Ontario College of Art and Design and CiiAT; the Canadian International Institute of Art Therapy. She is a member in good standing with CATA; the Canadian Art Therapy Association and AATA; the American Art Therapy Association. She is a TAPP’s instructor with CiiAT, where she promotes collaborative learning through online virtual-class teachings, discussions and art interventions. Additionally, she is a clinical team member with a private international integrative and holistic mental health facility working with residents from all over the world, and with this she offers a culturally sensitive and diverse approach when leading modalities in land and aqua fitness, mindfulness, compassion, breathing and art therapy.

Aditi Kaul, BA,MA,UNESCO-CID Grade 5 DMT, RCAT

After completing her Masters in Psychology from The Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai and her Grade 5 UNESCO and Council of International Dance certified Movement Therapy course; she began working as an Expressive Arts Based Therapist in Fortis Healthcare, New Delhi; India. She has been running the expressive arts based therapy programme across the country for Fortis Healthcare since 2013.

Aditi discovered her love for the arts and art therapy (in spite of being asked to leave her art class for lack of skill/perfection in class 7) when she attended a workshop on poetry, movement & art therapy by an organization working with survivors of trafficking and abuse in 2010 which was the most powerful, overwhelming and transforming experience that allowed her to actively push to train in art therapy with a focus on trauma work. She has worked passionately to bring art therapy in India to clinical settings and now Fortis is a hospital chain with the largest mental health care and art therapy team in the country! Prior to this she worked through university and after for 4 years with The YP Foundation, a not-for-profit organization working with young people on enabling leadership, with issues ranging from education and healthcare to SRHR as a project head for Blending Spectrum (children living in the streets/slum dwellings on health education life skills and mental health using the arts).

In 2020, she graduated from the CiiAT Clinical Art Therapy Diploma Program and is currently working towards registration as an art therapist.

She works with a range of clients including working with persons diagnosed with trauma, anxiety, depressive disorders, disorders of childhood, adolescents as well as stresses of day to day life using psychotherapeutic techniques including visual art, movement, writing, storytelling, play, and music. The art therapy team under her leadership works extensively with in-patients. In health, psychology plays a pivotal role where they work directly with patients admitted for physical health conditions and in tertiary care in collaboration with other medical departments conducting arts-based support groups, therapeutic groups (breast cancer, dialysis, pediatric oncology, burns and trauma), palliative care, grief work, and rehabilitative work with patients in recovery.

She has done many preventive mental health workshops with schools, colleges and NPOs as well as capacity building workshops across the country and has been teaching “Expressive Arts in Clinical Practice” for the last 6 years in collaboration with UNESCO and the Council of International Dance, amongst other short term courses. She has also spoken on mental health and art therapy at forums including the WHO, AIIMS, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), Youth Ki Awaaz, Youth for Mental Health, Jindal University, Delhi University, Dhempe University Goa, Hope B Lit, Music Basti and CMTAI, Save The Children and TedXJMC.

She has also co-authored and published two life skills books with Macmillan and is a contributor to the book “Virtual Art Therapy in Research & Practice” published by Routledge. In addition, Aditi has written articles for various newspapers, e-journals, and she was featured on a series of podcasts with Habits Matter, Empathy4You and Mind U – My Upchaar on mental health, art therapy and wellbeing. Aditi can be seen featured if numerous social media live streams and e-panels about mental health.

Judith Siano, MA is currently a registered art therapist and supervisor. In the years 2002-2017 she worked as a chair of the Israeli Association of Creative and Expressive Therapies Ethics Committee. 1987-2016 Judith Siano taught at the university of Haifa and teaches now at the Academic and Technology College of Tel-Hai. She still works in her art therapy studio with both clients and other therapists. She is the initiator and head of the DROP IN – WIN WIN project which provides art therapy for adolescents at risk. Judith lectures on trauma, adolescence, and ethics in therapy. She was a guest teacher in summer courses at KATI 2004, 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2016 and now teaches with CiiAT since December of 2020. Judith Siano has published articles in professional journals in Israel and abroad. In 2016 her book “Holy Junk – Lost, Found and Rejected Objects in Art Therapy” was published in Hebrew and in English. She has co-produced three art therapy documentary films. In Judith’s dream, it is possible to change a gloomy reality by means of art, which instills hope. She lives in Haifa, Israel, with her family.

The many places and stories of my mixed cultural background have exposed me to different cultures, views, and beliefs that have greatly enriched my life and ultimately influenced my career in clinical practice first and art therapy after.

I am by trade a Registered Social Worker with three decades of experience and practice in mental health. I have graduated as an Art Therapist from CiiAT, and I am currently a Registered Art Therapist with CATA.

I have developed many specialties during my long-standing career ranging from Attachment Informed clinical practice to supporting a wide range of mental health related issues during the prenatal-adolescence period.

My many concurring years of after-hours crisis work have also exposed me to human suffering throughout the life span, promoting personal awareness in my role as clinician and art therapist. I am dedicated to the use of art therapy to enable the unsayable to be said, the unmentionable to be mentioned, the unforgettable to be held.

I will be forever grateful to my CiiAT family for the great gift of art therapy that I received, and I use it by promoting creative expression in my work with clients, inspiring other clinicians and advocating for art therapy in my community.
When I don’t work or study, I am a dedicated mother and grandmother. I love nature and mixed media art.

Frances Bryant-Scott, MSW, DipATh, BCATR

Frances (Franny) Bryant-Scott is a compassionate and playful Canadian artist, Art Therapist, and arts-based interfaith spiritual director and coach living on the island of Crete in Greece.

After completing a BA in Comparative Religions, she graduated with a Masters in Social Work in 1989. Feeling scraped raw by the work, she soon left to follow more artistic and manual pursuits such as weaving, costume making, and furniture arts. It wasn’t until decades later that she understood what had been missing from the work (in addition to a lack of trauma-informed theory and brain science) was the grounding and healing element of art – both for herself as a practitioner and her clients.

Franny re-entered the therapeutic field a decade ago through bereavement work at Victoria Hospice and has a special interest in deepening the conversation about death in our death-phobic culture. Ever since she created objects and rituals of remembrance for wild birds and family pets as a small child, she has intuitively grasped the transformative power of art to help us hold both the beauty and suffering in our lives. She studied Art Therapy at the BC School of Art Therapy, graduating in 2012, and served for seven years on the Board of Directors of the BC Art Therapy Association in the positions of Student Representative, Secretary, Vice President, and President.

Creativity and spirituality now inform every aspect of her work whether it’s her sculptural felt and hand-built clay art, or running workshops on using art as a spiritual practice, facilitating conversations about death, or working one on one with clients who want to attend to their deepest truth.

Chantelle Smith, MA, RCC, RCAT

Chantelle Smith is passionate about art, learning and mentoring. She completed her Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology from the University of Victoria and her Post Master’s Certificate in Art Therapy from the B.C. School of Art Therapy concurrently in 2011.

Chantelle’s focus has always been working with and supporting children, youth and families, and from 2011 – 2019, she worked as a Child & Youth Mental Health (CYMH) Clinician with the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD). In 2019, she became a CYMH Policy Consultant with MCFD, and is now using her experience and knowledge of working with children, youth and families as a clinician to help inform and develop relevant policies to support clinical practice.

Since 2016, Chantelle has also been a volunteer with Inspire Health, creating and delivering art therapy workshops for patients impacted by cancer.

Patricia Williams, SW, Dip. ATh., MA, RCAT

Patricia obtained her Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology in 2016 and graduated as an art therapist from the B.C. School of Art Therapy in 2011. She became a registered social worker in 2002, trained as a play therapist with the Canadian Association for Play Therapy and completed a Certificate in Visual Arts in 2007. She has a BA in Psychology from the University of Alberta.

Patricia has worked in a variety of national and international settings with diverse populations over the past twenty years. She has provided services within the school system, in private and community agencies, and in her private practice, Heartwork Integrated Art Therapy Services. She has a special interest in attachment and the inherent suitability of art therapy for treating attachment-based issues. Patricia is a qualified teacher of Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC). She received her training directly from Kristen Neff and Christopher Germer, the developers of MSC, and is interested in how mindfulness and self-compassion can be integrated into the art therapy process.

Patricia presented at the Canadian Art Therapy Conference in 2016 on the topic of cultivating compassion for the earth. She identifies as a Metis woman and her work as a contemporary fused glass artist also reflects her deep love of the natural world, which is a central value of her cultural heritage.  Her many interests include conflict resolution, play therapy, children and divorce, suicide intervention, neurobiology, and eating disorders.

Vera is a full-time professor in Art Therapy at the University of Quebec in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, an art therapist, and a licensed social worker and psychotherapist. She worked in mental health and maintained a private practice for over 20 years. Throughout her career, she initiated various multimodal expressive therapies with youth, immigrants, and women’s groups both in Quebec and in Latin America.

In addition to her teaching and clinical work, Vera has been a practicing fine artist since 1983. She participated in various group exhibitions, both in Quebec and abroad, and received creation grants from Quebec and Canada Councils of Art. Her multidisciplinary background has led her to develop a view of art as an interactive and democratic discipline, at once intimate and social, spontaneous and reflexive. She developed a particular research interest in exploring the contribution of artistic creation to healing through depth psychology.

Born in Haïti, Pascale is an art therapist and ethnopsychiatry practitioner who understands life as a complex world of class, power inequities & spiritualities. She uses identity and narratives to help practitioners comprehend how the interpersonal-cultural-disciplinary knowledge informs practice. She has introduced her own four children to the intricacies of living and adjusting to diversity throughout the globe through extensive travel.

Pascale is the founder and director of Arts, Racines & Therapies, a holistic therapy centre that integrates traditional culture, spirituality, and creativity into clinical practice. Her clinical work continues to focus primarily with Aboriginal and immigrant persons. Her work is conducted in French, English, Creole, and Spanish.

Johanne is a psychologist and professional art psychotherapist. She is a retired professor of the Art Therapy Master’s Program of the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue. She maintains a private practice in art psychotherapy and as a supervisor of psychologists and art therapists. She is an international lecturer in the USA and Europe. She has written articles and three books in art therapy, including the following:

• Rêves, art-thérapie et guérison, Montréal : Québec-Livres, 2017/1993
• L’art-thérapie, mettre des mots sur les maux et des couleurs sur les douleurs, Paris : Larousse, 2016.
• L’art-thérapie somatique, Montréal : Québec-Livres, 2014, 3’ édition.

https://www.johannehamel.com/

Christine is a Registered Art Therapist, clinical supervisor, and international instructor and presenter. She has 18 years of experience providing art therapy services to people of all ages. She specializes in body-focused art therapy, trauma, sexual abuse and addictions. Her clinical presentations and experiential workshops include body-focused art therapy, neuroscience and trauma, art therapy with different age groups, and therapeutic support for professionals. She has focused her Doctorate in Art Therapy research on building a theoretical foundation for Therapeutic Body-Mapping and use of the methodology as a culturally-sensitive trauma intervention based on the neurobiology of trauma.

Christine is former Vice President of the Canadian Art Therapy Association and author of ‘The Use of Art Therapy in the Treatment of Addictions’ and ‘Parents Handbook on Reducing Anxiety: What’s Going On In the Brain’.

www.arttherapyservices.ca

Lindsay Clarke holds her Masters in Art Therapy from Concordia University and is a Registered Art Therapist with the Canadian Art Therapy Association. She is an instructor of the Youth and Children Art Therapy course in Tokyo for JIPATT. In Montreal, she is a supervisor to art therapy students and works with families and children in community settings including women’s shelters, schools, museums, and art hives. She uses a trauma-informed and attachment-based approach in her focused work in supporting women and children as they heal from issues of displacement, violence, and loss.

Lindsay also extends creative healing into the garden and kitchen as she has initiated cooking therapy groups that involve participant grown ingredients, promoting intergenerational support and a grounded sense of engagement for marginalized peoples in transition.

Patcharin Sughondhabirom, otherwise known as Dr. Jo, is a medical doctor and Registered Art Therapist living in Bangkok, Thailand. She is Director of the International Program of Art Therapy in Thailand (IPATT), which she developed in 2011 in collaboration with Lucille Proulx, thus bringing formal clinical art therapy training into Thailand. In 2014, she also founded the Art Therapy Foundation to support art therapy projects in the country.

Her passion in the arts, combined with her deep interest in the death and dying process, has drawn her into the field of palliative care. In 2005, she started an open art studio project in Bangkok for children with cancer at the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital. The project was well received, and was later expanded to The Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health. This project has ignited creative ideas and initiations in other pediatric units in the country.