Run out of Clinton, ON, Althea offers services virtually across Canada.

Althea Therapeutic Services - Finding Healing Through Art

At Althea, our mission is clear: to promote healing through art. We believe in the transformative power of creativity and its ability to nurture.

Through a diverse range of art therapy and therapeutic arts services, we create a safe and welcoming space where individuals can explore themselves, express emotions, and discover the tools creativity offers.

Our goal is to empower individuals to tap into their artistic abilities as a means of reflection, growth, and healing.

Book an individual or group session now to explore how art can become a powerful tool for self-expression and personal well-being.

  • Kelsey Mathison

    Professional Art Psychotherapist, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)

    Kelsey is a young artist, professional art psychotherapist, counsellor, and the owner of Althea Therapeutic Services.

    Much of her practice derives from her own interest in art and psychology. Kelsey’s art practice and her time as an art therapist both include a feminist approach, understanding her own lived experiences and using what she has learned when applicable. Kelsey's desire to pursue art therapy expanded throughout her learning to speak of what is most difficult. She strives to give space to anyone and everyone to discover and explore this additional visual language. With a feminist approach as a base for her practice, Kelsey conducts client-centered sessions and adjusts according to each individual’s needs.

FAQs

  • As defined by the American Art Therapy Association (AATA),

    “Art Therapy is an integrative mental health and human services profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active artmaking, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship.

    Art Therapy, facilitated by a professional art therapist, effectively supports personal and relational treatment goals as well as community concerns. Art Therapy is used to improve cognitive and sensory-motor functions, foster self-esteem and self-awareness, cultivate emotional resilience, promote insight, enhance social skills, reduce and resolve conflicts and distress, and advance societal and ecological change.”

  • Kelsey structures art therapy sessions based on your needs. She typically works from a client-based approach, inspired and motivated by feminist therapy.

    A typical session may include art therapy directives, free artmaking, reflections, and visualizations. While traditional art materials will often be explored, nontraditional materials such as household found objects and natural resources may also be used.

  • Feminist Art Psychotherapy is an integrative approach that began in the late 1960s as women helping women, focusing on gender challenges and stressors faced due to bias, stereotyping, oppression, and discrimination. The theory has since evolved to include the recognition of interlocking oppression across additional minorities such as class, disability, race, ethnicity, and sexuality. While Feminist Art Psychotherapy is an integrative approach, taking pieces of other theories, there are a few key concepts that set apart this novel approach from its predecessors.

    Firstly, though it is unclear as to whether it is used in today’s approach in feminist therapy, it is known that self-disclosure was a significant part of the early days of Feminist Psychotherapy. A second distinctive aspect of Feminist Art Psychotherapy is the approach of reframing clients’ issues in the context of societal views, involving the concept that ‘the personal is political’. The third approach that is essential to touch on is methods of empowerment used in Feminist Art Psychotherapy. Techniques that feminist therapists use to give space for empowerment in a therapeutic setting include, but are not limited to, empathy, advocacy, and bibliotherapy.

  • The name "Althea" was originally inspired by the plant commonly known as the Rose of Sharon (also known as Hibiscus Syriacus, Rose Mallow, or Shrub Althea).

    The national flower of South Korea first symbolized eternity and abundance. When the shrub was later grown in the gardens of Europe, it became a symbol of beauty and love, hope and rejuvenation. It is all of these that influenced the name of this practice, Althea, as the therapeutic arts are beautiful, promote hope and rejuvenation, require love and attentiveness, and have impacts that can last an eternity.