Art Therapy

I am Laurel Birk and I am an artisan, exhibiting artist and art therapy intern. I would describe myself as a dreamer, creative and initiator. I am a lover of flowers, a talker to trees and I am happiest creating community and being in wild places.

For three years, I combined my love of nature, art and community to facilitate community-building workshops, intercultural circles, ceremonies, women’s gatherings and retreats. The main passion of my facilitation work has been to help women cultivate a deeper connection to their bodies and the Earth through ceremony, art and nature.

As I took my facilitation work to broader demographics and saw the profound impact of combining ceremony, art and nature to provide healing, I began to long for mentorship to deepen and expand my offerings. In my search, I found the Kutenai Art Therapy Institute (KATI) and was deeply inspired by their land-based, trauma-informed and de-colonized approach to art therapy and healing.

Now as a first-year art therapy intern at KATI, I am learning how I can combine my intuitive approach to facilitation with the added foundation of theory, supervision and mentorship.

Authenticity and Connection are my core values and are the foundation of my art therapy practice. As an art therapy intern, it is my focus to cultivate safe and sacred spaces where participants can authentically connect to themselves and express themselves freely with the art materials.

I believe that we are not separate from but deeply a part of the tapestry of the Earth. I therefore feel some of our greatest wounds are our conscious and unconscious disconnection from the land. For this reason, I am deeply drawn to using natural art materials and whenever possible creating directly on the land.

I view story as medicine and that healing happens in community when we share our stories. For this reason, I am deeply called to facilitating group art therapy sessions and making space for finding, creating and sharing our stories. As an exhibiting artist, I know the power of sharing our artwork and stories and how they can provide deep personal and collective healing. One of my goals in becoming an art therapist is to hold participant-led art exhibitions so that their personal and collective stories can be shared with their communities. In doing so, it is my hope that we can collectively weave a new story for ourselves, our communities and the Earth - one of connection and belonging.

If you are interested in working with me,
please connect with me here.