About

Katherine Valkanas is an Art Therapist whose practice is informed by person-centred, strength-based, trauma-informed, humanistic, and psychodynamic approaches with individuals of all ages. She has a special interest in supporting individuals and families through personal anxieties, trauma, depression, end-of-life care, processing grief and loss, mental illness, and mental health obstacles within individual and group art therapy contexts. Katherine believes that clients’ connection to their creativity, along with support of the therapeutic alliance, can guide them through their life experiences. This practice promotes self-awareness, growth, and compassion throughout the clients’ art making processes to attain emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being.  

Katherine has experience working alongside families and individuals of all ages, supporting them through grief and loss, trauma, existential anxieties, and promoting self-compassion in safely exploring personal trauma within clinical institutions and community settings. She has experience caring for individuals and families within a palliative care unit. Specifically, Katherine has provided end-of-life-care encompassing emotional, spiritual, and psychosocial support for individuals living with terminal illness. Through this experience she has found the benefit of individual and group art therapy sessions for family members and loved ones to assist them in commemorating connection to their loved one, processing anticipatory grief, and building comfort at the bedside.

In addition, Katherine has experience leading group and individual art therapy sessions for clients living with a wide range of intellectual disabilities, development delays, neurological, behavioural, and psychological disorders. These experiences have profoundly informed her current art therapy practice.

Katherine has also completed a Reiki Level 3: Masters’ Level and is a registered Reiki Practitioner within the Canadian Reiki Association. Reiki is a bioelectromagnetic-based therapy that affects the surrounding and inner body. It focuses on balancing the electromagnetic fields in the body to bring individuals to a tranquil state. In attaining a masters’ certification in Mikao Usui Reiki, Katherine has developed a deeper understanding of how healing the metaphysical body also positively affects the physical body. She has experience facilitating Reiki sessions for clients living with a wide range of physical ailments, terminal illnesses, anxiety, stress, and depression. She believes that Reiki can promote gaining mind and body connection within one's spiritual journey. This practice has built on her non-verbal connection to clients and her ability to create safe space in exploring one’s spiritual journey and growth. She continues to offer Reiki sessions.