Tiohtià:ke (Montreal) in Mohawk means broken in two, after the place where the St. Lawrence River separates around the island now known as Montreal explains Rachel Chainey (MA Art Therapy 2018), the 2018 CATA Conference Chair and Art Hives Network Coordinator.
“The theme of conference is mending what is broken between us and how the arts can respond to polarization. How art therapists are positioned to be able to hold some of the world’s suffering and celebrate the strengths of individuals and communities.”
Chainey, a recent grad of the Art Therapy program at Concordia, says that she wanted to bring the conference here because Concordia provides a great space for community development.
“This is a lively environment. Many of its faculty and alumni are leaders in the field, working on researching and developing therapeutic approaches ranging from psychodynamic art psychotherapy to the emerging field of public practice art therapy.”
She says that because Canada is such a vast geographic region, the CATA conference gives practitioners the annual opportunity to get together and exchange ideas.
“Art therapy is a very diverse field. Bringing that diversity of practitioners from across Canada and the world together to learn from one another is very important,” she says.
She believes that attendees left the conference with new tools for building bridges between people.
Art therapy as a vehicle for reconciliation