Melanie Forest
Art Therapist
Melanie graduated with distinction in 2006 from Concordia University earning a Master of Arts in Art Therapy. Melanie is an art therapist specialized in working with children, adolescents, young adults, and families. She provides sessions in English and French and uses techniques from different approaches such as art therapy, play therapy, cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), and mindfulness in her practice
Melanie has worked extensively supporting children within the public school system, and working with at-risk children, adolescents and their families. Having years of experience in schools settings, Melanie provides recommendations and interventions that can be shared with school staff to improve the support of children and their families.
Melanie has extensive experience working with individuals who present symptoms in areas such as depression, anxiety, trauma, adjustment issues, life transitions, anger and aggression issues, self-esteem and self-confidence issues, relationship issues, and gender identity/sexuality issues, as well as individuals with special needs. Melanie works with children and their families to reduce the presenting problems and help children become mentally and psychologically strong to better cope with unpleasant life events.
Melanie is not taking on new clients at this time.
Cindy Tsay
Art Therapist
Cindy is a Registered Art Therapist (RAT) specialized in relational and emotional health. She is fluent in English and Mandarin Chinese. Cindy has a Master’s degree in art therapy and a post-master’s marriage and family therapy certificate from Bethel Seminary (St Paul). She uses art therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy, contextual family therapy, and mindfulness techniques in her practice.
Cindy has experience working with adjustment-related anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, sexual and substance addictions, anger management, and trauma-related symptoms in teens and adults. She works with individuals, couples, and families who are motivated to better their relationships and emotional well-being.
Cindy is a culturally competent therapist and is sensitive to how our larger cultural, spiritual, and family contexts shape the way we experience life and all the transitions in between. Her goal as a therapist is to offer a creative and mindful environment for her clients to develop a greater self-compassion and compassion for others.
Book an appointment with Cindy here.
Cara Rosa
Art Therapist
Cara Rosa obtained her MA in Counselling with Art Therapy Specialization from Athabasca University and Vancouver Art Therapy Institute. Cara has experience working with children, adolescents, and adults. She works with individuals with different cultural backgrounds and provides the sessions in English.
Cara has a special interest in using art to explore and develop identity and self-esteem, particularly with women and older adolescents. Cara works from an integrated approach, combining person-centered art therapy with CBT and mindfulness techniques aimed at helping clients attain their therapeutic goals. Cara is only taking on new clients for online sessions. Book an appointment with Cara here.
Émilie Hamel
Art Therapist
Émilie completed her Master’s degree in art-therapy at Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT). With experience of more than 10 years in working with children and teenagers, she has a comprehensive knowledge of difficulties that can affect children and youth. She also has experience supporting adults in their parenting, relationships, life transitions and mental health issues. Her works with individuals aim to support and improve self-expression and empowerment.
Émilie can provide support for individuals with a history of addiction and cyber-addiction, anxiety, depression, gender or sexual identity/issues, physical or psychological abuse, trauma as well as self-confidence and self-esteem issues, life transitions, anger issues, etc. With a client-centered practice, she applies techniques from different approaches such as gestalt-therapy, psychodynamic approach, cognitive-behavioral-therapy and systematic therapy. Emilie provides art therapy in English and French. Book an appointment with Émilie here.
Deniz Naji
Art Therapist
Deniz completed her studies in Art Therapy at UQAT University and WHEAT Institute. Throughout her practicum, Deniz has worked with children and adults of diverse backgrounds from women who experienced domestic violence, immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers to the minority populations living with HIV as well as children (privately and in school settings) from a systemic approach. She works through a decolonizing, anti-oppressive, non-binary and trauma-informed lens to enhance resilience and promote recovery. Her aim is to help clients improve their interpersonal relationships, reconnect with themselves and their communities all while using creativity. She uses a holistic person-centered approach, solution-oriented in essence including somatic awareness and the multi-arts to counselling. Deniz can provide art therapy sessions both in English and Farsi/Persian. Book an appointment with Deniz here.
Laurence Gagnon
Art Therapist
Laurence Gagnon completed her master’s degree in art therapy at Concordia University and is a professional member of Quebec Art Therapy Association (ATTQ). With ten years of experience in intervention through the arts, she is equipped to create collaborative and benevolent spaces of expression in French, English and Spanish, adapted to different rhythms and varied needs whether she is working with adults, children, adolescents, and including people of the neurodiversity. Cultural humility is an important and constantly evolving value in her work. Laurence offers trauma-informed art therapy with a person-centred and intersectional approach, inviting clients of diverse cultural backgrounds, to expand their own voice through the creative process. Her therapeutic approach revolves around psychodynamic and systemic approaches, integrating mindfulness to guide toward well-being anchored in a deep self-knowledge in relation to the world and others.
Book an appointment with Laurence here.
Yu-Hsuan (Chloe) Ko
Art Therapist
Yu-Hsuan received her post-baccalaureate diploma in art therapy from Kutenai Art Therapy Institute. As an existential art therapist, Yu-Hsuan uses relational, person-centered, feminist and mindful approaches to working with children, adults and the elderly. She approaches the healing process from a culturally-sensitive and trauma-informed lens. She has experience supporting clients from diverse cultural backgrounds with a special interest in empowering women. Yu-Hsuan uses creative expression to explore life experiences, such as trauma, mental health and wellness, life transitions, grief and loss, existential issues and life purposes to promote healing and wellbeing.
Yu-Hsuan is a professional member of the Canadian Art Therapy Association (CATA) and the Association des Art-Thérapeutes du Québec (AATQ) and a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) in Ontario. Yu-Hsuan offers therapy services in Mandarin and English and is proficient in offering art therapy to her clients in an online format. Yu-Hsuan offers therapy services in Brossard and online. Book an appointment with Yu-Hsuan here.
Nicole Agro
Art Therapist
Nicole is a professional member of the Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA) and the Canadian Academy of Naturopaths and Naturotherapists (ACNN). Nicole is currently involved with a number of Art Hive organizations in Montreal, including the Concordia Art Hives, the Engage Learning Lab Art Hive, and art therapy research such as Music Art Hives for Seniors with Cognitive Developmental Deficiencies. Nicole is a graduate of the Master’s program of Art Therapy from Concordia University.
Nicole has substantial experience working with children, adolescents, families, the elderly, as well as members of the Deaf community, refugee, and other disability communities. She has assisted people with trauma-related symptoms, ADHD, psychosis, autism spectrum disorder, learning and behavioural difficulties, depression, and anxiety. Through her art therapy training and prior art teaching experience in schools and community outreach, Nicole is well-versed in navigating and identifying solutions to help improve the mental health and well-being of children, adults, and families. Nicole can provide art therapy services in English and American Sign Language (ASL).
Nicole believes that art therapists play a crucial role in promoting greater accessibility and inclusivity of mental health services, given art therapy’s wide range of benefits and adaptability among diverse populations. Nicole employs a client-centered approach in which therapeutic approaches and techniques are adapted to the client’s particular needs and objectives. Nicole seeks to promote the creative and expressive freedom of her clients through using a wide range of art media, including drawing, painting, fibered media, and digital media, as well as the incorporation of other modalities, such as music, dance, drama, and play. Nicole is also a visiting art therapist to the Cree First Nations in the North of Quebec, where she provides individual and group art therapy sessions for children and youth. Book an appointment with Nicole here.
Cyndie Bussière
Art Therapist
Cyndie Bussière holds a Master’s degree in Art Therapy from Concordia University and is a professional member of the Quebec Art Therapy Association (AATQ). With over 10 years of experience working with children, Cyndie has worked as an art therapist with children and youth in a pediatric center, where she honed her skills in a systemic approach. She has also worked in a mental health center, providing individual and group services for adults using a humanistic and psychodynamic approach.
Throughout her career, she has followed various trainings to develop a unique multidisciplinary approach, including play therapy, nature-based expressive art therapies, ritual practices, mindfulness, somatic art therapy, and trauma-informed art therapy. Her experiences have enabled her to work with clients from diverse cultural backgrounds. She is also a visiting art therapist to the Indigenous communities in the North of Quebec.
Cyndie collaborates with her clients, offering personalized services that meet their needs. She creates a welcoming space with a client-centered approach, allowing clients to express themselves on a wide range of topics, such as self-awareness, self-esteem, trauma, life transitions, anxiety, identity issues, emotional regulation, mourning, and relationship issues.
Cyndie offers art therapy services in both French and English via online therapy. Book an appointment with Cyndie here.
Wry Finkelstein
Drama Therapist
Wry (they/them) is Drama Therapist, who has a MA in Drama Therapy from Concordia University.
Wry has experience working with individuals on the Spectrum and Neuro-divergent clients, Indigenous, and Queer/Transgender youth and adults in Tiohtià:ke. They have worked in creative healing and playing capacities with low income children and teens in Tiohtià:ke, and youth in Tkaronto. In their therapy work they are informed by play therapy, self-revelatory theatre and performance, Internal family systems/parts work, and the wide range of tools and perspectives encapsulated under Drama Therapy. Wry offers drama therapy services to children and youth. Wry believes being a co-healer, someone who helps their community play with, become close with, and transform within their own internal world since this is a natural part of what it means to be a human with other humans. They do this by offering a respectful co-healing and co-exploring dynamic, where they come with tools and provide a safe connection, rather than imposing a diagnostic and prescriptive therapeutic experience. They are currently working with Kanien’kehá:ka youth in Kahnawà:ke. Book an appointment with Wry here.
Nada Khashab
Drama Therapist, Counsellor
Nada Khashaba is a drama therapist whose particular experiences working within cultural communities firmly roots their anti-racist and anti-oppressive, decolonial perspective in reality. Nada graduated with a Master’s degree in Creative Arts Therapies – Drama Therapy option from Concordia University in 2019, and completed her heuristic research project on how to create cultural safety as a settler drama therapist working with Indigenous clients. Nada works with all ages, and all gender expressions, but has specific experience working in religious communities and with youth. Nada can provide therapy in English or Arabic, and draws from Play therapy, Developmental Transformations and Psychodramatic techniques in her work. Nada has experience working in elementary schools and can provide supportive intervention and psychoeducation to staff and parents of children they work with.
Some of the diverse topics Nada has experience working with include, but are not limited to, immigration and diasporic experiences, family and cultural trauma, colonial trauma, gender/sexual identity and/or trauma, emotional regulation, anxiety, self-esteem, boundary work and goal-setting, holistic healing and creative dreaming. Nada can provide therapy sessions in English and Arabic. Book an appointment with Nada here.
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