Jen Seniuk's Canvas of Recovery: Painting Over Life's Emotional Scars

Have you ever pondered the untapped potential of a paintbrush or the hidden depths within a simple sketch? Jen Seniuk, a visionary art therapist from Calgary, shares her unique story of discovery and the transformational journey of art therapy. She lifts the veil on a practice often misunderstood as child's play, revealing its profound ability to aid adults in expressing the inexpressible. Through her compassionate strategies, Jen dismantles the anxiety that can accompany the art-making process, fostering an environment where self-expression through art becomes a sanctuary from societal judgment.

Our conversation branches into the practical magic of Jen's mobile art studio, her metaphorical use of a tree in therapy sessions, and the powerful impact of art therapy on clients, particularly men engaging with non-verbal expression and inner child work. Discover how Jen's intuitive approach and diverse toolkit create breakthroughs in the most unexpected ways, proving that the simplest of artistic expressions can unearth the deepest of revelations. So, grab your earbuds and prepare to be inspired as we uncover the beauty and healing power of art therapy with Jen Seniuk.

Website: www.BellyEyeArtTherapy.com
Instagram: @BellyEyeArtTherapy   
Facebook: Belly Eye Art Therapy
TikTok: @BellyEyeArtTherapy   

This program is brought to you by:
Kindred Art Therapy
Visit https://www.arttherapync.com/ to schedule a free consultation.
- and -
Alynee Davis, PLLC
Visit https://alynnedavis.com/ to connect.
Alynne is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and Coach.

Be sure to visit BizRadio.US to discover hundreds more engaging conversations, local events and more.

Transcript

Aubrey: 0:59

Welcome to Kindred Conversations, the show where we shine a light on local mental health professionals, who are the unsung heroes of our community. Join us as we delve into their journeys, strategies and the art of healing minds. Together, we'll break down stigmas and celebrate resilience. Today I have Jen Senyuk, and she is actually from Canada, from Alberta in Calgary, and she is here today to talk all about her art therapy practice as well as her podcast, and so I'm really excited to have a fellow speaker on today.

Jenn: 1:37

Welcome, Jen Hi thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be doing this.

Aubrey: 1:42

Yeah, I'm super excited. I felt like a little bit like well, it's not exactly local, she's a little bit far, but like her topics are so relevant.

Jenn: 1:56

I'm local to my area, I guess.

Aubrey: 1:59

Yeah, and you're like a fellow warrior in this mental health battle that we're trying to like all like help with, so I'm excited to have you here.

Jenn: 2:08

Oh, thank you Totally.

Aubrey: 2:10

Yeah, so how did tell me about, like the origin story of belly eye art therapy?

Jenn: 2:17

It's funny. I was thinking about it this morning and I'm like it's so random how this happened. I was literally in Australia milking cows and it was 5.30 in the morning and you have a lot of time by yourself to think, because it's two hours every time you milk cows and you milk cows twice a day Wait.

Aubrey: 2:33

So you milked cows in Australia? Yeah, I milked cows in Australia.

Jenn: 2:36

Yeah, I milked cows.

Aubrey: 2:38

I milked cows in Australia. No way I did. I did. I was 13. Oh my goodness, it was like the best milk I ever tasted. It was so creamy.

Jenn: 2:51

I know that was the best part is like you get your coffee first thing in the morning with fresh milk and it'd get you through your shift yeah, I was like whoa.

Aubrey: 2:59

this story just starts out with her in Australia. This has got to be good, okay.

Jenn: 3:05

Yeah, and I just was thinking about oh my God, how many times have I traveled somewhere, even just around Australia, thinking or telling people what I do, and they give me that blank stare, like there has to be a way to educate people, people. I love traveling, I love mental health, I love art therapy and it hit me that I want to be that person, I want to be the bridge in that, to educate people, to demonstrate what it is to model for them, to lead by example. And then that's how Belly Eye Art Therapy was created.

Aubrey: 3:35

So you wanting to really be able to educate people and talk about art therapy really was the genesis point for you and it's funny. It's funny you say that like it's to me. It's starting to become like a joke that people who don't know better when they, when I tell them what I do and I say I do art therapy, the first thing that they ask me is do I work with kids? One thousand?

Jenn: 3:57

percent.

Aubrey: 3:58

Yeah, and it's not that there's anything wrong with working with kids. I think it's wonderful if people work with kids and I think that there's a lot of need for working with kids, right, so there's like nothing bad to say about that. I just think in people's minds we were talking before the show got on around like schemas and like judgments that people have in their mind is that it is something to not take seriously and almost kind of put you in the category. And here's the thing.

Jenn: 4:28

Right, like our kindergarten teachers are really important too, but this like devaluing in our minds well, and it creates such a small, narrow window of opportunity for accessibility and help, like if adults are coming in and they're like, oh, it's only for kids. That just slams the door on the possibility that this is an option for you to also receive help in a unique and different way.

Aubrey: 4:54

Yeah, yeah, so I I kind of have my ways of talking to people about it and helping people to see that there's more to it than just that. I'm curious about your ways because I mean, I have this platform all day long, do you like? What are some things that you talk to people about? Art therapy and in your take on it because it's different for different people different art therapists.

Jenn: 5:25

There's a few different kind of phrases that I love to have in my back pocket. It's like the first one when people say that is well, when words are not enough, we make you know you have a feeling or something's coming up and you just don't have the perfect word for it. Well, art is that. Art is another language that we get to speak through and access, to put some meaning to this, to find a place for these sensations. Or if I'm talking to people and they've never heard of art therapy, sometimes I'll ask if they've heard of music therapy. That seems to be a little bit more popular, and then that's kind of like a nice bridge into it. Or I'll say you know that feeling you get when you listen to a really good song or you know that feeling you get when you go into a gallery and you can't really explain it.

Jenn: 6:13

That's the beginning of art therapy.

Aubrey: 6:15

It's that language interesting yeah yeah, I'm curious because, like I get the clients that and this happens pretty frequently right that like they come in, maybe they wanted art therapy but maybe they weren't coming for art therapy, they were coming for some other reason. And I'm bringing to them and introducing them to the idea of art therapy and you know, they're anxious, they feel like the process of creating is almost like traumatic. It seems like there's been so much judgment around their production, right? So have you encountered that?

Jenn: 6:57

Oh my gosh, All the time, all the time.

Jenn: 6:59

Right now I'm also doing a lot of teaching, so, like I'll I teach within school divisions, their personal development days for their support staff. And that's the biggest thing I talk about is how art is set up in our system to be othered. So it's like, oh, if I'm not good enough to be in a gallery, why should I do this? Or it's like, oh, if I'm not getting a passing grade, am I gonna fail? Am I doing this and like, just like, just normalizing all of that and then bringing it back to. If we put one line on the piece of paper right now, that's creative expression and then we do a bit of practice, warm-up, scribbling, just to know what it feels like. To go back to the basics.

Aubrey: 7:43

Yeah, yeah, something to add onto that, and I don't necessarily talk about this in session, it's something that I would expand upon if somebody really wanted to know about it. Yeah, is that the way that our system, right now and for a very long time, has been set up is that art is graded and it especially starts to become graded around like the middle school age, like you know, adolescence, like 12 to 14. And everybody knows that that is like one of the most sensitive and awkward and vulnerable times for a kid. And so to be putting something out that is an expression of themselves, only to fear, like, what's going to happen to that, like a lot of kids are not even going to be able to produce something because they're just so anxious about it, about being judged.

Aubrey: 8:39

And then if they do put something out there, then they might end up with a really traumatic experience. So it's a very dangerous thing to be like putting art out in such a vulnerable time, and so it's understandable that a lot of people have trauma around that.

Jenn: 8:55

Totally. It's so vulnerable and I always say that to people, whether it's clients, whether I'm teaching, whether I'm talking to people just on the street about it. It is incredibly vulnerable to make art because it is an extension of ourselves that we might not even have seen yet, and yet we have it out in the world. So it's so common and normal to want to hide it away, but there's such a power in putting it out there and such a form of social justice to to say, okay, this is really scary and it's out there. What do I want to do with it? How can I take my power back? How can I be brave about this? What do I want to do with it now?

Aubrey: 9:36

Yeah, so you told me a little bit about how you would do like some warmups and scribbles, things like that. Like what, what might and I know it's hard to say because you're going to go in different directions depending on the client, right but like what might be some things that a typical session might look like guess.

Jenn: 10:02

So the way I like to start and end my sessions is with a check-in and a body scan. And then this way, because I'm really big on emphasizing, like, the mind body connection, because there's such a disconnect, especially when we're in safety our brain is trying to outthink our body and a lot of times, like we still have so much left over in the body. So I want to really teach people to bring back that communication between the mind and the body. So we always check in with a check, with a body scan, and so we'll just go nice and slow, we'll do it together and I ask them to scan through their body for any sensations that they notice. Okay, they might grab a couple of them.

Jenn: 10:36

And then I'll ask them okay, what color do they feel like, what shape do they feel like, what texture are they? We don't have to understand what they are or why they're there, it's just information. And then we'll do the exact same thing at the end to see, okay, have these shapes and colors changed? Have they expanded, have they shrunk, have they transformed into a different color or a different texture? And it just gives us a really good idea of what worked in session, what didn't work in session and then what is also shifting internally. That's something like pretty basic that I do with everyone beginning and end, but the biggest thing is the scribbling like just coming back to that and how it feels in the body.

Aubrey: 11:20

It's so funny that you say that, because there are some variations in the way that I practice and I'm like I'm going to adopt some of that. But there's some similarities as well, where I'm, like, when my clients are struggling with, like, how do I make art and like, how do I bring it back to the basics, like usually what I'm bringing them back to is a body scan and checking for, like colors and shapes and things like that internally and then creating using those like impulses yeah, yeah, totally yeah, so it's exciting to hear another art therapist practicing and using similar methods.

Jenn: 12:02

Yeah, yeah. Another one of my favorite go-tos is the self-portrait as a tree. That's something I like to do in session two, okay, just to kind of build up that confidence, but then also for us to work on it together. So I'm not sure if this is something you've utilized in your practice.

Aubrey: 12:20

So I'm not sure if this is something you've utilized in your practice? No, no, no. So I'm like taking notes, like okay, all right, I want to hear about this.

Jenn: 12:27

Yeah, so this is like a really nice kind of secondary step into this, dipping your toes a little bit more, and it provides so much information.

Jenn: 12:36

So the roots are meant to represent, like nourishment, where do you come from, your family, your friends, the support systems, like what is nourishing you. So if you were a tree, what would your roots look like? Would they be long and twisty, would there be a couple of them? Would they be really wide, thick, would they be short and brittle? So I just yeah, so, and then I kind of give them a couple prompts with that and then when, when they're done, we go to the trunk and the trunk of the tree represents, okay, who are you currently in this moment.

Jenn: 13:09

So if you were a tree, what would the trunk of your tree look like? You know, would it be kind of like the redwood, redwood trees out in California? Would it be a birch tree, a spruce tree? Would it fork? What's like the texture of it? How much space does it take up? And then the branches are reaching towards the future, your goals, dreams. So if you were a tree, what would your branches look like? Would there be lots of them? Only a few of them? What season would they be in? Would they have fruits, animals, again, like? How much space do they take up or not take up? Where are they oriented towards? Is it like more on the left side, right side, kind of all over, and then we just take a look at the whole, the tree as a whole, and just have a conversation with the tree Like what does this tree need? What are you noticing? Yeah?

Aubrey: 14:18

Yeah, that's a pretty cool one. That's one of my favorites me of an exercise. It was totally different, but a similar exercise of like what do you need? And it was like a past, present and future exercise that I did with a client where they did like a past self-portrait, a present self-portrait and a future self-portrait based on like what did they, what did they used to believe, what do they currently believe and what are they, what are they believing about themselves in the future?

Aubrey: 14:48

And it's funny because a lot of these things, like, they develop through experience and from like influence from other practitioners, but they also kind of come from a place of intuition. Right, yeah, totally yeah. Like you're in session with a client and they start, start talking about something and the whole time you're like how can I help this person? How can I help this person? Right, and, and being present with them at the same time, right, but like, and then, like it pops into your mind like, oh, yeah, we're going to do this next, yeah, or do you come in with like a set, like, okay, we're going to do X, y and Z exercises today.

Jenn: 15:32

I have a very loose plan, Like usually I'll kind of have these things in place for like a couple of tricks up my sleeve for sessions one, two and three, especially if they're really new to this approach. But a lot of times I tell people it's almost like I'm present and I'm so there, but there's 15 other tabs open that are also working in my brain and going through and analyzing and thinking and case managing and doing all the things.

Aubrey: 16:00

Yeah, who are your main people? That you see, who usually seeks you out?

Jenn: 16:04

Oh, you know, what's so funny is right now I'm seeing a lot of men and it is my favorite. I absolutely love working with these guys yeah, yeah, it's funny.

Aubrey: 16:15

I actually started getting a lot of guys coming to me when I started too, which you wouldn't expect. So many of the males would want to come up for art therapy.

Jenn: 16:23

No, and people were like how did they find you? I'm like you know what? It's mostly their girlfriends that are reaching out and being like babe, I think you need something different. Why don't you try art therapy? And then they love it because there's something where they don't have to sit and just talk. They can keep their hands busy, they can process differently, they can be doing like in that masculine.

Aubrey: 16:47

Ah, yeah, okay, that makes a lot of sense. I hadn't thought about it like that. Yeah, yeah, but it makes a lot of sense based on, like, who I have and who makes art.

Jenn: 16:56

Yeah, I know, isn't it wild? There was one of my clients, it was so beautiful. So like rigid, and then recently he's like I want to finger paint.

Aubrey: 17:06

So like rigid, and then recently he's like I want to finger paint and I was like hell, yeah, man, let's get the paints out, let's go nice, nice, and finger painting is like a very sensual, yeah, um, sensual, you know, and people obviously think of finger painting from like a kindergarten stance, right, but and just slow and mindful, and the textures and yeah.

Jenn: 17:25

Yeah, cause we've been working a lot on inner child and reparenting and it was so interesting that, intuitively, that's what he gravitated towards.

Aubrey: 17:32

Yeah, because he really needed to work on that inner child piece, that that piece that could connect to the sensory.

Jenn: 17:39

Yeah, and you know it's. I love when people do that and they trust that intuition, and when they kind of get a little hesitant. I'm like but there's a part of you that needs to be heard in the language of finger painting today, so let's trust that.

Aubrey: 17:52

Yeah, that's awesome. So do you have a studio that has all of the different materials available there?

Jenn: 18:02

So I'm actually subleasing an office from this lovely lady and it's in a heritage home. It's so cute. So I just have a big art kit. The best kit I ever found was at a home hardware store and it's actually a toolbox, but it's massive. There's different boxes that you can attach to it with like drawers and everything in it, and it has been perfect for everything I need and I have it down to a system. Now I pack it and unpack it and set everything up, but it's been great and I take that with me too when I teach at these school divisions to show them. This is what I have in here and this is more than enough, and this is how I set it up and make it accessible for clients, and then they use it and they implement it in their schools too.

Jenn: 18:50

I'm like jeez. I should be. I should have affiliate link with these home hardware stores.

Aubrey: 18:55

I'm so impressed, like I've been practicing um like almost 10 years and I have never come up with something that good.

Jenn: 19:06

I'm really impressed, oh it's been a lot of trial and error. I've tried like like those big studio makeup kits. I've tried just like regular I don't know rolling kits from Michael's, but it's been the home hardware tool kits that have been the best.

Aubrey: 19:21

Oh man, you know, maybe at some point I'll end up checking that out. I really love my studio space the way that I have it set up, so I'm not like in the market to shift that up, but that is a really great tip for all of those art therapists out there listening. Yes.

Jenn: 19:37

Yeah, because I think a lot of people get this idea that they have to have a studio. But you can. That's not what art therapy is, it's the space, it's the conversations. You can make anything a space oh, I love that.

Aubrey: 19:50

It's so funny because my rigid mind from the time of grad school is like I have to have a studio and I so get that.

Jenn: 19:58

There's parts of me where I'm like some days I would love to have a studio that I don't have to share, that I can make a mess in. But I'm such in two minds because I'm also renovating a school bus, so I'm constantly have to share that I can make a mess in, but I'm such in two minds because I'm also renovating a school bus, so I'm constantly trying to figure out okay, how can I take art supplies with me that are accessible but provide the most for clients? So that's always been in my mind too. So I'm like okay, the art kit, that's great, that's mobile. I can take that with me everywhere I go.

Aubrey: 20:22

That's so exciting. So are you renovating the school bus now, or you're?

Jenn: 20:26

going to.

Aubrey: 20:27

Yeah.

Jenn: 20:27

Yeah, I'm in the process of renovating her and hopefully by the end of summer I should be able to get going and traveling.

Aubrey: 20:35

That's so exciting because I've thought about doing that. But there was a woman that I went to school with when I was in grad school who actually had an art bus, who was from Maine and she had it like before she actually or was it she who had it or the person, I think it was the person that she was interning with actually had it, yeah, so anyway. So she went all around Maine doing art therapy out of the bus. They would go to like different schools and things like that and it sounds right up your alley.

Aubrey: 21:07

That is literally my dream. Oh, it's so fun that we got to meet each other and talk to each other, um, and like learn more. I'm like, oh, this was like a consultation call, except like everybody gets to hear it, so it's like really wonderful. Um, how can people learn more about you?

Jenn: 21:26

Jen. Um, I would say the biggest way to learn more would be probably my Instagram account at belly eye art therapy or my website at belly eye art therapycom. I have some stuff on TikTok. I'm looking to get more consistent with that.

Aubrey: 21:45

Um, so again, belly eye art therapy yeah, and um check out as well, jen's podcast, which is um art therapy, is and it looks like it's on spotify, youtube, apple podcast and google podcast, so people can check that out there, yeah, so anybody who's interested in this show or on bizradious you can find us there. Be sure to like and subscribe and keep checking us out for more information. And anybody who wants to know about my practice, it's at wwwarttherapynccom. Thanks again, jen.

Jenn: 22:23

Thank you so much for having me yeah.