Using the creative process to enhance wellbeing
Meet the Student Support team
Michelle le Roux
Creative Arts Facilitator and HICAT online Assessor
Hello. I’m Michelle.
I am originally from South Arica, now living in Mauritius.
I’m a creative at heart and I’ve loved art since school. My art classes were my happy place where I felt free and in touch with something bigger than myself. I wasn’t sure how to harness my abstract style back then, so I went on to do other things. Some of these included a creative element, and others not. When creativity was not present, I felt completely out of balance. When it was involved in my work in some way, I felt more content, but never fulfilled. I wasn’t quite hitting the mark.
Later on, a lot of my work involved teaching and sensory integration education for ASD (autism spectrum disorder) and it was here where I saw how lacking a form of creative therapy was. It put me on a search on how to integrate creativity in a way that would benefit the children and allow me to use my passion for art.
Needing to face a life-changing surgery first, I took some time away from the everyday, and it was only a few weeks into my recovery when Covid 19 put us into our first lock-down. It seemed like the perfect time for me to focus on what I really wanted, and to find a way to bring art back into my life. It didn’t take long for HICAT to find me and bring the joy of meaningful and healing art into my world.
HICAT taught me that the abstract art I wanted to make was reflections of my soul, and I needed to express them.
This is a healing concept unknown to many, yet desperately needed in the world we live in today.
I live more creatively now by giving myself permission to bring more creative joy into my day – but mostly, I’m so grateful for the opportunity to use what I love to help others heal.
Jacqueline Swan
Creative Arts Facilitator and HICAT online Assessor
My name is Jacqueline, I live in Australia.
I am a creative therapist, artist, yogi, traveller, animal lover, deep listener and nature based leader. A barefoot explorer and lover of all things natural…my most recent calling has to become a HICAT assessor…an opportunity to witness other's journeys through self-discovery and healing…
In the last years I have realised the importance of living the life that I desire…to have space to embark on gathering knowledge through learning and experience…I have gained tools and strategies to provide assistance to others in supporting their very own healing journey…this being a foundation for much greater things…also to evoke a curiousness in others so they seek a healthier way of living and being in body, mind and spirit…
My greatest healing has come through the combination of creativity and nature which I believe are designed to be interconnected…ultimately living my truth is of utmost importance…this allowing me to live both intuitively and authentically…I have experienced the magic that is up for grabs out there and it is a alluring game changer…
I feel grateful in getting to know you through your HICAT module submissions and am honoured to be privy to witnessing your wondrous journey unfold…
Nat Shillor
Creative Arts Facilitator and HICAT online Assessor
Hi, I’m Nat. I'm based in London and deciding where to go next!
I have always loved painting and drawing, and I have been interested in mental health for a long time, particularly my own.
During the pandemic, I became aware that I just wasn’t happy in the job I was in anymore, and I decided to get back to the things that really resonated with me.
I knew I wanted to do something creative, but I also really like helping people. When I saw an ad for HICAT I knew that this is the perfect mix for me!
Doing the course helped me get in touch with parts of myself that had been buried, and am now able to help other people be happier, healthier and more resilient through creativity.
Dr. Olivia Efthimiou
Creative Arts Facilitator and HICAT online Assessor
Hello beautiful soul! My name is Olivia.
I have always been a sensitive person and felt like an outcast, more of an observer of life looking in from the outside. I was also always creative, in one way or another, more so out of a deep need rather than to hone any particular artistic talent. Sensitivity and creativity, it seems, go hand in hand.
My HICAT journey was a challenging one, sparked by a deep depression and a profound spiritual awakening in mid-life. And with that, abandoned hopes of the person I had always wanted to be. My TRUE self. A self that walks the walk, not just talks a good talk.
As soon as I found HICAT, let alone the terms “holistic” and “integrative” that I had studied all my life, including in my PhD, spoke directly to my heart. For me, that always meant combining head and heart. Spirituality and science. Practicality with high intellect. This is precisely what I found in this program.
I enrolled in HICAT in January 2020. I set out with trepidation and hope.
The first thing we learnt about was ‘Fight or Flight’. I was stunned. Stunned I had never learnt this in school. That no one ever mentioned this to me growing up, or in all my counselling sessions throughout the years. How empowering was this little piece of knowledge, and what a crime it was we are robbed of that power.
The theory was beautiful. And the creative exercises looked simple enough. Deceptively simple – which is the beauty of the arts as therapy.
Many miraculous experiences followed in the coming months as I experimented and expressed myself with different creative modalities like dance, sound, drama and clay work. Modalities I had longed to play with, but never felt confident or ‘cool’ enough to tackle. And through these, I was able to make peace with parts of my past that had been holding me back long before my HICAT journey. I was finding powerful healing in a fresh embodied way that was deeply grounded in the earth. It was like an equally magical but unique form of shamanism. My training as a healer and my own road to healing were unfolding in simple but unimaginable ways.
Towards the end of my journey, I finally revealed myself as a practitioner to the world and to my community. It took me forty years to muster the courage to truly accept the call. The call to be a teacher and educator, a shaman, energy worker and holistic therapist. I am still training. I am still the seedling. But it has grown stronger. And it is ready to face what lies ahead, with greater balance, peace and resolve.
My mission is to now guide and support others, like you, through this magical and life-restoring journey that is HICAT in my role as Assessor.
I am so honoured and excited to connect with you on your sacred journey.
Bev McGarey
Creative Arts Facilitator, HICAT online Assessor and In Person Student Support
Bev's story is coming soon!