Heather Dawson
Heather Dawson (she/her) is the Founder of the Vancouver Expressive Arts program at the Vancouver Arts Therapy Institute and Senior Faculty at the European graduate Scholl where she teaches in the Masters Degree program. Heather has a Certificate in Advanced Graduate Studies and a Masters Degree in Expressive Arts Therapy from the European Graduate School. She is a Registered Canadian Art Therapist , a Registered Clinical Counsellor and a bodycentered psychotherapist therapist trained in the Hakomi Method. Heather is a former Faculty at the Vancouver Art Therapy Institute and a former Adjunct Faculty, St. Stephens College at the University of Alberta. She has taught and offered workshops in Europe, Ireland and Asia.
As a “long life “practitioner she has applied her interest in personal and social transformation to working alongside individuals and communities using intermodal arts. She is a Board Director of the nonprofit community engaged organization Dear Crossing The Art Farm and has supported the introduction of Expressive Arts to remote communities including the Canadian Arctic.
Heather continues to offer clinical supervision and is currently working on an arts based research project that documents and explores the use of studio practice within supervision as a collaborative and restorative process. Her personal studio practice of painting large and painting messy has catalyzed a reimagining of the use of materials from the everyday as a response to questions about the ecological sustainability of art materials.
Heather Dawson, CAGS, MA, RCC, ACS, RCAT
Educational Background
– Certificate in Advanced Graduate Studies (CAGS), European Graduate School (EGS)
– Master’s Degree in Expressive Arts Therapy, European Graduate School (EGS)
– Registered Canadian Art Therapist (RCAT)
– Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC)
– Body-centered psychotherapist trained in the Hakomi Method
Current Roles and Professional Work
– Founder, Vancouver Expressive Arts Program, Vancouver Art Therapy Institute (VATI)
– Former Faculty, Vancouver Art Therapy Institute
– Former Adjunct Faculty, St. Stephen’s College, University of Alberta
– Board Director, Dear Crossing – The Art Farm, a nonprofit community-engaged arts organization
– Workshop facilitator and educator in Europe, Ireland, and Asia
– Ongoing provider of clinical supervision and consultant for expressive arts practitioners
– Currently engaged in an arts-based research project exploring studio practice within supervision as a collaborative and restorative process
Areas of Research, Teaching & Practice
Heather’s work bridges expressive arts, supervision, and community practice. Her current inquiry explores how studio-based and intermodal processes foster reflection, co-regulation, and creative restoration in professional supervision and therapy. Her teaching emphasizes embodied presence, ecological awareness, and intermodal creativity in clinical and community settings.
Artistic Practice and Passion for the Field
Heather’s studio practice of painting large and painting messy serves as both personal ritual and ecological inquiry. She experiments with repurposed and natural materials, reimagining sustainability in artistic processes. Her approach integrates the poetic and the practical—using art-making as a means of dialogue between self, materials, and the natural world.
Selected Publications or Projects
– Ongoing arts-based research: Studio Practice in Supervision as Collaborative Process (in progress)
– Founder, Dear Crossing – The Art Farm, an initiative bringing expressive arts to remote communities, including projects in the Canadian Arctic
– Numerous workshops and community residencies in Asia, Europe, and North America focused on intermodal expressive arts and ecological engagement