Getting to know each other

We are the Heart and Hands Art Therapists! Sonya Gracey @otherwayscreative and Jenna Tucker @art.of.becoming.you We both have bios on the H&H website but wanted to share a bit about ourselves in terms of how we are the same and different in this work. Just like there is no one way to be an artist, there is no one way to be an art therapist! And since relationships are so key for how we do our work, we like the idea of sharing more about ourselves so you can know us a little more.

Although we met in school in 2023 and shared a cohort during a two-year intensive training program, we are actually pretty new to each other. Creating this post was a fun way to get to know each other too – we hope you enjoy it too!

For starters – we are both so glad to be at Heart and Hands!!! Thanks Christina and the community for making this great collective health hub!

Some clear areas of common ground for us are our lived experiences, complicities, and responsibilities as white bodied settlers on stolen Indigenous lands. This is central to our own personal accountabilities and art therapy practices. We are both committed to decolonial, de-stigmatizing, harm reducing, neuro-affirming, anti-oppressive approaches and value accessibility and transformative justice. We both are on our own paths of understanding how euro-centric normalcy and whiteness inform our lives and patterns and are actively seeking to disrupt and reorient towards other creative, land based ways of being in our community.

In practice this looks like:

Being transparent and open about who we are and where we are coming from (and continuing to get to understand and expand ourselves!)
Having a non-hierarchical way of engaging with a focus on relationships,
Working from a strengths-based, systems informed approach,
Having lower rates, sliding scale and/or pay what you can options,
Prioritizing collective care that centers folks from historically and currently oppressed, divergent, and emergent communities.

Some differences in our practices are likely related to our age and stage of life, and who we work with day to day. Jenna is at the beginning of her career and Sonya is in what feels like the final leg of hers.

How our practices are distinct:

Jenna works with many people, but at Heart & Hands is focusing on offering sessions to teens/youth ages 12-19. They support folks navigating life’s challenges through play, art making and fostering a place where they can be their true selves and celebrate that! Support in problem solving, developing insights, self-awareness, improving self-esteem, managing stress and discovering the root of emotions and feelings through an ancestral and relational lens…
Read here for more info !

Sonya works with people of all ages and identities, and stages of life, but right now is raising teens and has a life filled with the joys that youth bring and so prefers to spend their working time with adults (IYKYK)! Often Sonya supports people working through significant life transitions, those experiencing anxiety, chronic pain and/or chronic health challenges/disabilities, disconnection, grief and loss, folks exploring identity, working through relationship conflict and repair, and/or understanding NeuroEmergence (not a typo!) Read here for more info !

Key Info	Sonya	Jenna
Age	49	32
Ancestry	irish, germanic, bukovinian, scottish	british, czech, irish and scottish
Birth Order	Only child	Youngest child with an older sister
Sun/Moon/Rising	Scorpio, Libra, Gemini	Virgo, Pisces, Gemini
Relationship Status	Radically related* (poly) with an awesome girlfriend 💞	In a monogamous relationship with my partner Cole (oooo radically related I’m inspired by that Sonya!)
Fav Drink	One ½ caf coffee in the am with cream and honey	A fancy soda when I’m treating myself- rootbeer or Jarritos guava…. yum
Best animal friends	Chewie and Ollie (mixed breed fluff balls)	Quincy and Phoebe! My two black cats
Childhood nickname	Sonco or Farmer Bumpkin (i wore overalls before they were cool)	Junior juice (I always wanted juice as a child…)
Most wanted superpower	Um…. teleportation I think?	To fly!!!!!!!!!
Currently unlearning	whiteness and settler colonialism (always), monogamy, and body shame	Perfectionism and hustle culture (and its ties to white body supremacy)
3 most recommended books (currently)	Caliban and the Witch Book by Silvia Federici Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism Book by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma, and Politicizing Your Practice Book by Jennifer Mullan *Radically Related by Mel Cassidy	My Grandmothers Hands: racialized trauma and the pathway to mending our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem Women who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés What my Bones know- a memoir of healing from complex PTSD by Stephanie Foo all about love by bell hooks
Fav Part of being an Art Therapist	Making art every day!! (mostly?!) and feeling the power of connection!	Connecting and creating with people of all ages. Noticing how people’s art can impact their lives and connecting with the natures cycles
Fav art to do	Pottery, zines, sculptures that require power tools, and collage (shout out to @fruitystudio)	Working with thrifted beads and slow stitching and bead embroidery (I am currently beading/embellishing a toque)
*Mediums most likely* used in art therapy sessions**	fabric and paper collage, bilateral drawing, relational mapping, mark making and scribbling (pastel/graphite), felting (felt and pokey needles!), slow stitching (fabric and thread), zine making (sharpies!) and sometimes watercolours.	Bead making/ ‘talisman’ making, bead embroidery, needle felting, clay/plasticine and working with inner animal/s, collage, and dying/painting on clothes
Fav song/album right now	Lucy Dakus: Ankles, Macklemore: Hinds Hall Changeline: Voices in my phone	Juicy J and Endea Owens new jazz album ‘Caught up in this illusion’