Art and storytelling: When art and stories reveal our paths to resilience
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Overview
This participatory workshop is designed for participants. interested in a trauma-sensitive approach to violence prevention. Through this immersive experience, we invite you to participate in a workshop similar to those we lead with families in Montreal's Parc-Extension neighborhood, using our integrated approach based on storytelling, artistic expression, and play, always adapted to the realities and needs of the participants. Drawing inspiration from the first workshops we conducted with families, we will engage participants in a collective process of participation, listening, and transformation. Stories will become mirrors and bridges to strengthen bonds and open up a space for compassionate dialogue. In this space of trust, imagination, the body, and artistic creation are mobilized as tools of hope, resilience, and reconstruction, whether within a family or in an individual's journey. This workshop aims to share concrete and transferable practices, highlighting how play, storytelling, and art can promote violence prevention, social connection, and well-being for people in contexts marked by migration, isolation, or trauma.Speakers
Fernanda Camejo
Fernanda Camejo is the coordinator of the Art et Contes project at PEYO, Parc-Extension Youth Organization. She is a dedicated educator and artist with a solid background and experience. She immigrated with her family from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Montreal in her childhood, allowing her to enrich her life with the influences of both cities and cultures, and to become sensitive to the issues of immigration and interculturality.
She earned her degree in Art Therapy from the ITACA School in Montevideo and continued her education with studies in visual arts and Logotherapy. With this educational foundation, Fernanda has developed programs that promote emotional, cognitive, and physical development in various groups. Between 2012 and 2021, she worked as a drama teacher for elementary students at the Lycée Français "Jules Supervielle" in Montevideo, stimulating the creativity and personal development of children through interactive pedagogical activities. She also played a crucial role as an art therapist at the C.R.E.A. Vida Addiction Recovery Clinic at the Ospedale Italiano in Montevideo from 2009 to 2016, using artistic and therapeutic techniques to help individuals express their emotions and overcome addiction-related challenges.She has also used her skills and knowledge to implement projects aimed at facilitating emotional management in women's circles and groups of elderly individuals. With international experience in dramatic arts, including her participation in the Mutanteatro Company in Uruguay and various theatrical activities in Montreal, Fernanda is a versatile professional committed to helping others through artistic intervention and education.
Laurence Gauthier
Before joining the Art et contes department at PEYO in 2023 as an art-therapist and intervener by the arts, Laurence Gauthier was a volunteer and participant in activities related to the program. Since her arrival in Parc-Extension in 2016, she has shown great devotion towards her community by committing to projects with the objective to better the well-being of the residents of the neighborhood. She has accumulated many years of experience working with a variety of clients from various cultural communities, including more than two years abroad in the United Arab Emirates. During her time in the middle east, she also traveled to places such as western Africa, in Nepal and in India for four months. Those experiences within a variety of cultures has let her develop a more profound comprehension of the challenges encountered with immigration. Her journey in art-therapy also motivated an engagement in using art and creativity to focus on empowerment and healing. By adopting an approach of humanistic therapy focused solely on the person, Laurence is interested in questions surrounding cultural identity, attachment relationships and intergenerational memories.
