Biography for Joyce H. VandeGriend, RN, DVATI

 

I grew up on the West Coast and recently joined “Docs on the Bay”. 

 

Most of my 33 year nursing career was at BC Children’s Hospital in charge of the CAPE (Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Emergency) and nurse clinician at Oak Tree Clinic (HIV/AIDS assessment and treatment). 

 

I travelled throughout BC as nurse clinician for hemophilia and HIV/AIDS and more recently was art therapist for 100 clients at the Burnaby Centre for Mental Health and Addiction.

 

I graduated from the Vancouver Art Therapy Institute in 2005 and completed my practicum and thesis with a focus on First Nations youth. I am grateful to be invited into the community of the Squamish Nation with the introduction of traditional healing practices such as the sweat lodge and POW WOW. 

 

I am passionate about where we live and am an avid ocean kayaker. I illustrate and paint watercolour www.tightropeillustration.ca.

 

Art therapy only requires an open and exploratory curiosity. My approach is non-directed. The materials I provide are paint, clay and collage. I see folks of all ages and please feel free to telephone me directly if you have any questions about art therapy. 

 

 

Mobile: 778~859~0661

 

“Without this playing with fantasy, no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable.” CG Jung