.jpg){kind=small}
EMERGING
Unveiling the Magic in Everyday Life
Welcome to
EMERGING
1:1 Expressive Arts Therapy online
Come Home to Yourself
through your body, creativity, and senses
75 minute - 1:1 Sessions - Online
No artistic experience needed
.png)
Hi, I'm Karen Queller
M.A Expressive Arts Therapy | REAT
Let me ease your first fear
YOU ARE CREATIVE!
You DO belong here.
ALL of you is welcome here, just as you are.
(yes, the weird and uncomfortable parts too)
We do not need to make 'good' or 'pretty' art (although we can!).
It is perfectly fine to make 'bad' or 'ugly' art here.
Creativity is not just something you do. It is a way of being in the world.
Creativity is not just something you do. It is a way of being in the world.
Creativity is not just something you do. It is a way of being in the world.
Creativity is not just something you do. It is a way of being in the world.
There is more of YOU that wants to come Alive!
You feel a lot. You think a lot. You want a lot.
But somehow you feel stuck...
Stuck in your head
Thinking, analyzing, doubting, and trying to figure it all out. Perfectionism keeps you from starting.
Disconnected
Numb, dry, passionless, and purposeless. You don't feel present with life.
Overwhelmed
there are so many to-dos and you always feel like you're not doing enough or are falling behind and need to control everything.
In Transition
Something is ending, and the next steps are unfolding. You want time & space to explore.
Or maybe you are ready to feel something more...
Holding Back
You've been shutting down, freezing, going small or quiet, but there is so much inside you.
Craving Creativity
There's always an excuse, and always tomorrow. Somehow your creativity keep getting pushed aside.
You cooould keep pushing... Forcing your way forward is an option, but it's not fun, It's exhausting. It's boring. It's also not nourishing, or sustainable and it sucks the aliveness out of life and leaves the soul feeling dry.
Whatever brought you here...
Something is pulling you toward a more meaningful, embodied, creative and aligned life.
You are not alone.
We are disconnected from ourselves, eachother, the natural world, community, and our bodies.... just to name a few.
We are living inside a systemic time of a lot of change.
Collapsible text is great for longer section titles and descriptions. It gives people access to all the info they need, while keeping your layout clean. Link your text to anything, or set your text box to expand on click. Write your text here...
If this is you, you are not alone. Society has taught us to do more, be faster, more efficient, and more optimized. We are more disconnected from ourselves, our bodies, eachother, and nature than ever before. Many of us experience numbness, illness, depression because of it.
Pleasure and freedom are available NOW. Everyday. Truly. Not just once we get the house, or have the kids, or get the raise, or get 20k followers, or figure 'it' out. It's available every day. As we take out the trash. As we wait in lines. As we feel our stuckness. The practice is in slowing down, paying attention, and becoming curious and available enough to engage with the beauty that is always here for us.
Expressive Arts teaches us how to come back into connection with the very things that make us feel connected, purposeful, and give our lives meaning. Our sensitivity and sensuality, become the bridge back into the world where we feel fulfilled, rooted, our hearts beating as one with the greater mystery.
Collapsible text is great for longer section titles and descriptions. It gives people access to all the info they need, while keeping your layout clean. Link your text to anything, or set your text box to expand on click. Write your text here...
You've probably noticed that our world is changing. Fast. With our current lifestyles people are feeling more disconnected, sedentary, and pressured. The world asks us to constantly produce more, be better, try harder, work faster and do all of that largely on your own!What the heck?!?!? And we are just supposed to do all that with no problems?? Nope. The challenges are real. The anxiety is real. The depression is real. The not-enoughness is real.We were never supposed to be able to do all that on our own. Over time, the pieces of ourself become fragmented. We try to be the best parents to our children, and the best bad-asses at work, and SPECIFICS....But our WHOLE gets divided. our attention and energy get scattered. So soon we feel that we are never truly present where we are, and what we are doing is never enough. The world asks so much of us. You miss the version of you that doesn't have to be more optimized, or productive, or more healed. You miss the version of you that can disappear into making things. feel wonder. trust your instinct. isn't performing for others but living from the inside out.
You don't have to be ready, just willing to try something different
Here we practice messy, imperfect, experimentation. we start before we feel ready.
and we just try. see what happens. receive information. maybe make some changes and try again.
I want you to feel ALIVE, connected, free, and joyful again!! You know there is more aliveness available for you. And yes sometimes it's easier to pretend that we don't know. To look the other way. To just hope that something changes, but we can help that process along. Something magical happens when you feel supported. You start to feel safe enough to let go of AALLLLLLLL the stuff you've been carrying quietly on your own. When you feel supported, your body starts to unfreeze, to loosen. You're heart can come back online. You can hear your soul whispers more clearly. Your focused intentions allow the universe to respond more fluidly. We are currently in a loneliness epidemic. We are more individualized and disconnected than ever before. We were never meant to do it all on our own!! There is support available for you. And I am honored to walk the path with you, exploring and making discoveries along the way.
Put down the shoulds & learn to hear yourself again.
What if there is another way?
Let go
A more fun way
A more spacious way
A more nourishing way
A more soulful way to live
Through mindfulness and creative exploration, we meet your challenges, draw on your strengths, play with your questions, and make space for new possibilities to emerge.
You do not need to already feel like an artist to participate here. Just come with a willingness to try something new and an openness to be touched.
A different approach to wellness
What is Expressive Arts Therapy?
This is a guided process that brings together creative expression, body awareness, and reflection to explore your feelings, understand your patterns, and discover new possibilities.
Expression + Arts + Therapy
Let it out
Feel. Release.
Surrender
Explore. Play. Create
Give it shape
Synthesize meaning
Reflect. Understand. Integrate.
We are not only linear, logical, mental beings. We are also...
Touch the clay.
Move your body.
Make the mark.
Tear the paper.
Collect objects.
Notice the image.
Follow what wants to happen next.
No need to know where it's going.
No need to make something beautiful.
Just come into contact with what's here.
Take imperfect action!
We are also...
Bodies
Images
Memories
Sensations
Dreams
Instincts
Rhythms
Stories
Questions
Voice
Creative expression gives these other parts of us a language.
You are more than your thoughts.
Collapsible text is great for longer section titles and descriptions. It gives people access to all the info they need, while keeping your layout clean. Link your text to anything, or set your text box to expand on click. Write your text here...
Your body, senses, imagination, and emotions have something to say. Creative expression gives them a language, so you can feel free, authentic, and truly alive!
Let colors, materials, textures, symbols, creative inspiration, stories, smells guide you.
Materials have a life of their own. We practice listening and receiving their wisdom.
There is no 'right' way to do this life. There is YOUR way. You get to make up your own rules, make it fun, and follow what lights you up (even if you don't know what that is yet). That is what we're doing here. We are removing all the layers of gunk that stand in the way of you remembering how incredibly AMAZING you are, and we are shining a light on all the things that make you smile, and your heart exhale in relief.
What if you already are the person you are trying to become, and our job here is simply to help you be more YOU!??
How do we do all that you ask? We enter the world of art, imagination, experimentation, and your own inner wisdom that has a lot of things to express!
You don't have to be ready, just willing to try something different
Here we practice messy, imperfect, experimentation. we start before we feel ready.
and we just try. see what happens. receive information. maybe make some changes and try again.
This is the creative process, and YOU and your life are a creative process!
Creative Modalities & Materials
How we work
Together, we create small experiences that give you opportunities to listen, respond, discover, and learn to trust the way as it EMERGES.
We work with the body, sound, images, writing, and materials. You notice what draws you in, explore what happens, and follow what emerges.
Mindfulness guides us into a deeper presence and receptive state. we become inspired by everything. possibilities open everywhere.
Instead of only thinking about what's happening, we work with it directly.
We can use almost anything as a doorway into exploration.
Low Skill - High Sensitivity
Let colors, materials, textures, symbols, creative inspiration, stories, smells guide you.
SOUND
PAINTING
Materials have a life of their own. We practice listening and receiving their wisdom.
Let colors, materials, textures, symbols, creative inspiration, stories, smells guide you.
You don't need to color inside the lines.
Explore color, texture, and gesture to give shape to what you feel. Let one mark lead to the next.
If this moment were a color, what would it be?
.png)
A hum, a sigh, a simple rhythm, the sound of the pencils in your pencil jar... Let the vibrations carry you.
If your day had a rhythm, what would it sound like?
You don't have to be a musician!
Anything & everything from your everyday life can become inspiration for your creativity!
Meet the material with all of your senses!
MATERIALS
MOVEMENT
There are no correct steps to follow!
Your body can take up space here! Practice following your sensations and impulses.
If your body made a gesture each time it exhaled, what would that look like?
You are not alone. Let the nature into your heart.
A stone, a branch, clouds... nature offers materials, and a relationship to the world around us.
Find one natural item that makes you go WOW! or OOoOo!
NATURE
A stone, a branch, clouds... nature offers materials, and a relationship to the world around us. Find one natural item that makes you go WOW! or OOoOo!
A stone, a branch, clouds... nature offers materials, and a relationship to the world around us. Find one natural item that makes you go WOW! or OOoOo!
.png)
.png)
.png)
WRITING
You don't need the perfect words!
Fragments, stories, poems, unexpected phrases can help you discover something you haven't known how to verbalize before.
If you look around your room, what is the first word that you see?
MEDIA
You don't need a plan before you can start!
Your everyday world is full of inspiration! Photography, video, and collage let you explore what catches your eye, and tell stories from unique angles.
Scroll through your phone gallery with eyes closed. What photo does your finger land on, and what message does that photo want to tell you right now?
Use props, costumes, role-play, improvisation to explore different parts and different angles. Discover a way of being you haven't tried before.
If your inner critic became a character, how would it stand, speak, and move?
Try on a different perspective!
RITUAL
When we focus our attention, magic happens!
We create markings to honor transitions, endings, beginnings, desires, and to call upon supportive energies (could be the sun, moon, earth, teachers, ancestors).
Choose an object to represent something you want to welcome into your life. Give it a special place to be.
THEATER
Re-discover your JOY!
Play
Ready to ......dkfjskdfjlajds?
Creativity
Trust
Peace
Aliveness
wonder
Clarity
Art is Life
Life is Art
"Karen brings soul into the room"
- Markus, Canada
Imagine. Imagination. Imaginatively.
Imagine the Possibilities...
A new way of being in the world
Expressive Arts is a laboratory for life.
Sessions are not just therapy. They are practice for the life you are wanting to live.
What kinds of challenges can we work with together?
Instead of ......
WORK & CREATIVE PROJECTS
"I keep rewriting the proposal I haven't sent yet."
Imagine....
Let something be ready enough.
Following your curiosity, playing with materials, and discovering something you couldn't have planned.
RELATIONSHIPS
"I say yes, then feel resentful. I don't know how to say no."
Find your yes. Practice your no.
Exploring what yes and no feel like in your body, and trying out a boundary in your own words.
DECISIONS & DIRECTIONS
"I keep asking everyone else. I don't know what I want anymore."
Feel your own response.
Giving each possibility a shape, a place or a voice and noticing which one draws you closer.
CHANGE & LOSS
" I know things have changed, but I haven't really caught up."
Make room for what's next
Creating something that holds what you miss, what you're leaving, and what you might be ready to welcome.
FEELINGS & SELF-EXPRESSION
"I don't know how to say what I feel."
Express your truth
Letting an image, gesture, sound, or metaphor speak first without needing to explain it perfectly.
PLEASURE & EVERYDAY LIFE
"I get everything done, but I don't feel like myself."
Follow what nourishes you
Making room to move, play, and notice what feels good and finding small ways to bring that into your day.
Art has the beautiful ability to hold us and all of our parts.
Creative Process = Life Process The creative realm mirrors your life. What reveals itself while you create, can reveal information about how you move through life. As you make, you may notice how you respond to uncertainty, mistakes, choices, control, and the unexpected. This laboratory becomes a small, low-stakes laboratory for life where you can experiment with not knowing, making a 'wrong mark', following impulses, or allowing something to change. The challenges we overcome, and strengths we discover while making art, give us valuable and embodied understanding about what might be possible in your daily life.
"Karen brings soul into the room"- Markus
You have been trying to solve everything from inside the problem.
Step away from the challenge.
Enter the creative process.
Return with new possibilities.
Release - Explore - Discover - Transform
What Happens Inside a Session?
A space to let go.
A space to listen.
A space to not need to know
A space to allow.
A space to take up space.
A space to embody what you are becoming
Most importantly, we listen to what is wanting ot EMERGE in the session, and that might look different for each person depending on the day or even the moment.This is a space for YOU to do YOU!! My desire is that you feel free to take up space here and follow what feels nourishing moment by moment.
Every invitation is always just that, an invitation. You can say YES! NO! I'm not sure, what if we try doing something else. If all you want to do in the session is lay on the floor, because that's what actually feels good to you, DO IT! We create space for you to try things, to make mistakes, to be imperfect, and then to just... try again.
Tuning In
Creative
Exploration
Reflection
The Arrival
Integration
Want to know more. Book a FREE 20 min Discovery Call to learn more.
We don't just talk.
We listen to the WHOLE of you.
"Karen brings soul into the room"- Markus
WE DON'T NEED TO PUSH.
WE DON'T NEED TO FORCE.
WE SIMPLY, ALLOW.
Creative Capacities
How Expressive Arts Will Change Your Life
When we build new capacities, we don't just approach art differently, we approach life differently.
This work isn't only about feeling different in a session. It's about returning to your every day life with more resources, tools, and a touch of magic!
Presence
I can slow down. I can notice what's here. I can feel more.
So that I feel more connected to my body, my pleasure, my relationships, and the life that is happening now.
Curiosity
I can wonder. I can ask. I can discover.
So that life feels more open, interesting, and full of possibility.
Play
I can experiment. I can be imperfect. I can enjoy the process
So that creating and living feel lighter, freer, and less pressured.
Letting Go
I can soften. I can release my attachment to the outcome. I can stop gripping so tightly.
So that I feel more spacious, flexible, and able to meet what comes next.
Trust
I can listen. I can let the process unfold without knowing all the details. I can be supported.
So that I feel less need to control every outcome and more ease moving through uncertainty.
Self-Expression
I can show myself. I can use my voice. I can let more of me be seen.
So that I feel more spacious, flexible, and able to meet what comes next.
Intuition
I can sense. I can hear my own knowing. I can trust myself
So that I feel clearer about what is mine, what I want, and what feels right for me.
Confidence
I can grow. I can act. I can take up space.
So that I feel more capable, expressive, and actively moving towards what matters to me
Over time you are able to meet life more fully and authentically so that you can feel more aliveness, pleasure, and more YOU.
You develop more resilience when things change. More freedom to rest when rest is needed. More courage to act when something wants action. More willingness to take a risk, change direction, make a mistake, try again, or follow something you didn't plan.
Not because you suddenly have all the answers.
Because you have developed more ways of listening, responding, creating, and moving forward.
Collapsible text is great for longer section titles and descriptions. It gives people access to all the info they need, while keeping your layout clean. Link your text to anything, or set your text box to expand on click. Write your text here...
Practice another way of being in the world.
Notice. Relax. Smile. Create.
"Karen brings soul into the room"- Markus
Hi, I'm Karen (or Keki)
I am a traveler of the heart, mind, and soul. I love going deep into different worlds. Weather that is through visiting countries, expanding my artistic repetoire, through intimate connections with beautiful souls, or inside my own psyche and inner landscape. I'm an adventurer. An explorer. I try to see the fun, beauty and wonder in this life. I believe there is more here that we can not see, and I try to see the beauty and wonder within each experience.
I like putting my feet in dirt
I am in a conversation with time
I love hugs and cuddles
I feel deeply
I get dreamy when a warm breeze touches my face
I've been all over the world, met some of the most beautiful people, have had all kinds of crazy experiences (maybe I'll tell you a story sometime over tea...), have learned about life from villagers in Nepal, yogis in the Himalayas, children in Fiji, and Magicians and storytellers from every corner of the planet. I've searched high and low to meet the best of the best (SERIOUSLY!). I've lived nomadically for years, explored many alternative communities, and learned about life through the eyes of locals. I've learned that there are so many ways to see and do life, there is no 'right' or 'wrong' way. I've also learned that at the end of the day we all just want to love and feel loved. We want to feel connected. And we want tools and channels to express ourselves, and to play, and to create, and to be in an active and nourishing relationship with life itself. I've had all of these experiences so that I can embody these teachings and carry this wisdom forward to YOU, and so that you may take these teachings and carry them forward through you, in your own special way. Life is short and precious and I want to celebrate it masterfully. I want to help you do the same.
I have a B.A in Psychology from UC San Diego, and an M.A in Expressive Arts Therapy from the European Graduate School in Switzerland. I have trained in Dance Movement Therapy in India, and hold a YTTC of Yoga.
In addition to these I have been a lifelong dancer, and grew up in a house full of art. I love to paint, cook, make sounds, be in nature, make things more beautiful, create jewlery, spend time with loved ones, come up with brilliant ideas (if you need one let me know... I'm an idea machine) and I enjoy the simple things like feeling the rain on my skin or the smell of oranges.
.png)
I truly believe you have all the inner wisdom you need within you. I believe life is supposed to be fun and I want us to celebrate it deeply. I can play hard, and I can go with you into the depths of your emotions or challenges that need to be felt, explored, released, and transformed. I also have a strong connection to spirit. Many people who are seeking a stronger connection to their own spirituality find their way to me. I'm also pretty weird, so you don't have to worry about being too weird in front of me. I gotchya. Who I may not be best for. . . people who want a quick fix. Or a 'do A,B,C' way of working. I deeply believe in the Emergence, meaning that as we surrender, the creative process itself helps us to find flow and reveals itself to us.. If you are willing to go into the unknown this could be a great fit for you. and I want you to know, I FULLY TRUST in your inner wisdom and light! I am not here to tell you how to change, and fix yourself, and be different. NO!! I am here, doing what I do because I SEE you. If you are on this page reading these words it means you are special, and there is so much inside you that really really wants to come out (even if you haven't admitted that out loud yet, secretly you know it's true) My job here is to help you be MORE YOU. I also believe my work is to help you feel connected to something greater... weather that is spirit, nature, your community, your ancestors, or the world of creativity and artists (this is deeply personal and different for each person). We can't do this life alone. The more supported we feel, the more resilience, courage, and love we will keep cultivating in our hearts. You are not alone my friends, even though sometimes it can feel like it.
Why Work With Me?
"Karen is MAGNIFICENT!!!" - Me
The world needs more artists
Artists are magicians. We see, feel, and experiences the world differently. And artists are magicians. We know how to transform material into gold. We know how to be unapologetically different. We know how to find beauty in times that feel grey and lifeless. We are Artists. The world needs our valuable expression.
Less Thinking.
More Living.
Why Expressive Arts Therapy?
Mental analysis can only take you so far. What your body, soul, and mind are really craving is movement, experimentation, connection to your body, and your desire. You need contact with materials, and the parts of you that don't communicate in a neat sentence.
Expressive Arts brings the invisible and transforms it into something visible, auditory, kinesthetic... Something tangible. Something we can see, hear, touch and play with.
This isn't simply an art class. And it isn't simply therapy. Through being in a therapeutic container while making art, amazing things can happen.
More analysis doesn't create more clarity.
Experiences Create Clarity
Humans need movement, experimentation, contact with our bodies, contact with desire, contact with materials, contact with the parts of us that don't communicate in a neat sentence.
.png)
Expressive Arts is simply the most soulful, nourishing, delightful, beautiful, deep, expansive, all-encompassing work that i've found. Whatever your challenge or desire is, bring it. The arts can hold us. It blows my mind how generous and full of range this work is. seriously. Many other methods tell you how to do something. This one really just helps you find your very own way through this life. You get to make up your own rules here. Expressive Arts feels like coming home. Remember what if feels like to trust yourself? Remember what it feels like to feel joy because a hummingbird came to your window? Remember what it feels like to even notice that the hummingbird came to your window and to actually pause and admire it?? Or let it make you wonder.... about beauty, and creatures, and nature, and how can those wings even move so fast?!?! When we let ourselves be touched by life, we know we're alive.... otherwise, we're kind of just on autopilot. Numb. Going through the motions without feeling the zest of life with us. The joy. The mystery. The beautiful surprises. We create a space for YOUR authentic expression, not Johnny's or Annie's or Sarah's or Melanie's. Just yours. This is more than typical talk therapy We work within the sacred realm. Both of us are asked to surrender inside the container, in a portal between time and space. We enter the Timeless.
.png)
What to expect?
Notice more
Become more aware of what your body, emotions, imagination, environment and experience are telling you.
Hear yourself clearly
Recognize your own desires, impulses, needs and inner knowing beneath all the noise, expectations, and the "shoulds"
Creative Possibilities
Learn to move beyond the options you already know. Use imagination, curiosity and creative thinking to discover perspectives, connections and solutions you couldn't see before.
Come back into contact with life!
Raw, messy, wild, ugly, beautiful, mysterious, sensual, weird, honest contact.
Follow what nourishes
Testimonials
"
"I had a very beautiful and unique experience with Karen. We worked on a difficult topic and I had new and interesting insights about myself and what really bothers me in the situation I was in. The way of approaching the fears and insecurities with expressive art therapy was a very powerful and positive experience. With Karen's help it felt playful and easy. She made me feel very comfortable with whatever I was doing. I felt like a kid again. The feeling when you‘re just enjoying your ideas while playing not thinking about how others would think about you. I would definitely recommend this experience."
Eliza, Italy
"
"Karen is AMAZING! and my favorite person on this earth, and I love her dearly" - Me,Self Love
Is This For Me
-
What if i'm not creative?
-
I don't have time to make art
-
It seems fun... but is it useful?
-
Can I make ugly art?
(YES! please do!!!)
?
How? Where? I'm not an artist. I don't have time. I don't even know what I want to do or say. My body feels shut down. I'm scared. What will people think? Am I going to feel awkward? I have too many responsibilities. I should do other stuff. Maybe tomorrow.... There is always something keeping your passion, your pleasure, your sensitivity, your life on the backburner. There's other stuff to do. Maybe if you keep pushing, you will finally get where you want to be and then there will be time to do the fun stuff, the stuff that lights your soul on fire!?? I don't believe that works. I believe life is asking us to live fully, NOW. Here. Imperfectly. raw. messy. as we are. Not when we finally become perfect or are on vacation. Not when we've finally burnt ourselves out that our bodies are screaming and begging for us to slow down and connect more deeply to ourselves. life. nourishment.
You are the only YOU!
You've probably learned a lot of ways to move through life: think harder, try more, get it right, be productive, be responsible, push through, follow the plan.
But beneath all the shoulds, expectations, habits and outside noise, there is your own inner wisdom and your own rhythm.
You have your own bodily impulses
Your own timing
You have your own desires
Your own ways of knowing
You have your own special gifts
Your very special ways of being YOU
Through our creative and embodied practices, we strengthen capacities that help you listen more closely, experiment more freely, meet uncertainty with greater flexibility, and have more ways to respond when life doesn't go according ot plan. We're not here to 'fix' you. We are uncovering the layers so you can simply be MORE YOU!
Art helps us express ourselves more fully, without demanding that we need to be someone else, more digestible, more pleasant, more appropriate, in order the truth of who we are.
The secret...
.png)
It's Time to Wake Up Your Senses!
We are ALIVE!!!
It's time to FEEL
We live in a time that makes it increasingly easy to detach from our bodies. We can work, connect, shop, plan, learn, and create without moving. In our practice together we deliberately return to the senses. We touch, move, make, notice, experiment, and discover what becomes possible when we give space to our sensual nature.
Re-Connect
with your essence
The more you connect with your senses, the more you connect with your essence.
What others have said..
"Karen is AMAZING! and my favorite person on this earth, and I love her dearly" - Me
Online
I work with clients from all over the world!
Meet me from the comfort of your own home!
Many people ask me - HOW DOES THIS WORK ONLINE? Beautifully! Although getting together in person is a lot of fun, doing expressive arts together online is just as effective. The constraints of working online can often force us to get even more creative and develop greater flexibility in order to adapt to what is available in our surroundings. The other great thing about doing this online is that you are working in YOUR environment which allows this work to integrate more effectively into your daily life. In our sessions, we transform your familiar space into a sacred space. You will be surprised at how much beauty and magic is present in corners you usually walk by everyday ;).
Where Do We Work?
Why Now?
Saying yes now is one of the ways that you open yourself up to the universe and say 'I'm open and ready to receive!'. The work starts as soon as you say yes.
And we need you. NOW. Seriously.
We need YOU. Not Betty and Bob or Laura and Joe.... The world needs YOU!!
You are the only YOU there will EVER be!!! EVER. There never was another you before and there never will be another you again. .... Let that sink in for a second....