Directors Faculty Guest Faculty
Director
Rowesa Gordon
Rowesa Gordon, MA, CAGS, Registered Psychotherapist, Director and core teaching faculty at The Create Institute, is an expressive arts psychotherapist in private practice who supervises and consults in this field. A graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design, with a Masters Degree in Expressive Therapies from Lesley University, she has a certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies from the European Graduate School.
Rowesa is adjunct faculty at the European Graduate School in Saas Fee, Switzerland where she has been artist-in-residence. Primarily a visual artist, her paintings & drawings appear in professional journals and have been shown in Canada, Europe and the United States.
Rowesa is adjunct faculty at the European Graduate School in Saas Fee, Switzerland where she has been artist-in-residence. Primarily a visual artist, her paintings & drawings appear in professional journals and have been shown in Canada, Europe and the United States.
Associate Directors
Lee Shields
Lee Shields, Registered Psychotherapist, M.A., has finished her training at Toronto Institute Relational Psychotherapy. She is a graduate of Ryerson University, The CREATE Institute and European Graduate School. (Switzerland). Lee, along with Lesley Swartz co-ordinates the CREATE Clinic and here she clinically supervises 3rd year students. Lee has a private practice and she does arts based psychotherapy with youth at the Griffin Centre.
Since 2001, Lee has been a core faculty member with CREATE Institute, where she co-ordinates the practicums and teaches the 16-week Introduction of Expressive Arts course and The Art of Trauma Course. Lee is a member of OACCPP and the CRPO.
Lee has a background in dance and vocal art and over the last 10 years she has been studying painting and encaustic art at Toronto School of Art. Lee creates paintings using paper, wood, rusty metal, photocopied pictures, natural objects, pigment and wax. In an attempt to depict all of life’s images, she builds layers of translucent waxy colour and uses objects to build sculptures. Then working intuitively, she scrapes, plays, melts and changes the form to make an image.
Lee is interested in the relationship between intent and accident. She witnesses what unfolds. The history of the process becomes inseparable from what she may have intended to paint. Some images are literally connected to her personal life story; others cannot be read so literally. Lee is curious and motivated by the process of not knowing what will happen next.
Since 2001, Lee has been a core faculty member with CREATE Institute, where she co-ordinates the practicums and teaches the 16-week Introduction of Expressive Arts course and The Art of Trauma Course. Lee is a member of OACCPP and the CRPO.
Lee has a background in dance and vocal art and over the last 10 years she has been studying painting and encaustic art at Toronto School of Art. Lee creates paintings using paper, wood, rusty metal, photocopied pictures, natural objects, pigment and wax. In an attempt to depict all of life’s images, she builds layers of translucent waxy colour and uses objects to build sculptures. Then working intuitively, she scrapes, plays, melts and changes the form to make an image.
Lee is interested in the relationship between intent and accident. She witnesses what unfolds. The history of the process becomes inseparable from what she may have intended to paint. Some images are literally connected to her personal life story; others cannot be read so literally. Lee is curious and motivated by the process of not knowing what will happen next.
Lesley Swartz
Lesley Swartz, Registered Psychotherapist, M.Ed. E.X.A.T. is an Associate Director and member of the Core Teaching Faculty at The Create institute as well as Coordinator/Clinical Supervisor of The Create Clinic. She is a Registered Psychotherapist, Expressive Arts Therapist, group facilitator, teacher, supervisor and consultant. She holds an undergraduate degree from Dalhousie University in International Development Studies and a Masters of Education from the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (OISE/UT) where she focused on holistic and aesthetic education and creative community development. Lesley graduated from The Create Institute with a diploma in Expressive Arts Therapy, she trained for five years in Gestalt Psychotherapy at the Gestalt Institute of Toronto, and has a Diploma in Developmental Somatic Psychotherapy from The Center for Somatic Studies in New York, NY.
Lesley has worked for over ten years with a diverse range of communities in Toronto using the expressive arts. She also has a private psychotherapy practice in downtown Toronto where she works with individuals, couples and families using an embodied, relational, arts based approach, She spends her creative time exploring the world with her young children and expanding her range of play through art modalities that inspire her in the moment.
Lesley has worked for over ten years with a diverse range of communities in Toronto using the expressive arts. She also has a private psychotherapy practice in downtown Toronto where she works with individuals, couples and families using an embodied, relational, arts based approach, She spends her creative time exploring the world with her young children and expanding her range of play through art modalities that inspire her in the moment.