Faculty
Ellen Levine
Ellen Levine, M.S.W., Ph.D., RSW, ATR-BC, REAT is a co-founder and faculty member of The CREATE Institute. She is an arts-based psychotherapist in private practice, a supervisor and international teacher and trainer. She is a Professor and Core Faculty member at the European Graduate School in Switzerland.
In addition to publishing many articles in the field of expressive arts therapy, she is the author of Tending the Fire: Studies in Art, Therapy and Creativity (EGS Press), co-editor of Foundations of Expressive Arts Therapy: Theoretical and Clinical Perspectives(Jessica Kingsley Press), co-author of Principles and Practice of Expressive Arts Therapy: Toward a Therapeutic Aesthetics (Jessica Kingsley Press), co-editor of In Praise of Poeisis: The Arts and Human Suffering (EGS Press), co-editor of Art in Action: Expressive Arts Therapy and Social Change (Jessica Kingsley Press), author of Play and Art in Child Psychotherapy: An Expressive Arts Therapy Approach (Jessica Kingsley Press), and co-editor of New Developments in Expressive Arts Therapy: The Play of Poiesis (Jessica Kingsley Press)
Ellen is a graduate of the Toronto Art Therapy Institute (D.T.A.T.I.), a registered member of the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers, a Board Certified Registered Art Therapist (A.T.R.-BC) and a Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT). She is a graduate of the Canadian Institute for Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and a registered psychoanalyst (NAAP). Although her primary medium is visual art, she has also studied clown and mask work with Richard Pochinko and others.
In addition to publishing many articles in the field of expressive arts therapy, she is the author of Tending the Fire: Studies in Art, Therapy and Creativity (EGS Press), co-editor of Foundations of Expressive Arts Therapy: Theoretical and Clinical Perspectives(Jessica Kingsley Press), co-author of Principles and Practice of Expressive Arts Therapy: Toward a Therapeutic Aesthetics (Jessica Kingsley Press), co-editor of In Praise of Poeisis: The Arts and Human Suffering (EGS Press), co-editor of Art in Action: Expressive Arts Therapy and Social Change (Jessica Kingsley Press), author of Play and Art in Child Psychotherapy: An Expressive Arts Therapy Approach (Jessica Kingsley Press), and co-editor of New Developments in Expressive Arts Therapy: The Play of Poiesis (Jessica Kingsley Press)
Ellen is a graduate of the Toronto Art Therapy Institute (D.T.A.T.I.), a registered member of the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers, a Board Certified Registered Art Therapist (A.T.R.-BC) and a Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT). She is a graduate of the Canadian Institute for Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and a registered psychoanalyst (NAAP). Although her primary medium is visual art, she has also studied clown and mask work with Richard Pochinko and others.
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 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, clinical 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 fifteen 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 fifteen 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.
Rowesa Gordon
Rowesa Gordon, Registered Psychotherapist, MA, CAGS, Core Teaching Faculty at The Create Institute, is an arts-based psychotherapist in private practice, qualified to offer clinical supervision. 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.
Daniela Garcia
Daniela Garcia, MA, ExAT is an Expressive Arts Therapist from The Create Institute in Toronto and The European Graduate School in Saas Fee in Switzerland with experience in bioenergetic psychotherapy, movement and yoga.
Before discovering her passion for the Expressive Arts field, Dani also accumulated 10+ years of professional experience in the fields of entertainment and advertising. She has a long record of bringing organizational sense to diverse creative and social projects in the areas of fundraising, community work and institutional cooperation for the arts.
A true globetrotter and free spirit, she has lived in Venezuela, India, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Mexico, and Canada. She was a founding member and Accounts Director at Imaginarios between 2008 and 2016 and played a key role as advisor in the shaping of ODELIA Artists.
During the last few years she has joined children, adults and elders in their enlightening process of self-discovery. She has experience in working with homeless and precariously housed adults with mental health and/or substance issues, refugee children struggling with settlement, elders with mobility limitations and/or dementia, and individuals or families experiencing work-life anxiety, depression, grief, transitions, and trauma.
Before discovering her passion for the Expressive Arts field, Dani also accumulated 10+ years of professional experience in the fields of entertainment and advertising. She has a long record of bringing organizational sense to diverse creative and social projects in the areas of fundraising, community work and institutional cooperation for the arts.
A true globetrotter and free spirit, she has lived in Venezuela, India, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Mexico, and Canada. She was a founding member and Accounts Director at Imaginarios between 2008 and 2016 and played a key role as advisor in the shaping of ODELIA Artists.
During the last few years she has joined children, adults and elders in their enlightening process of self-discovery. She has experience in working with homeless and precariously housed adults with mental health and/or substance issues, refugee children struggling with settlement, elders with mobility limitations and/or dementia, and individuals or families experiencing work-life anxiety, depression, grief, transitions, and trauma.