MARI Canada

Biographical Info

I first became a Certified MARI Facilitator in 2008, before I was even educated as a therapist. I remember reading the course description and just “knowing” that I had to register. As my teacher, Shelley Takei, owner of MARI, watched me draw my very first mandala, I felt “seen” in a new way. Not only was I being seen as if for the first time, I saw myself the way I understood myself but had never had the language to articulate. As I learned about symbol and colour and stage, I realized that I had been living and breathing colour and symbol my whole life. MARI helped me to speak of myself with a new vocabulary.

MARI is expansive enough to hold the complexity of all of life and creation, and yet each person is able to see themselves as a unique expression of life. Although I was a beginning practitioner in those early days, the wisdom of the MARI invited profound insight and growth for me as well as for my clients. A decade and hundreds of MARI’s later, I now use the MARI with clients in my psychotherapy practice for therapeutic assessment and deep healing. My MARI experience taught me how to “dance” with a client as they explore their own questions and learn how to see the truth in themselves – without getting in their way. And for that, I am grateful. I am merely a guide, I open the door; what the client sees comes from within. I am honoured to hold the door.

I am honoured to be a Certified MARI Teacher and to share Joan Kellogg’s gift with the world. I am honoured to represent MARI-Canada and I am committed to maintaining the integrity of MARI, and to build and support our community of MARI Practitioners.