Samuel Romero, ExAT (he/him) is a bilingual Spanish- and English-speaking certified Expressive Arts Therapist (ExAT), a professional member of the Ontario Expressive Arts Therapy Association and an associate member of the Canadian Art Therapy Association. He completed his practicum at Tupper Secondary School where he worked with asylum and refugee status students from Syria, Iraq, Mexico and Colombia. As well, Samuel completed a practicum training at the Kettle Society where he worked with individuals living with mental illness and substance abuse. From 2017-2020, Samuel worked exclusively in Surrey Public Schools with refugee children and youth from all over the world. Since 2021, Samuel has been in private practice fusing his training in the arts with somatic release therapy. Samuel is also a recording musician, singer-songwriter and visual artist.
Samuel's work as an Expressive Arts Therapist offers safe pathways for navigating through times of difficulty and concern, both personal and relational. Through dialogue, creativity and embodiment, the underlying meanings are explored leading to understanding and compassion. Samuel’s work includes ancestral healing, conflict resolution in relationships and play-therapy for youth. His work strives toward cultivating self-compassion and empathy for those around us. Taking a Buddhist perspective on suffering, Samuel aims to restore agency, mental wellness and connection.
I offer Expressive Arts Therapy for individuals, couples and groups in Spanish and English. I also offer Low-Cost and Sliding-Scale therapy.
As an Expressive Arts Therapist, I employ creative modalities to facilitate the journey of healing and personal growth. Grief, trauma, depression, anxiety, family and relational issues can be difficult to verbally communicate. I believe the body and imagination offer other ways to help express and self-understand. ExAT is an experiential mode of therapy which means one is invited to journey through their inner world and discover other ways of seeing oneself. I work with images, movement, story, music, mindfulness, and body-mind techniques to support one’s process. Artwork and expressions are not viewed as “successful” or “failure” in this therapeutic approach, as this is a no-skill required style of art therapy. Rather, the activation of images and the body is seen as ways to dissolve limitations and judgments. Shaping and reshaping imagery can lead to surprising discoveries where insight and growth are possible. I work with you to gather forms and ideas from which the interplay of the Arts help to reveal ways one can understand and integrate ailments of body, heart, mind and soul. I offer individual, couples and group therapy in Spanish and English.
I graduated from the Expressive Arts Therapy (ExAT) training program at Langara College in 2017 and worked in Surrey Public Schools with refugee children from around the world until 2020. I have since been working with clients from all life paths seeking healing and growth.
Expressive Arts Therapy is a powerful and effective mode of therapy for a wide and diverse range of distressful life experiences. I specialize in working with grief, life transitions, trauma, depression, intimacy, relationships and men’s work.
We would be happy to hear from you and book a free consultation for you. If you’re interested in getting in touch with us, fill out our contact form and let us know if there was a counsellor you’d prefer to work with. We will do our best to accommodate requests based on counsellor availability and specialty.
