Esther Kalaba M.A.
As an art therapist and registered psychotherapist with many years of clinical work in diverse settings, my practice combines:
somatic psychotherapy,
traditional talk therapy,
yoga/breathwork/meditation,
and of course,
ART.
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Check out my upcoming workshops:
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![Esther sitting in meditative posture with arms outstretched and eyes closed looking peaceful]()
Introduction to Breathwork
ONLINE LIVE: Learn the fundamentals of Pranayama (Breathwork) for physical and emotional health and well-being. Have a tool-box of techniques at your disposal to navigate stress and anxiety.
LIVE online classes offered for 5 weeks so that you learn the basics.
NEW SESSION BEGINS ON APRIL 23, 2024: 6:30-8:00 PM EST
NEXT SESSION IS ON MAY 6th from 12:00-1:30pm EST
CLICK ON LINKS ABOVE TO SIGN UP.
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People of the Prana
Kick start your breath practice with daily LIVE breath work (pranayama) classes. Join the People of the Prana every morning at 6:30am EST for 30 minutes of guided breathwork practice. Sessions are recorded and delivered to your inbox (if waking up early is not your cup of tea).
Suitable for beginners and more experienced breathers. This is the perfect way to establish and deepen into the experience of having a daily meditation practice.
When life gets messy AND you have questions…
Art + Therapy + Breathwork =
Tending to the Messy Questions.
Art teaches you to befriend your mess and engage with it (let’s face it, real life never comes in a neat package). Therapy teaches you “emotional literacy” (to weather through your emotional storms when life comes undone). Breathwork cultivates presence, patience, and perseverance, whatever your circumstances.
Aren’t these skills necessary in today’s super stressful world?
So…what are your messy questions?
This is a safety warning:
Asking questions
CAN and WILL shake up your world.
Questions; asking them can feel scary. Sometimes they appear like uninvited guests. They can be the antithesis to ‘feeling okay’, but they are not problems unless you make them so. Believe it or not, questions don’t need to be answered right away and sometimes if left unattended can actually bear even more questions. Children tend to ask a lot of questions; it’s how they come to know their world. Does that mean that questions help us better know the world? What if, questions were like the kind of friends that were excited to bring you on new adventures and show you:
what you don’t know, haven’t yet learned, and might never know? Now the question is…
What do YOU do when you don’t know?
Do you… (ahem)
PANIC????
Believe it, or not, in the same way that you learned how to read or ride a bike,
you CAN learn to navigate uncertainty
and coast through the emotional ups and downs that come with
not knowing where to go or
what to do.
(these ARE skills like any others).
This means: When things get tough, rather than ‘moving on’ (a.k.a avoidance), you CAN learn to ‘move in’ a bit closer and remain there for a little while (warning: this may initially feel uncomfortable). Rather than trying to ‘feel better’ right away, you CAN learn to feel things as they are in that moment, while being witnessed by another (warning: this may initially feel embarrassing). Rather than going back to normal, you CAN encounter the strange (warning: this may spark your creativity and even spontaneous play).
Did you know?
It’s okay not to know.
What if…
not knowing was the beginning of Wonder?
WONDER is…
the prerequisite to learning and curiosity’s sister. And not often taught at school. Living a WONDER-FULL life means being open to the inexplicable, holding doubt WITH awe, loitering in between all you think you know about the world and how it ‘should be’... and then, making way for all the rest. Psychotherapy and the labor of art making are ways to encounter the unknown, providing the necessary tutelage required to:
go there.
Are you ready to go THERE?
In a world that prides itself on certainty, where more answers than you could ever properly consider are delivered to your fingertips in a flash, and rampant perfectionism runs the show, it can feel daunting and super scary to linger in that dark, ambiguous place where there are no right or wrong answers. Going THERE means sieving through all of it (and there is a lot) to find out:
what’s real.
Who are you REALLY?
When you look at the roles you play in day to day life, do they align with who you really are? Do you even know? How can you know? Have you ever asked yourself this question and followed where it carries you? You’ve had a lot of instruction in your life, but knowing who you are and what makes you human was not one of the subjects taught at school. Yet, becoming human be-ing is a skill that:
you can practice.
Where do you PRACTICE?
Here’s the thing: You cannot do this work on your own. Humans, at their core are tuned for relationship. Therapy is where you practice- relating. Dissociation (a side-effect of trauma) literally means falling out of relation with other humans, animals and the natural world. Paradoxically, it is only by being connected to the world, that you can heal. In other words, you need others to become:
who you are.
My eclectic approach to therapy and life was developed by living it, punctuated by scholarly learning, and graciously made alive through daily art and meditation practice.
(Yes. I walk my talk).
I’ve had the good fortune to study with incredibly wise teachers, to whom I am very grateful, and have travelled the world as much as I could, meeting many inspiring people along the way. I integrate wisdom from both eastern and western philosophical systems, and when in doubt,
I make art.
I believe that developing your creativity muscles is the most essential work out you will ever need.
WORK WITH ME:
Creativity can be the sustaining and supportive fire that fuels your life.
I share these four principles which have guided my practice over the last 15 years:
listening, breathing, embodied learning, and making.
Being fully aware that changing longstanding habits or patterns takes time, commitment, motivation, and consistency, many approaches are needed. Self-care is not something you do at the end of the day, when everything else has been ticked off the to-do list;
Caring for yourself is a fundamental requirement for life.
