Esther Kalaba obtained her Masters in Creative Arts Therapies (specialization in Art Therapy) at Concordia University in 2010 and a Bachelor of Science in Herbal Medicine from the University of Westminster in London (2000).
Esther is a Level II Kundalini Yoga teacher and practices Sat Nam Rasayan. She is a registered psychotherapist in Quebec and has taken additional training in trauma treatment. She has worked as an art therapist in a variety of mental health care settings, such as hospitals, specialized schools, cancer support centres, palliative care, and domestic violence shelters.
She specializes working with people with complex trauma and bereavement. Esther combines a unique blend of traditional talk psychotherapy, art therapy, somatic therapy, yoga, and meditation/pranayama (breath-work) practice to her clinical work enabling for a whole person care and working on the psychological, physical, emotional, and spiritual levels.
Esther believes in the profound healing power of the arts for not just the individual, but for community. As an artist, Esther has exhibited and received numerous awards for her community textile and story-telling project about remembering loved ones who have died through clothing and story, Collecting Loss: Weaving Threads of Memory.
She is the co-founder of Finishing School, online art therapy “adulting” courses for 20-somethings graduating from childhood and entering the real adult world.
Currently Esther works in private clinical practice, runs courses online, writes, makes art, and wonders about the role of creativity and art making in learning. She likes to laugh and often meditates on the peculiarities of being a therapist.
