Welcome! I’m a Registered Therapeutic Counsellor (RTC) with over 8 years of experience in expressive arts therapy. I hold a PhD in Cultural Studies; I believe in integrating artistic sensibility and emotional and relational literary in thinking through theory. I am also a facilitator of The Work That Reconnects, and an education consultant with Gaia Education where I facilitate the Design for Sustainability and Regeneration program.
In my journey to decolonize therapy, I’m honour to walk alongside people to revitalizing their innate imagination and growing capacity to respond to uncertainty, discomfort and conflicts.
Therapeutic work
I integrate expressive arts therapy into earth-based practices to support people navigating the social and environmental crises/collapse of our time and building resilience for social change.
Healing the earth as we heal ourselves
Beginning my master studies in ecofeminist theology in 2005 has brought me to an inquiry into faith, ecological and personal healing. After completing professional development training in horticultural therapy, certificates in applied mindfulness meditation specialist at the University of Toronto, and in permaculture design, I moved to an ecovillage education center in Shawnigan Lake, Canada for 5 years, where I co-facilitated the Ecovillage Design Education Curriculum, sustainable wellness retreat, the Way of Councils, and monthly women circle. Long-lasting societal/ecological changes and inner transformation are not separate, to participate in change movement we must build emotional capacity and restore kinship with the more-than-human world. Which is why I facilitate The Work the Reconnects, an experiential group process introduced by deep ecologist Joanna Macy to support activists and change-makers in navigating burnouts, despair and reconnect with resources from the living web of life. Since 2018, I became a certified trainer with Gaia Education, and facilitate the Worldview Dimension segment of the year-long GEDS program, where we support learners to shift mindsets for regenerative futures.
Decolonizing/healing identity
Self-identified as a settler of colour born and raised in British Hong Kong and based in Canada, I bring expressive arts therapy and critical autoethnography together, to decolonizing settler identity, coping with intergenerational racialized trauma, and reconnecting with familial/ancestral past. The work of deep-rooted systemic change has to go hand in hand with personal healing journey. The story of my self decolonizing healing journey can be found in my journal article in the Creative Arts in Education and Therapy journal, and creative nonfiction work in the WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly and upcoming collection of essays.
Grief, lost, anxiety
My experience of losing my father in a tragic car accident has brought me to trauma and grief work with orphans and earthquake survivors from 2008-2010. I now combine expressive arts therapy and the Work that Reconnects to facilitate space for grief and despair in group process. As someone who had lived with animal phobia for over 25 year, I’ve also written an online course for Highbrow on How to Heal Yourself from Phobia Step by Step (It’s free via Highbrow 30 days free membership).
Research
My doctoral research applies expressive arts therapy as a therapeutic inquiry method in qualitative research method and community-based participatory research to construct knowledge collectively and create social empowerment with the people involved in the research process. The project examines the implication of personal and intergenerational/collective cultural healing on cross-cultural relationship building in the process of decolonization and social change.
In my portfolio PhD project, I integrate creative writing, critical autoethnography and expressive arts therapy to propose what I term “critical/therapeutic inquiry” method qualitative inquiry. I experiment with creative nonfiction and Della Pollock’s performative writing to interrupt conventional scholarly texts representation in knowledge-creation spaces. My work on how expressive arts therapy can interrupt the logic of thinking in Cultural Studies will be published in the upcoming book Re-emergence(s) of and Through Arts-Based Educational Research (2026), with the Artful Inquiry Research Group at McGill University. My reflection on expressive arts therapy and transpersonal psychology will be published in a co-authored chapter with Stephen K. Levine in The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Transpersonal Psychology 2nd Edition (2026). The method “critical/therapeutic inquiry” will be published in the upcoming Departures in Critical Qualitative Research issue in. My research and publication can be found here.
Research Interests
Expressive Arts Therapy, Autoethnography, Community-based Participatory Research, Ecopsychology, Creative Nonfiction, Performative Writing, Healing and Social Change, Indigenous-Settler Relationship, Permaculture, Ecotherapy, Arts-based Research Practice
Contact
For any kind of research queries and collaboration please e-mail Gracelynn at gracelynn.lau@queensu.ca.
imagination care studio 