Meet Sunny Stewart a 2023 graduate of our Certificate Training Program. We are excited to feature her as our monthly Alumni Spotlight! We think you will be inspired by her work as an Expressive Arts Facilitator, Sound Therapy Practitioner, Qigong instructor and Artist! |
Sunny is an Expressive Arts Facilitator, Sound Therapy Practitioner, Qigong instructor and Artist. She offers a range of holistic services including creative & ecological workshops, healing sound & energy experiences, Qigong, nature connections, digital aura analyses, and art classes
at her home, and pop-up, private and organizational events in the community.
She holds a masters degree in transpersonal psychology, which investigates the nature of human experience, spiritual development, and the connection between the self and higher planes of existence. Her areas of concentration included creativity & innovation and spiritual
psychology.
She is here to support and assist others as we make our way home to our Hearts, and remember the depth of who we truly are. Her offerings explore the nature of being human and being a human in nature.
Sunny has earned graduate or professional certificates in Creative Expression, Ecopsychology, Intermodal Expressive Arts, Trauma & Resilience, Sonic Mastery, Integral Sound Healing, the Auster Sound Method and Level One Qigong Teacher Training.
Her path and training are a reflection of her own healing journey, intuition, and
personal passions. Her current interests include deepening her understanding of the biofield, tarot, beekeeping, stargazing, nature weaving and herbal and crystal wisdom.
|
Sunny, what drew you to the field of Expressive Arts, or motivated you to get Expressive Arts training? |
Looking back, this experience in January, 2019, planted my feet firmly on the path toward expressive arts training:
It is a full moon and I am in my second Touch Drawing (Deborah
Koff-Chapin) class with Shannon Lipan of the Wonder Studio. I am struggling to say goodbye to a large 72 year-old oak tree, the soul of my yard. I have known for many months that it is time, and have been unable to move beyond shock, numbness and sorrow. It is scheduled to be destroyed in a month. My heart is broken. I cry my way through deep emotional pain, movement, and merging with her spirit. My touch produces experiences of her life as a strong provider; her vulnerability; her
transformation in death. I surrender to the Void - the place where everything begins… again. Then, a circle of women, rejoicing in my yard, is revealed, and further messages of community, connection, clarity, new life and growth.
I submerged into my pain, and then moved through it. I found a place of peace to stand, and this night fortified and prepared me for her
imminent demise. This expressive experience cleared space within to allow me to consciously approach her death. The night before her destruction, we had a tea ceremonialist come and host a ritual under the tree in the presence of friends and family. I would never have been able to choose that for the tree, myself and my family had I not done the expressive work that preceded it. I am still deeply moved by, and grateful for this experience. The expressive arts are a path, my path, to emotional
freedom and resilience. I started searching for more expressive arts experiences and found EAFI. I bought Creative Wisdom as a birthday present to myself.
I remember now, as I write this, the resistance I felt in buying something like that for myself. It was hard, and became “a thing.” There was a lot of shame, guilt, unworthiness and disconnection there. At the time, I
was reading, I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn't): Making the Journey from "What Will People Think?" to "I Am Enough"; by Brené Brown. There was a lot of ugly crying and revelation. Creative Wisdom became another crossroad for channeling the courage to choose myself. The “thing” became prioritizing my self-expression, finding my voice and value, and creating a basket of tools and techniques to nurture myself back to thriving after a lifetime of trauma, abuse, and shadows.
|
Her Life, 2019. Acrylic on tissue. (Touch Drawing) As you began to immerse yourself in this work, were there any unexpected gifts or surprises? |
I found the ability to give myself permission to express all of my feelings, and endlessly discover the deep, unspoken language of my soul. It is an embodied form of emotional and spiritual self-healing and discovery. I have been able to approach, engage, and heal long-standing wounds and challenges through this work. I have reconnected with the voice of the Earth within me. I have experienced the mysticism between each breath. I have been gifted with ephemeral experiences of my place in the universe, on the Earth and in my body. I have traveled on the wind, grown like a sunflower from seed, become a white buffalo exhaling warm breath like smoke in the frozen landscape. I have become a spider, knowing how to traverse along my web. I have ridden on the back of a dolphin, carried by a serpent
through the portals of heaven, and the blackness of space. I have felt fire travel through me and become the stars I breathe out into the starry night. In clay, I have experienced the seismic forces of child abuse, and lived through my grandmother’s grief and response to losing a child. These were surprising at first, and used to freak me out a little, lol. Now I am just grateful for the mystical experiences of being alive in a wondrous dance with the creative forces of imagination and
mystery.
Another profound and unexpected gift of EAFI and EXA is the level of connection with others. We spend our whole lives surrounded by people without really knowing them. So many lost moments in public spaces talking about the weather, and hiding our tender bits from one another out of fear of being judged. EXA creates the safe spaces we need for heart coherence,
and extends permission, grace and compassion to all who enter these sacred spaces. In a way, once you experience another through EXA, you know all you really need to know to love them. You know the substantive stuff that fuels or frightens them. You experience their humanity and their divinity, which turns out to be the same thing…
|
Cosmic Ride, 2021. Tempera on red rosin paper.
How are you currently implementing expressive arts in your personal and/or professional life?
|
I offer transformative creative workshops that explore the nature of being human and being a human in nature. They allow participants to explore, discover, harness and develop their emotional, social and ecological intelligence and wisdom. Workshops lead to deep feelings of connectedness and belonging with ourselves, others, Nature and Spirit.
The design and facilitation of workshops, carefully curated to nurture these qualities and conditions, carry us home inside ourselves. Situating transformation within nature and the expressive arts container provides powerful scaffolding for healing and creative expression.
I believe ecology-based intermodal expressive arts workshops answer the call of the wild from within our Hearts and the Natural World. I believe they provide the necessary tools and practices to build our confidence and skills in being human, and support our personal, communal and planetary healing and growth. Betty Roszak reminds us that there is an intrinsic connection between the Earth’s body and our bodies, and the restoration of health to either
is dependent on the other.
Our innate creativity acts as a bridge between the creative forces of nature within, and all around us. It is capable of unlocking our deepest mystical wisdom, and allowing it to bloom in our conscious awareness. When we harness our own creativity, we acknowledge our agency as a faithful witness, companion and steward of the
exquisite unfolding of a sentient reality. Through the expressive arts healing process, we become situated within our own divine creative nature.
Breathing Fire, 2023. Chalk and pen on paper. |
What are your goals in this work, or how do you envision your involvement with EXA unfolding in the future? |
Right now, I am really looking forward to time for reflection, and deeper integration of my skill set, intuition and inspiration into my EXA offerings. I am also looking forward to more heart-centered community and social engagement. EXA is a wonderful means of helping us learn to dance in the darkness as well as the light. How has EXA enriched or expanded your career path (if applicable)? |
My
experiences in EXA have revealed or guided next steps. The practices I have intuitively chosen, during and since my training, are twigs within the nest of expressive arts. My shamanic path is the healing arts - visual art, healing sound, expressive ecology, writing, somatic movement, shadow work, personal empowerment, exploration of the layers of consciousness, energy work… and so on.
All of my training relates to human spiritual development, vibrational medicine and the contemplative arts. These share foundational features with EXA. I am passionate about helping myself and others continue to heal, grow and thrive within the context of modern culture and the struggles of everyday living. It is a tremendous challenge, and we need all the support and opportunities we can get. EXA answers this call.
|
EAFI 130 Untitled, 2020. Clay. What is your current personal practice and how does it enrich your life? |
At
the moment, I am engaging in three different practices: nature connections, watercolor art, and fire releasing. For the first one, I connect with Nature through walking, sitting or Qigong. I allow objects to call to me from within the landscape, or I am intuitively led to them. I begin noticing, admiring and entering into an interconnectedness with them. This allows kinship to be revealed and understood, and messages to be exchanged. Creative writing ensues. This work keeps me in deep relationship with the land: the flowers, seeds, rocks, shells, needles, feathers, wind, birds… I understand I live in a sentient world that is longing to connect with me. I feel the same longing and honor it in this work.
The
watercolor art happens within the cracks and crevices of my life. It is a practice I have created out of necessity to maintain my emotional expression and stability within the mind-blowing amount of Busy. I refuse to allow Busy to win! She is a temptress, shapeshifter and ravenous devourer of time, lol. I cannot allow societal busy-ness and collapsing timelines to keep me from my spiritual work.
I leave a coffee mug and a few brushes with a smidge of water, watercolors, and a sketchbook on the knee wall of our stairs. I pass by a million times a day, and of those million moments, I choose a few to put brush into color and onto paper. It arrives at its own completion by the end of the day, or next. Drive-by movement also happens. A word arises that carries all the weight and meaning one could ever need. It takes on its own life, as we all have experienced,
and never ever ceases to amaze me. It becomes an anchor in the endless busyness.
The third practice I am engaged in right now is working with the transformative power of Fire. In reflection, I think this practice has also been borne out of the necessity for regular expression, and feeling like I don’t have sufficient time to process.
I engage in illegible, sloppy, free writing, usually expressing anger, hurt or frustration. I go outside and call in my ancestors and guides, express intention and gratitude, and light the writing on fire, allowing those intense emotions to burn in a terracotta pot. I allow myself to move during the burning, further supporting the release of heated feelings from my body. Fire is so supportive in
this kind of work. Transmutation is her middle name, and she is happy to fulfill her purpose. I return the ashes to the Earth. I feel lighter and more relaxed afterward.
I have now begun facilitating this process with others, primarily for purging feelings related to family. It may also prove to be a sustainable means for dealing with the
daily onslaught of misfortune unfolding in the world. We cannot provide safe harbor for these things, as it is too toxic for our sensitive bodies. We need creative avenues for releasing the emotional responses to these things, so we know what our own right action is. A warrior does not fight with anger in her heart. She transforms her anger into her own personal power. We need clarity and inner peace to know where to direct our energy and make our personal stands. This is a bit of a tangent, but
I trust it is timely. If you begin doing fire releasing, I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences. |
Ancestral Healing, 2024. Clay. What do you wish you could tell the world about Expressive Arts? Expressive art allows us to harness all the avenues of our senses, physicality, emotion and spirit to explore the art modalities and engage ourselves and nature. We experience ourselves in intimate, sensual, intuitive and improvisational ways. It allows participants to practice transpersonal qualities of mindfulness, self-compassion, spontaneity, empathy, gratitude and trust. In doing so, Natalie Rogers tells us, we are able to deeply connect with ourselves,
others, the natural world and universal source. This leads to relationships of clarity, compassion, caring and empathy beyond ourselves. In essence, the expressive arts can heal the Soul of the World.
EAFI 130, Visual Arts Container, 2020
Watercolor, chalk and collage on paper. What are you currently offering, and what are the ways that people can work with you? I offer in-person and virtual expressive arts workshops and private sessions. I also offer group and one-to-one sessions in healing sound. I am in the process of adding virtual sound baths which is exciting to me. You can subscribe to my newsletter on my website and follow me on FB and IG. Rainbow Medicine, 2023. Watercolor, pen, pencil, collage, natural materials on paper with ephemeral elements. |
Anything else you would like to say? |
If we have ever been in an expressive arts space together, know this: I saw you. I heard you. I feel honored to have engaged with a sacred and authentic part of who you are. You touched me deeply with your courage and curiosity. I marveled at your art, your words, your movement - you inspired me more than I can ever say. I think of you still - you cross my mind in innumerable ways, and my heart expands in the presence of our memories together. We have shared something
sacred and powerful - our true selves.
If you ever want to talk about anything, please reach out to me. I love collaboration. I love generating ideas. I love getting to the Heart of matters. If you feel stuck, or are trying to work out an idea you
have for birthing something into the world, please reach out. I love deep listening and helping you find a way, your way. Something in me just keeps saying, “I am here! Let’s connect!”
I extend my deepest gratitude to Kathleen, Tamara, Susan, my other EXA mentors, and my large tribe of beautiful sisters, for filling the world with Hope and Love! Everything
you are doing matters - all of it. Do not despair in the dark times ahead. Hope is never lost - she is right where she has always been, shining on in your Heart.
|
Professional links - Learn more about Sunny |
Watch for our Alumni Spotlight on the 15th of each month. We feature graduates of our Certificate Training Program - Expressive Arts Facilitators, Therapists, and Educators. We hope this series will inspire you, help spread the work of our alumni, and demonstrate the scope of
practice of the expressive arts field. To see past Alumni Spotlight features & our Alumni Directory visit the link below. www.expressiveartsflorida.com/art-professional-links For more information about our Certificate Training Program, Professional Development, and Workshops - both online and in-person, visit us at www.expressiveartsflorida.com Tamara Teeter Knapp MA, NCC, LMHC, REACE® Kathleen Horne MA, LMHC(S), REACE®, REAT® |
|
|
|
