Meet Jen
Art can heal you & those you work with.
As a counselor, therapist, life coach, art facilitator, or ministry leader, you likely find your purpose in helping others and providing healing opportunities. In supporting them and offering hope encouragement during their darkest days. It thrills you to walk alongside others and give them tools to make insightful connections and discover transformative “aha” moments.
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But with everything going on in the world, all you see is need. You are full beyond capacity, drained everyday, yet the hurting and broken keep coming so you keep giving.
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How long until you break?
Hi, my name is
Jen Alward
I’ve been helping people find healing through art for over 20 years
I’ve been helping people find healing through art for nearly 20 years.
​​There are so many reasons why I love Art Therapy, here are a few:
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Bridges cultural and language gaps.
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Feels like play while reducing stress hormones and increasing “happy” hormones.
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Can address trauma, calm chaos, and bring about healing without causing re-traumatization or secondary trauma.
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It is super flexible.
Ever since I was a child I was creating, pointing out beauty, and wanting to help.
During my freshman year of college, in the midst of burning out academically, our family was going through some intense things.
I felt so alone and helpless. I was away from my support system for the first time, grieving and floundering, trying to hold it all inside and be strong for my family when they called.
It was during a week of residential family therapy that I first experienced Art Therapy and I was hooked!
Unlike the other therapy sessions that week, this one brought about a sense of levity. Everyone participated and when we shared, I was amazed at the hidden emotions and powerful insights our simple drawings revealed.
This thing I loved to do for fun, was actually being used to do the thing I desired — help people on a deep level!
After a little research, I went on to get my master’s degree in Art Therapy and Marriage and Family Therapy at Notre Dame de Namur University.
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One of my professors, Dorris Arrington, inspired me in the way she combined her art, life, faith and career. Soon after graduation she invited me to join her on a mission trip to Ethiopia, where we provided counseling to women exiting the sex trade and trained the counselors there as well.
It was during this trip, and others like it, that I saw how art could bring transformation like nothing else.
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The silent found their voice.
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The battle hardened discovered a safe way to connect.
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The distrustful began to hope.
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The sparkle returned to haunted eyes.
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They were orphaned, sex trafficked, abused, rejected, abandoned, and cursed. They were survivors longing to be seen and understood. Art provided that opportunity!
It attracted people, like moths to a flame, bringing out a playfulness their circumstances had squelched.
It captivated the counselors and staff members too. Their eyes lit up at the healing possibilities art offered them for the years ahead.
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Reveal new perspectives.

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Improve problem solving and discover more options in life.
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Provide a safe way to express and communicate what's being held inside.
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Relieve stress, heal traumas, nurture hope, and so much more.
It's so encouraging to witness the healing transformations clients discover as they engage in Art Therapy. Their whole being shifts as they experience joy, relief, peace, and hope bubbling up within them.
It's like the healing happens on accident--by magic!
Would you like to gain this ability to harness the healing power of art?
I’m so excited to offer a variety of Art Therapy services to help the helpers. To give you personal support, and encouragement, and customized tools that offer hope and healing at the same time.
Hearing how others are implementing the healing power of art and experiencing shifts in themselves, as well as those they serve, is thrilling.
I cannot wait to see how the ripple effects continue!
