Hi. I’m Mari Grande.

I am passionate about finding creative ways to connect, heal, and learn.

I’m an artist, writer, art and trauma therapist, and teacher. I draw, make mandalas, write, meditate, create courses and workshops, and paint when life gives me enough time and space for it.

Creativity has always been one of the ways I find myself.

When I make something, I connect with myself differently. It is a little like looking into a mirror, except I’m not trying to see myself clearly. I begin to feel myself.

My energy, my vulnerability, my different parts become present.

And then sometimes, if I become absorbed enough in what I’m doing, all of that disappears for a while and I simply become part of the process.

I think that is one of the reasons I keep creating.

Creative Healing Integration is where I bring together my love of creativity, learning, and teaching outside of my psychotherapy practice.

Here you'll find courses, workshops, books, meditations, and mandala experiences for personal exploration and professional learning.

My work grows from a lifelong curiosity about art, psychology, healing, and the many ways we come to understand ourselves.

I've also learned a great deal from my own relationship with the inner critic. Finding ways to soften that voice, and offer myself a little more grace, has been an ongoing practice.

My clinical training informs what I create and teach here, but Creative Healing Integration is an educational and creative space, separate from my psychotherapy practice.

Why I Teach

Teaching is one of my favorite ways to learn.

Just when I think I understand something, explaining it to others or hearing a question I hadn't considered opens up a whole new perspective.

I love that exchange. The curiosity, the different ways of seeing, and the discoveries that happen when we learn together.

It's what keeps teaching interesting and keeps me learning, too.

More about me, myself, and I.

I have a lifetime love of learning, especially where art, psychology, the body, creativity, spirituality, and healing meet.

Over the years, I have studied and trained in many different approaches, including intuitive coaching. Some have become central to how I work, teach, and facilitate groups.

Others are threads I draw from when useful. This is part of who I am, without every approach needing to become its own service.

Licenses:

  Clinical Social Worker in New York, New Jersey, California, Florida

  Creative Arts Therapist

  Fine Arts Teacher

Certifications, Credentials, Designations:

  Certified Intuitive Coach

  EMDR Certified Therapist and Consultant

  Somatic Experience Practitioner (SEP)

  Hypnotherapist

  Reiki Practitioner

  Integrative Trauma Studies

  M.A.R.I. (Mandala Assessment Research Instrument) Practitioner

  Psychoanalyst, Institute for Expressive Analysis

  Art Therapy Board Certification and Registration

Degrees:

  Master of Social Work

  Master of Fine Arts

  Graduate Art Therapy

  Bachelor of Fine Arts

  Graduate Early Childhood Education

  Bachelor of Arts

I don’t expect to ever be finished learning.

I’m not sure I would want to be.

If something here sparks your curiosity, invites you to make something, helps you understand yourself a little differently, or gives you an idea you want to carry into your own work, then Creative Healing Integration is doing what I hoped it would do.

I’m glad you found your way here.