Tonya Ward
Art Therapist
Her focus areas include:
- Arts-based Mindfulness
- Child-Parent Relationship
- Anxiety & Depression
- Pain & Loss
- Personal Growth
- Community & Loneliness
- Women’s Issues
Qualifications:
Masters of Expressive Art Therapy, Faculty of Social Sciences, Hong Kong University, Hong Kong
Bachelor of Arts Communications, University of Canberra, Australia
Accredited CHCSS00113 – Crisis Support Skill Set Training, Australia
Memberships:
The Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Art Therapy Association – Professional Registered Member
Therapeutic approaches:
Expressive art psychotherapy
Person-centred counselling
Mindfulness-based therapy
Languages: English
Tonya is a qualified HK expressive arts therapist who uses a combination of creative arts, such as writing, visual art, music, and movement, to achieve therapeutic results. Tonya enjoys sharing creative processes to help her clients manage their mental health, learn more about themselves and find joy and hope in their lives.
Creative therapies are helpful in cases where a person may be stuck in a certain behaviour and cannot see a way forward, for example as result of pain, sadness, life transitions or loss. It is useful for clients who have trouble finding the words to express themselves and is a natural method of finding relief from stress, depression, or anxiety.
Creative therapies tap into your unconscious, healing you at a deep level. Being experiential and somatic, the whole body is addressed. Mindful artmaking will regulate your nervous system, lower cortisol levels and release dopamine leaving you feeling relaxed and light. No art experience is necessary, just an open mind and a willingness to explore.
Tonya has worked with a wide range of clients across Hong Kong, including children, teens, adults, elderly, ethnic minorities and neurodiverse. She facilitates groups for children, teens, and women, using the arts to combat life’s stressors, promote healing and create community. Tonya supports individual clients to manage their mental health, move through pain, loss, or tricky life transitions. She has a special interest in child-parent relationships and finds creative art therapy is often a more accessible way for parents to communicate and bond with their child than talk-therapy.
Tonya believes therapeutic work should be fun as well as challenging and strives for her clients to experience soul-level healing.