2021- until now Art therapist at Vilnius private elementary school “Apvalaus kvadrato mokykla”. Third/fourth graders – a pleasure. They are open, sincere, loving. At the end of the session, I can stand with some of them hugging each other and the phrase “I will miss you very much” spoken by both of them is true. I encounter various situations: I sympathize when they are sad, worried, even scared. They recognize their feelings quite well, are able to name them. They willingly share their experiences with other classmates on how they deal with one or another problem. Reflective, conscious. Every morning at this school begins with meditation. Consciousness is the path of this school. Special children.
2021 06 – until now Art therapist at Vilnius open youth center MES open youth space “Kimaras”. Continuing art therapy groups every week. One for young people aged 14-17, the other for young people aged 19-29.
Young people aged 14-17.
Their age is amazing and difficult: a period of distancing from parents and merging into groups. The time of first relationships. Parting with a friend or the whole group (class) in some cases is equivalent to death. The search for identity. It is important not to fall out of the group and at the same time to be different while being in it. The period of assuming responsibilities and obligations.
Young people under 30..
Still studying, working, some already living in a partnership or marriage. Already encountering boredom, anxiety: “Is this all?” Already realizing the recurring patterns and patterns of their lives. Having the strength to look at difficult experiences and survive them. I help, support, and accompany them in that process.
2021 01 – 2022 01 Art therapist at Vilnius Intellectually Disabled People’s Care Association “Viltis”. The greatest therapy is to be that reliable person who comes every week and rejoices with you in any success… Connection is the most important thing.
2021 09 – 2022 01 Art therapist at Vilnius Verkiai School – Multifunctional Center under the NVŠ program.
All you need is love and openness. And to look at each person, each time as a person with a thousand possibilities. These children and young people learn according to their abilities according to a special program. I encountered such a phenomenon when the employees working there told me: there is no need for it to be so complicated, something simpler, they don’t understand. Really? I have denied this opinion many times. They feel deeply, understand deeply, have imagination. When they “entered” the therapeutic/creative process, we could even hear flies flying…
I lead art therapy groups for women. The miracle of sharing, enriching each other. Accepting others, accepting yourself, with your various sides. Surviving, sometimes crying over what has been drawn, what you can’t even tell.
2022 06 – 12 In Vilnius, VMU, in the Ukrainian center, I led an art therapy group for war refugee women. The first months of work were not at all as I imagined. Chaos, changing people passing through Lithuania in transit, until finally a stable, later closed group settled down. There were topics that could be worked on – family, relationships, everyday life, lost jobs, money… and the topic of war, which the participants touched on only as much as they had the strength to, as if next to, as if somehow clinging to the aforementioned topics. This was also my adaptation to the existing work a time of conditioning and transformation as a therapist.
Since 2018, at the initiative of the Trakai Region Culture and Crafts Association, I have been conducting art therapy sessions for organizations and schoolchildren of various ages, training for educators and social workers on how to apply art therapy methods to school-age children. I also conduct the following educations organized by this association: the history and decoration of Lithuanian chests, drawing the tree of life, art education on the ecological theme “green world”, shibori – Japanese painting.
