co-creating your path to authenticity
When words feel like they’re not enough, art can help you
find your way back to yourself.
Via Nova Art Therapy offers a gentle, trauma-informed space for adults and youth seeking reconnection, clarity, and emotional healing. Off-site workshops available in Nova Scotia. Virtual sessions available across Canada (except Quebec).
Services I offer:
Individual Art Therapy
Not currently individual taking clients: Join the mailing list to be updated on availability.
Art Therapy fills the gaps for those who do not begin with words, or who prefer another doorway into their own truth. I walk alongside clients through the art process as part of emotional healing. Clients determine the meaning of their own work, while I guide the process. Sessions are tailored individually. The client remains in control. Sessions are currently available virtually throughout Canada (except Quebec).
Community Workshops
I partner with community organizations, non-profits, and mission-driven teams to offer therapeutic art informed workshops that support emotional well being, team building, connection, and creative expression. These workshops provide a structured space where participants can explore thoughts and emotions through guided art-making (no artistic experience required). The focus is not on artistic skill, but on process: using creativity as a pathway to self-reflection, regulation, and shared understanding.
My Journey
I'm am a lifelong creative with a background in counselling, addictions support, and women’s services. Becoming an Art Therapist felt like the most natural, and almost inevitable next step.
When I registered to train as an Art Therapist, I already believed in the power of art and in the value of therapy, but I had no idea how powerful they would be when brought together. Through coursework, clinical internships, and a deeply personal experiential process called training group, I experienced Art Therapy’s capacity for healing firsthand. It reached me in a way talking alone never could.
My work has always centred community, connection, and dignity, and I'm honoured to extend those values and that approach to private practice.
Emily Bagnald, BA, DKATI
Clinical Art Therapist
professional member of CATA - Canadian Art Therapy Association
Client-centred Relational Art Therapy
My approach to Art Therapy is gentle, and client-led. I believe people already hold wisdom about their own healing, and the art gives that wisdom a place to emerge. Clients determine the meaning of their own work. I do not interpret their art for them. I offer prompts, questions, structure, and emotional support so they can explore at their own pace.