About Us
What is Heart Times about?
Heart Times strives to be a lighthouse for anyone who wants to move out of being stuck and disengaged with life, to returning to their essence by opening their eyes to the magic and wonder of thriving from the inside out.
At Heart Times, it is about a non-linear process to support people of all ages to transform their life and discover what helps them come alive in amidst life's challenges.
Transform, ignite. and illuminate your life through creative expression.
We work with you to develop simple creative practices that grow your problem-solving capability, reduce stress and exhaustion, increase concentration and expand awareness and joy.
You don't need to be an artist or have skills. It is about the process, not the product.
Beginnings...
Founder Shelaine Grant had a dream for many years to create a vibrant and nourishing space for people to learn, heal, and grow through an expressive arts process.
It started from a young age, when Shelaine discovered that the arts connected and enlivened people across cultures, backgrounds, and time periods, unlike any other.
Shelaine saw how many people were walking through life in a daze, getting lost in the endless rat race, often forgetting the essence of who they are, and disregarding how both play and beauty are essential in all stages of life.
This was a problem Shelaine could not let go of.
Through her personal exploration in music, songwriting, community theatre, generational art making, creative writing, photography, and ballroom dance, Shelaine found what she was meant to spend her life on: bringing other people into the endless joy of creativity.
While many people think of counseling as a way to verbally address their problems and find a way to improve their life, Shelaine saw how the expressive arts could facilitate a creative exploration of the concerns "at a distance", allowing something new to come into existence in the process and make sense of what is unexplainable or not yet in full awareness.
And with that, Heart Times was born.
Future Plans
Heart Times is excited to announce that we will be offering a virtual meet-and-greet for people to find out more about whether Heart Times is for you, or want to share with someone you know!
Date to be decided. Keep on checking in and we look forward to meeting you to explore the power of the expressive arts in healing and change.
BONUS: there will be an opportunity to get "hands-on" and try out an expressive arts process with other participants.
Core Values
Integrity
Not just a word for us, but a life commitment. Integrity is a way to describe the way we conduct business, and also points to our passion to collaborate with you toward living whole and complete.
It is about supporting you to be who you are and who you want to be, as well as learning to recognize when your flow becomes impeded when you act otherwise.
One-Degree Difference
Small shifts can cause BIG momentum in the long run and require a small seed of willingness to explore. Seek to shift the compass even one degree and you’re going an entirely different direction.
A Multi-Faceted, Contextual Perspective
We see people not only as solitary individuals, but recognize the impact of your family, community, culture, and intergenerational patterns, as integral to who you are and how you got to where you are now. Therefore, what is important to you is important to us and we will collaborate with you from a respectful, culturally sensitive lens.
A Self-Responsibility Mindset
We help you work towards shedding the 'victim' mentality day by day. We recognize that it takes time and effort to get out of that pattern. This translates to accepting responsibility for your actions, owning up to where you are now and knowing that you don’t have to stay there. In this process, we build up your resources to empower and strengthen you to live the life you've always dreamed of.
Cultivating the Life You Want
Whether you want to shift the symptoms you may be experiencing, or perhaps work on a specific area in your life, we believe in the power of intention and creating daily practices to help you get to where you want to be. Learning about yourself through a creative process can be deeply liberating and set you up for more passion, purpose, and clarity.
Embracing Vulnerability
It takes courage to open yourself up to change, and to give yourself a chance to grow, heal, and learn by embarking in counselling or coaching. Sharing your vulnerability through a non-verbal process can allow you to feel safer to play with the concerns at hand. Our commitment to you is that we will provide a safe place for you to 'get real' with whatever you are facing, and to be met with acknowledgment, respect, and care. We focus on connecting you with your centre, whatever this means to you, and encourage you to use creativity to strengthen your sense of voice.
Supporting Momentum
We are a witness in this stage of your life, but you are the one who is going to get you where you want to be. We help you to remember who you have always been, believe that you have what it takes even when you don't feel like it, and help you find the strength to move forward.
Tapping Into Your Inner Artist
Humans are intrinsically creative; it is in our DNA. No matter who you are, YOU are creative. Through the expressive arts, you do not have to measure yourself to a certain standard because it is all about the process. However, both the creative process and the 'thing' that develops during a session, look different for everyone. This is the stuff that makes humans inventors, not only passive consumers of life. By utilizing our imagination through the expressive arts, we can increase our problem-solving skills, reduce stress and exhaustion, alter concentration, and expand awareness and joy.