Online, Canada-based Therapist
About me
Keith Thurlow-Bishop MA, MSc, PhD, RCC-ACS, RCAT-S, REAT
Originally from England, I have lived on the lands currently known as Canada since 2011. I have been working with people healing from mental health issues since 1990, and have been a qualified mental health professional since 2004.
As an expressive arts therapist, I am deeply committed to supporting people to heal, grow, and discover who they are through the arts (visual arts, music, dance/movement, drama, sandplay, poetry, creative writing, journaling, etc). I have a strong personal background in the arts, including music, drawing, painting, ceramics, collage, multi-media art, photography, and movement. I have had a personal daily meditation practice since 1987 and a yoga practice since 2003.
Qualifications & professional registrations
PhD in Expressive Arts Therapy
MSc in Integrative Psychotherapy
MA in Archaeology & Anthropology
Nature-Based Therapy training:
Introduction to Therapeutic Nature-Based Interventions (Somatic Nature Therapy Institute, Colorado)
Nature-Based Therapy in Practice (Human-Nature Counselling Society, British Columbia)
Advanced Nature-Based Expressive Arts Therapy: healing trauma and grief with nature (with Dr Cathy Malchiodi)
Somatic Psychotherapy training:
Diploma in Developmental Somatic Psychotherapy (two-year training with Dr Ruella Frank at the Center for Somatic Studies in New York City)
Somatic Experiencing training (in progress)
Certified Clinical Trauma Professional Training
(with Dr. Janina Fisher, PhD)
Certificate in Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy
(Trauma-Informed Practices and Expressive Arts Therapy Institute: www.trauma-informedpractice.com)
Practitioner Diploma in Working with Eating Disorders (1-year programme)
(The National Centre for Eating Disorders)
Practitioner Certificate in Working with Addictions & Eating Disorders
Post-qualifying training in Clinical Consultation (100+ hours of training)
(Psychosynthesis & Education Trust, London)
PROFESSIONAL REGISTRATIONS
Registered Expressive Arts Therapist and Clinical Supervisor (REAT #2134) with the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (www.ieata.org)
Registered Canadian Art Therapist and Clinical Supervisor (RCAT-S #350-R-23) with the Canadian Art Therapy Association (www.canadianarttherapy.org)
Registered Clinical Counsellor and Approved Clinical Supervisor (RCC-ACS #13474) with the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors (www.bc-counsellors.org)
Certified Nature-Based Therapist (Human-Nature Counselling Society)
Approved Practitioner by the National Eating Disorders Information Centre (www.nedic.ca)
Personal approach
I work in a participant-centred way, taking the lead from you and using what is happening between us in the sessions to support you to explore the issues you bring and help you move forward. I have a particular interest in the connection between body, mind, spirit, and the natural world, and have completed intensive trainings in nature-based and somatic psychotherapies. I also have a deep comitment to my own creativity and to the creative arts therapies and have offered expressive arts therapy in many different settings.
In addition to exploring what is going on for you in the present we may also choose to look at your childhood, family of origin, early relationships, and experiences of being in the world to better understand the factors that have shaped the person you have become. I will always work at a pace that feels manageable to you and respect your need to slow the process down at times if it feels too fast.
I continually strive to offer an anti-oppressive, inclusive, decolonial, trauma-informed service.
Clinical consultation
I have completed doctoral-level training in the theory and clinical practice of expressive arts therapy, psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioural and humanistic psychotherapies and their integration into a cohesive relational creativity-centred, body-centred, and ecologically-centred therapeutic model. I honour the relationship in my practice, and work explicitly with this in clinical consultation. My approach is shaped by creative, developmental, systemic, somatic, ecological, and transpersonal theories and practices, and held within the values of the ongoing process of decolonizing my practice. My professional training in clinical consultation (100+ hours) was at the Psychosynthesis & Education Trust in London, UK, and my doctoral research was on arts-based clinical enquiry. I am the Clinical Director for the Kutenai Art Therapy Institute in Nelson, British Columbia where I also offer clinical supervision and am a member of the teaching faculty. I previously worked as a clinical supervisor for the postgraduate Art Therapy programme at Adler University in Vancouver.
PLEASE NOTE: I mainly offer clinical consultation to Art/Expressive Arts Therapists, or trainees on approved programs that will lead to registration with expressive arts therapy professional bodies such as the CATA, AATA, BAAT, or IEATA.
Get in touch
If you'd like to get in touch please feel free to use the contact form or call me on 647-629-4770 (please leave me a message and I will call you back as soon as I can)