A Letter from the Academic Co-Deans
Welcome. We hope that you find here what you need and, perhaps, a seed of inspiration that you not have expected.
KATI is a unique educational institution that values transformational education and personal integration. Our approach is centered on cultivating spaces of collective care, learning, and support where the diversity of each person’s story, gifts, and culture are welcomed and honoured.
In the face of a rapidly changing world, we need creativity and emergent theories and practices to meet our evolving needs and responsibilities as a collective on this earth. We believe that engagement in art making and co-creating community spaces are our resources to support healing and responsiveness to the personal and collective challenges of this time. At KATI we proactively endeavour to dismantle oppressive conditions of injustice and colonialism to create an educational environment that respects and welcomes all voices. We are committed to nurturing change in a way that makes a difference in the world in good way.
Fundamental to our work is the importance of relationship. We recognize the uniqueness of each individual student and their impact on the school environment. With each cohort of students, the school continues to stretch and grow in response to what is alive in the group, and we welcome this evolution while always staying grounded in the values that are the heartbeat of KATI: acceptance, respect, trust, and belonging.
KATI provides an immersive learning experience that prioritizes experiential learning on the understanding that we learn how to be a therapist through the vessel of our own being. Therapeutic skills are not layered onto the person that we are they become integrated into our way of being in the world and in the work. The structure of the program along with the support of our caring and skilled faculty and staff provides fertile ground for transformation the impact of which ripples out into the world through the multiplicity of relationships that extend from each student.
Thank you for taking time to learn more about KATI and for considering all we have to offer. We encourage you to contact us if you are needing more information about our program and community art therapy initiatives.
We are grateful to the land, to all the traditional keepers of this land, and to all the sentient beings with whom we share this place that we call home and support us in our work.
Millie Cumming and Nicole Le Bihan
Academic Co-Deans