By Gagandeep Ghuman
Published: March. 24, 2012
When Jim (not his real name) first came to Sophie Brunet’s art therapy class, he felt he was stuck in life.
He had problems having a stable relationship, and his career wasn’t moving forward.
This wasn’t the first time Brunet, a Squamish based painter and art therapist, had heard the story.
In fact, abuse, trauma, depression were not unusual experience for those that came to her.
Sophie Brunet heals through art, and her counselling starts with sheet of blank paper.
And that is what she handed over to Jim.
He drew a childhood picture in which he is chained to the fence, with a red bull charging at him.
Sophie Brunet knew what his subconscious was trying to say.
“His wished has been trampled upon,” said Brunet.
“He had been always cornered by his mother’s domineering presence. Once he realised that, he was able to move forward.”
Guiding people through the maze of emotional and psychological problems through creative art is what Sophie Brunet has done for the past twenty years.
Born and raised in Montreal, she moved to Squamish five years ago. Her paintings are on display at the Foyer Gallery, but the art she creates isn’t just for art’s sake, she says
“Art for me is a journey of discovery,” she says.
“It has meaning, it is therapeutic, and it allows you to access your subconscious and change things that need to be changed.”
Brunet got interested in art therapy when she was 11. Helping her do that was her psychotherapist father and a painter mother.
At 22, she went to Nelson to do an arts therapy course, and has since worked with countless individuals to train them to deal with their subconscious through the power of art.
“There are people I meet who have tried everything else, but it didn’t work,” she says.
By interpreting the client’s creative self-expression, Brunet tries to connect them to the root cause of the problem ailing them.
“I find the process of counselling through art very rewarding,” she says.
In Squamish, she is holding art classes for foster kids and Squamish Nation students, helping them foster self-esteem.
Brunet is now using art to heal foster care children and Squamish Nation children from the age of six to 15, helping them reclaim their self-esteem.
“They are expressing themselves and that is what matters the most,” she says.
