ChrisB Liu, R.P., MSc.

Creative Director

ChrisB is the newest addition to our team at Cascadia Living Wisdom. Her role as the Creative Director is to design and maintain the branding of Cascadia.

In her late 20’s, ChrisB began to notice the way art-making both revealed and healed the brokenness of people. Through their art and within a trusted relationship, people were willing to share their stories and experiences with her. Through this work she discovered her vocation - to serve immigrants and marginalized groups through art-making. This led her to decide to leave her full-time job as a Graphic Designer and travel to Scotland to study, and eventually earn, the Master of Science in Art Psychotherapy (M.Sc.). Now she is a Registered Psychotherapist (RP) in Ontario, Canada, and a registered Art Psychotherapist in the UK.

ChrisB has always been fascinated by the potential of images to bring people together, and to evoke a range of feelings and reflections. She employs a variety of different art forms because she believes in the power of creative art to help people connect with and communicate their inner emotions within a safe place. Colors, patterns, and layouts all tell stories. Art can be the voice for the voiceless, the process of healing of the wounds in our lives, growth in the appreciation of our surroundings, and the transformation of our worldview. In her workshops, ChrisB encourages participants to find their own unique voice and ways of expression as a means to establish a healthy life.

ChrisB specializes in working with the immigrant populations and Indigenous communities who are living with trauma and other mental health issues. She has also worked with adult male inmates and provided spiritual art therapy groups in the Toronto South Detention Centre. Through this experience, she witnessed God’s mercy and love as she helped these men explore their spirituality through art-making. ChrisB has also worked in a long term care center where she had the honour of journeying with seniors in their last stage of life.

ChrisB is also the co-founder of Blooming Studio and a part-time candle maker. Candles serve as a symbol to offer light in the darkest places. Even in times where mistakes are made or failures experienced in the process of candle-making, the candle wax can be redeemed by melting it again and reshaping it into another work of art. Just as in life, struggle and disappointments can be be the fuel that offers light and hope to others. Because, as a woman of Asian heritage, she knows how mental health is a taboo in her culture, she facilitates do-it-yourself workshops in candle and art making as a great way to introduce self-care and healthy mental health practices to Asian and non-Asians. These workshops offer a relaxing atmosphere for participants to learn basic therapeutic practices to help them manage stress, discover their creativity, and strengthen their self-compassion.

ChrisB uses a range of art forms - including poetry, needlework, painting, photography and sculpture-making - to record and journal down her insights about God’s work in the world. These are reflections on her experience, exploration of her existence in the world, and her dialog with time. The veins of her spirituality are like the small ends of the roots of the trees and plants; they yield her longed for deeper connection with creation and the Divine.