Lecturer, MA Art Therapy

Emylia Safian

lasalle_art_therapy_emylia_safian
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Clinical Supervision, The University of Derby, UK
  • MA Art Therapy, Open University, UK
  • BA Psychology & Humanities, Monash University, Australia
  • Certificate of Teaching in Higher Education, Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore

Emylia Safian is a practising art therapist and educator with specialist training in stress, trauma and loss. Her practice gravitates towards mindbody sciences and integrates physiology with psychology for an encompassing approach in capitalising human development.

Since 2007, she has collaborated with educational/ arts/ cultural institutions, voluntary welfare organisations, government agencies, and NGOs across Southeast Asia.  Her work spans various communities, where she supports individuals at various life stages through situational and developmental crises.   

As a clinician, Emylia is also informed by the science of yoga and expressive arts therapies. She is passionate in reconnecting children and adults alike with the essential joie de vivre through play, creativity, warmth, compassion and sensitivity, and to bring joy to the mind, body and spirit.  

Emylia’s research interests encompass ecology, analytical psychology, neuroaesthetics and human development, with a focus on how these disciplines intersect in the praxis of art therapy.

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Papers/articles

  • Contributed to a joint-paper, Singapore-London, ‘Intersubjective Discoveries: An Intercultural Experience Between Two Art Therapy Training Programmes Using an Art-Based Approach’, with co-authors Jill Westwood, Lesley Morris, Ronald Lay, for Art Therapy Online (ATOL) (2016)
  • Column for Art Therapists’ Association Singapore in the Singapore Art Gallery Guide: ‘After Wards, After Words’ (2013); ‘The Light on Art Therapy: Uncovering Shadows’ (2012); ‘Therapeutic Approach to Art-making in an Educational Setting’ (2011); ‘Art, Psychoeducation and Adolescents’ (2011); ‘Imagery and the Unconscious Mind’ (2010)

Conferences and workshops

  • Presented a workshop, ‘Collage as Storytelling: An Assembly of Senses’, at StoryFest International Storytelling Festival; Singapore (2018)
  • Presented a paper, ‘The Museum as Potential Space: A Descriptive Study’, at the Childhood Trauma Conference; Melbourne, Australia (2018)
  • Presented a paper, ‘Can Imagination Heal the Dis-eased? Routes to Sensory Experiences in Search of the Wounded Healer’, at the Tropics of the Imagination Conference; Singapore (2017)
  • Presented a paper, ‘The Silent Language of Art Psychotherapy: Making Meaning of Symbols’, at the 8th International Conference of the World Council for Psychotherapy (Asian Chapter); Sarawak, Malaysia (2015)
  • Presented a paper, ‘Painting A Picture of Clinical Supervision – Creative Methods in Practice’, at the Regional Congress of The World Federation for Mental Health; Singapore (2015)
  • Contributed to an oral presentation in absentia, ‘Singapore-London, Intersubjective Discoveries: An Intercultural Experience Between Two Art Therapy Training Programmes Using an Art-Based Approach’, with co-presenters Jill Westwood, Lesley Morris, and Ronald Lay at Finding Spaces, Making Spaces, the 2nd International Art Therapy Conference; London, UK (2016)
  • Presented a paper, ‘Creative Methods in Practice: Clinical Supervision of Art Therapy Trainees’, at the 5th International Health Humanities Conference, as organised by International Health Humanities Network, Universidad de Sevilla; Seville, Spain (2016)
  • Presented a workshop, The Body and the Art Therapy Process, at the International Art(s) Therapy Research Symposium organised by LASALLE, in collaboration with ANZATA; Singapore (2014)
  • Presented a paper, ‘Art Psychotherapy with Asian-Singaporeans’, at the World Psychiatric Association Regional Congress; Hong Kong (2014)

Other responsibilities

  • Clinical placement supervisor

  • Intergenerational trauma
  • Ecopsychology
  • Arts in health and well-being
  • Somatic psychology and embodied approaches to psychotherapy
  • Analytical psychology and Jungian psychology