• At Artful Healing, we help individuals reconnect with themselves through emotional regulation and creative expression. Our work is rooted in the belief that we are humans first — and when our emotions are regulated, everything else in life flows with more clarity, connection, and ease.

    Through therapeutic, art-based practices, we guide participants to experience emotional regulation in real time using simple, accessible creative techniques. No artistic skill is required — just a willingness to pause, create, and listen inward. These tools can be used immediately in everyday life, supporting emotional balance, self-awareness, and resilience.

    This work meets people exactly where they are — whether we are leading teams, raising children, building businesses, caring for others, or simply trying to show up more present in our own lives.

    What makes Artful Healing unique is our experiential, art-based approach. Rather than talking about emotions, we invite people to engage with them through hands-on creative practices that transform complex emotional experiences into tangible tools they can return to long after the session ends.

    Our signature talks and workshops offer space to slow down, reconnect, and remember that regulated humans create healthier relationships, communities, and lives.

    Learn more about our signature talks and speaking engagements on SpeakerHub.

    Link:

    Shawano "Southern Thunder" - Professional Speaker | SpeakerHub | SpeakerHub

  • Workshops & Interactive Experiences

    Artful Healing workshops are designed as immersive, hands-on experiences, not lectures. We believe meaningful change happens when people are invited to slow down, create, and engage — not just listen.

    Our workshops center on therapeutic, art-based practices for emotional regulation, using simple creative techniques that require no artistic skill. Participants actively engage in guided art experiences that help them regulate their nervous systems, build emotional awareness, and reconnect with themselves in real time. This work is approachable, inclusive, and grounded in the belief that we are humans first.

    Flexible Workshop Formats

    Artful Healing workshops can be booked in several ways, depending on the needs of your group:

    • Full Workshop Series
    Ideal for organizations, communities, or groups seeking deeper, sustained impact. Series-based workshops allow participants to build skills over time, practice emotional regulation consistently, and integrate creative tools into daily life.

    • Stand-Alone Workshops
    Perfect for retreats, professional development days, or community gatherings. These sessions offer a meaningful introduction to art-based emotional regulation and leave participants with practical tools they can use immediately.

    • Breakout Sessions for Events & Conferences
    Highly interactive breakout sessions designed to help attendees reset, regulate, and reconnect. These sessions work especially well at conferences and events where participants need a grounding, human-centered experience amid full schedules.

    What to Expect in a Workshop

    Every Artful Healing workshop is intentionally experiential and participatory. Participants can expect:

    • Guided, hands-on art activities (no art experience required)

    • Simple, repeatable techniques for emotional regulation

    • Space for reflection, self-connection, and nervous system reset

    • Practices that translate beyond the workshop into everyday life

    • A welcoming environment that honors each participant’s pace and experience

    Whether participants are leaders, parents, caregivers, creatives, or individuals navigating everyday stress, this work meets them where they are and offers tools that are both gentle and powerful.

    Why Artful Healing Workshops Are Different

    Unlike traditional wellness or professional development sessions, Artful Healing workshops invite people to experience regulation rather than talk about it. Through hands-on creative practices, participants engage in art-based experiences that translate emotional awareness into practical, usable tools. These workshops span a wide range — from accessible, community-centered sessions to deeper, meditative healing experiences — allowing the depth of the work to meet the needs of each group.

    Each experience creates space to pause, create, and reconnect, supporting greater presence, emotional clarity, and meaningful connection long after the session ends.

  • Current Series:

    Create, Connect and Heal

    Create, Connect and Heal is a welcoming, community-centered art experience designed to help you unwind, express, and reconnect—without pressure or expectations.

    Each session offers a lightly guided creative activity that changes week to week. Some nights are playful, some are calming, and some invite gentle release. You don’t need art experience, and nothing is shared unless you want it to be.

    This is not art therapy. It’s a creative space where healing happens naturally through making, presence, and being together.

    Come as you are. Create at your own pace. Leave feeling a little lighter.

    These classes are free-will donation.
    A $5 suggested donation helps cover materials and keep the space accessible.
    All are welcome.

    There will be 4 different activities that we will rotate through each week of the month. 

    The first Create, Connect and Heal will be on January 5th, 5:30- 6:30 and the activity will be Rip, Tear & Release Collage.

    Class rotation for Mondays starting in February:

    Week 1 — Color My Mood
    Explore color as a way to notice and express how you’re feeling physically and emotionally. Abstract, intuitive, and pressure-free.

    Week 2 — Art Meditation
    Slow, mindful art-making designed to quiet the mind and support gentle presence. Repetitive marks, simple materials, and a calm pace.

    Week 3 — Art Community
    Create side by side in a relaxed, social setting. Conversation is welcome, connection is natural, and creativity is shared without expectation.

    Week 4 — Rip, Tear & Release Collage
    A playful, hands-on collage experience focused on movement, release, and creative freedom. No theme, no rules—just make.

    Other Available Series:

    Deep Healing Series

    Discover & Express - Learn art techniques to explore, identify, and express emotions through art, fostering emotional awareness and creative freedom.

    Parent & Child Connection - Joint sessions where parents become guides in helping children communicate and understand emotions in healthy, creative ways.

    Breaking Free From Anxiety -Focused sessions to address and overcome anxiety through creative techniques that promote calm, clarity, and resilience.

    Release & Let Go - A deeply healing class for releasing heavy, unspoken experiences. Ideal for veterans, survivors, and anyone ready to let go of burdens without verbal disclosure.

    Shawano also travels to offer sessions in other locations. Sessions offered include talks about regulating emotions, private group or individual sessions, and workshops. For more information, or to book a class, please feel free to contact Shawano via email or phone.

  • Private Events

    Artful Healing private events are designed for small to mid-size groups seeking a more intimate, customized experience. These gatherings can range from single-session classes from our class schedule, to interactive art-based activities, speaking engagements, and guided creative brainstorming sessions, all grounded in emotional regulation and human-centered connection.

    Private events are ideal for organizations, teams, families, and community groups who want space to slow down, reconnect, and engage in meaningful dialogue. Whether the focus is a one-time creative experience, emotional regulation, or visioning and problem-solving for your organization, each experience is thoughtfully tailored to the needs and goals of the group.

    These sessions blend experiential learning with reflective conversation, allowing participants to engage both creatively and intellectually. The result is an environment that supports clarity, connection, collaboration, and fresh perspective — without pressure or performance.

    Private events can be structured as:

    • A single class selected from our current class schedule

    • Hands-on creative experiences

    • Facilitated talks or discussions

    • Guided brainstorming or visioning sessions

    • A blend of art, reflection, and conversation

    Each private event creates space for people to show up fully, think differently, and connect — with themselves and with one another — in ways that feel both grounding and impactful.

  • Panelist Engagements

    Shawano brings an integrative, human-centered perspective to panel conversations, grounded in therapeutic art practices, emotional regulation theory, and holistic and alternative medicine frameworks. Her work centers on the understanding that emotional regulation is a foundational component of nervous system health and plays a critical role in how individuals lead, parent, heal, and engage with the world.

    As a panelist, Shawano articulates how therapeutic art functions as a complementary modality within integrative and alternative medicine. By supporting nervous system regulation, emotional processing, and self-awareness, art-based practices enhance the effectiveness of other holistic approaches, including mindfulness-based interventions, somatic practices, and trauma-informed care. This integrative lens helps bridge clinical, holistic, and lived-experience perspectives in a way that is both accessible and evidence-informed.

    Shawano contributes to panels with depth, clarity, and synthesis — translating complex emotional and physiological concepts into language that resonates across disciplines. Her contributions emphasize practical application, ethical care, and the importance of embodied experience, offering audiences a framework for understanding why regulation is essential for sustainable well-being.

    When appropriate, Shawano incorporates brief grounding or reflective practices to support embodied understanding and audience engagement, reinforcing the connection between theory and lived experience.

    Areas of Contribution:

    • Emotional regulation and nervous system health

    • Therapeutic and expressive arts as complementary medicine

    • Integrative and holistic approaches to emotional well-being

    • Trauma-informed and embodiment-based practices

    • Human-first leadership, caregiving, and community care

    Shawano’s panel participation adds an interdisciplinary voice that deepens dialogue, expands perspective, and highlights how therapeutic art and emotional regulation strengthen whole-person healing.