Mindfulness Based, Trauma Informed, Expressive Arts Holistic Psychotherapy and Recovery Coaching

Specializing in Grief and Loss Recovery, Trauma Recovery and Addictions Recovery with mindfulness based, secular and spiritually based therapeutic and expressive arts and psychoeducation.

Due to the COVID19 Pandemic Outbreak in the U.S. all coaching and support group sessions will be moved online beginning March 23rd. All sessions will be cancelled the week of March 16th to make this transition. This is in the best interest of health safety for our practitioners, you and your family. Please contact us if you have concerns. All fees will change effective immediately to a love offering when it comes to coaching and support group facilitation in light of the pandemic and U.S. crisis. We want to make accessibility a priority.

Jessica holds a master's degree in psychology with specific training and certifications as a clinical trauma specialist for adults, children/adolescents, families and addictions, compassion fatigue, grief counseling, mindfulness and meditation, trauma informed expressive arts therapy, anger management, mood and depressive disorders, anxiety disorders and ADHD in children and in addiction treatment and recovery. Jessica is also a certified trainer and facilitator for the California State University's Palliative Care Program - Healing Through Art in Palliative Care that assists individuals going through the end of life process through the use of therapeutic art. She's received additional training in Health Through Art and Healing with Art through the University of Florida. She is a certified Grief Counseling Specialist. Here is what her clients have to say:

"Here is a woman who understands deep suffering with its sorrows and joys. She gets it. She resonates with people in pain."

"I learned something from her every session and applied it to my classroom and my life."

"Her kindness, compassion and faith filled spirit leave me open to the spirit of God."

I am a Registered Psychotherapist in Colorado, Licensed Substance Abuse Prevention Specialist, Certified Clinical Trauma Specialist (Adult, Child Adolescent, Family and addictions based) with additional training from Dr. Bruce Perry, Dr. Janina Fischer, Dr. Robert Rhoton and Dr. Eric Gentry , Dr, Dan Siegel and Dr. Bessel Van der Kolk, and numerous trauma centered organizations. In my expressive arts therapy work I've been trained by Dr. Nancy Rowe, Dr. Jill Mellick , Shelly Krammer and Dr. Cathy Malchiodi to name a few. I provide workshops throughout the Midwest on social emotional learning in the arts, teacher self care, trauma basics, stress management, trauma informed classrooms to school, non profits and church congregations building resilience. I facilitate alternative addictions recovery and grief groups that includes secular and progressive Christian philosophy and Buddhist based 8 step programs, faith based and strength based counseling and mindfulness practices with expressive arts.

The purpose of my custom designed programs for individuals and support groups are to help you stabilize, restore, and optimize your physical, mental and emotional health. Therapeutic and Expressive Arts, wellness counseling, lifestyle coaching, nutrition, psycho education and the development of coping strategies are offered as we work together to create a path through life for you that is meaningful and healthy.

You are not a one size fits all being.

Sliding scale and payment plans available. Not covered by insurance.

MBTI Therapeutic Art and Expressive Arts Facilitation Coaching for Personal and Spiritual Growth.

MBTI Expressive Arts Facilitation Coaching combines psychology and the creative process to promote emotional and spiritual growth and healing. This multi-arts, or intermodal, approach to psychotherapy

and counseling uses our inborn desire to create—be it music, theater, poetry, dance, film her artistic form—as a tool to help initiate change.

MBTI Therapuetic Art Coaching has the same goal, but is focused ONLY on process oriented visual art.

Mindfulness Based Trauma Informed Classroom Coaching and SEL Integrated Arts

Looking to implement trauma informed classroom strategies and techniques into your school or classroom? Wanting to know more about mindfulness's role in schools and in your classroom and how it positively impacts behavior? I have assisted Title 1 schools with high trauma populations in training and implementing these very practices as well as have been a trauma informed, mindfulness based, SEL inclusive classroom teacher at the elementary level since 2001. That's right. After Columbine, I was apart of Colorado's violence prevention initiatives and studied trauma beginning in 2000 with Dr. Bruce Perry, developmental trauma expert and creator of the Child Trauma Academy. Since I have been trained in trauma practices and therapies with trauma specialists Dr. Janina Fischer, Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk, Dr. Dan Seagal and many more. I have an extensive background in mindfulness, but school specific training from Mindful Schools. Please see my bio for all of the different experiences I have trained in and lived. I have used my methods in schools with 90% poverty, 23 different languages, refugee and homeless populations and multi-racial schools. I have seen amazing results in the classroom and with individual students when these practices are implemented and co-regulation occurs. First however, we have to learn to be regulated in high stress situations as well. I am available for 1:1 mentoring and coaching for teachers who want support implementing these practices. If you are not in the Kansas City area, let's talk about how we can work together through Zoom. Small groups can work this way as well. School site mentoring and training is available but currently limited due to scheduling.

MBTI Grief and Loss Recovery-Coaching with Therapeutic and Expressive Art

Whether it's a recent loss, or something that happened many years ago...Grief Coaching is an innovative approach to grief support, tailored to fit the unique and individual needs of the griever, with someone who understands how loss impacts every part of life. I use the 10 Tenets of Grief Anonymous as a component of my customized Grief Coaching process along with teaching coping skills, mindfulness practices, contemplative prayer and therapeutic art. Spirituality plays an important role in the processing of grief and I draw from progressive Christian, First Nations, Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist philosophies as well as new thought. Expressive Arts experiences are centered around processing the loss and finding your path in a new chapter of your life.

MBTI End of Life Coaching for Clients, Caregivers and Family Members

Caregiver and Family Coaching is a specialty of coaching that provides compassion, understanding and spiritual guidance in caregiving with tools, skills, and plans to guide them as they work to support their loved ones. The following support includes:

Affirming, supporting and enhancing the caregiver’s strengths and accomplishments
Making decisions and solving problems that include both family and patient
Dealing with stresses that inhibit well being and self compassion
Developing effective coping skills
Setting reasonable, realistic and attainable goals
Setting realistic boundaries
Finding support and additional resources
Findind key caregiver support groups
Receiving education and psychoeducation regarding life transitions and passages
Using Therapeutic Art to process the end of life process.

End of Life Coaching Using Healing Through Art in Palliative Care™ (CSU)

End of life Coaching is a process of being with people who are dying and those who are grieving. I help people develop plans, identify your wishes for what you want to have happen at the end, have conversations with family and other supports, and support you and your loved ones in the dying process. I am a professionally certified Healing Through Art in Palliative Care facilitator and trainer and Certified Grief Counseling Specialist who helps in many ways to ease the process of dying, grieving, and acknowledging death as a sacred act. I provide grounded, loving, compassionate coaching and guidance and speak with one voice to provide a compassionate witness to both family and the dying person.

End of Life Care provides the dying person with individualized experiences suited to their physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and cultural needs. I act as a supportive companion and guide to help the dying person have a conscious death experience using the arts and spirituality. We create a ceremony together with them, if able, or with the family, that recognizes the sacredness of their life and calls on the Divine to escort their spirit home.

End of Life Doulas are also known around the world as: end of life coaches, soul midwives, transition guide and end of life guides.

Here is a video demonstrating the kinds of art that can be apart of the process of the Healing Through Art-End of Life Coaching process.

MB Expressive Arts Trauma Recovery Coaching

“The first goal of trauma recovery should and must be to improve your quality of life on a daily basis”.-(Rothschild, 2010)

Trauma Recovery Coaching consists of helping functioning (even partially) individuals set and achieve goals, overcome obstacles, and maintain motivation while trying to move past trauma that they have suffered as a child or adult. It’s for anybody that has suffered a traumatic event and sometimes finds themselves stuck emotionally in a place that prevents them from being progressive in their personal or professional life. It can work in tandem with therapy or work once someone has been through therapy already. When traumatic events take place, we must acknowledge it and all of the events surrounding it, learn from it, then move past it in pursuit of a higher quality of life.

Trauma Recovery Coaching includes:

Trauma Informed 1:1 coaching sessions
Identifying triggers, ways to avoid them and coping skills
Mindfulness training
Identifying areas where you are stuck or stagnant
Identifying career and personal goals
Mental Health Integrated Medicine (behavior nutrition and lifestyle changes)
Grief counseling.
Therapeutic and Expressive Arts for Trauma Recovery
Spirituality based practices as the client is desiring.

What's the Difference Between a Trauma Recovery Coach and a Therapist?

Therapists are the trauma surgeons, emergency room personnel and paramedics of the mental health and well being community. Coaches have a fully stocked first aid kit and skills to put it to good use, but they are not physicians. A coach comes alongside their client to brainstorm, provide information, and examine potential decisions. A therapist can do all of these things, but they often also need to intervene at a deeper level to direct care, prescribe behavior and make choices on behalf of their client.

MBTI Expressive Arts Mental Health and Addiction Recovery Coach

Recovery coaches are not therapists, nor do they work specifically to treat drug or alcohol addiction. Instead, they work within a model similar to harm reduction and motivational therapy, assessing and encouraging positive actions toward the aim of a successful long-term recovery. Individuals leaving therapy may benefit from having a recovery coach.

The benefits of having a recovery coach when leaving treatment include a higher rate of success in staying in recovery beyond two years, constant access to someone with the training and understanding of what addiction is and how it affects us, who can walk you through hard-hitting cravings, and they are attuned to the signs of relapse and may be able to help someone get help before relapse occurs.

The more research that goes into drug and alcohol addiction and recovery, the broader the understanding that each individual needs a wide range of support services at every step of their recovery. There is no “one size fits all” in recovery. A recovery coach is not meant to serve as a treatment for drug or alcohol addiction but is one asset in helping an individual move from a place of addiction to a promising future in recovery.

A recovery coach is different from a sponsor or peer mentor and having one doesn’t mean you can’t also have the other. Though both are similar in their aim in helping you achieve your recovery goals, a recovery coach is a trained, paid professional with an understanding of the tools available for helping someone maintain and achieve recovery. They are also not limited to recovery goals, but any positive goals that will benefit the individual as long as they do not interfere with recovery.

How does all this work?

We start with a FREE 15 minute phone consultation. You'll speak with me, Jessica Waters, the founder of MBCAI and Certified Grief Counseling, End of Life Doula, Addictions and Trauma Specialist, TI Expressive Arts Therapist and Mental Health Integrated Practitioner. We will work together to first get a sense of your needs. With our next appointment we will learn more about you and find the tools, perspective and strategy you need to begin the process of healing, working with you in the therapeutic process. Sessions can be done over the phone or via Zoom or Skype call which means you can fit it into your day, without ever having to leave home. My hours are predominantly evenings and weekends. After the consult we will schedule a 1 hour session. Typically they are one time a week to start, but we can do it once or twice a month if that's better for you. There is no set or required schedule and no minimum number of sessions required to sign up. The cost is 50.00 per 1 hour session, 30.00 per 1/2 hour session. Sliding scales available. During the COVID19 Pandemic fees are reduced to a love offering (suggested 20.00) for 1/2 hour sessions. If you are in the Kansas City area we can arrange for in person sessions as well. Typically we meet once a week but can meet more often or less often given the situation. There is a sliding scare for fixed income and low, no income clients.

What happens during a Recovery Coaching session?

Of course it's different for everyone, but topics often include:

New loss and all the big changes that go with it.
Self-esteem, and the challenge of rebuilding self confidence after a significant loss.
Every day stressors like work, childcare, and managing a household, and how grief and loss impacts it all.
Difficulties with decision-making, from the every day to the big life decisions that many grievers are facing alone after loss.
Identifying support and improving communication with family and friends following loss.
The residual and complicated emotions of grief like anger, guilt and regret.

We have excellent organizations and practices to refer you to in case you may need more assistance with a specific issue or a desire to try medication in tandem with therapy and coaching.

If you are a teacher who has experienced trauma in the classroom or school or would like to learn more about trauma and resiliency practices in the classroom, please join us in or online support group on Facebook. We will provide positive support to each other, learn coping skills, mindfulness strategies and stress management techniques. It is not a site to go to get professional help or diagnosis. It is a positive, strengths based support group. We have additional support groups that we facilitate. Please see our Support Group page for more information.

For my complete education and credentials list please see the About Jessica page.

Mindfulness Based, Trauma Informed, Expressive Arts Holistic Psychotherapy and Recovery Coaching

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What happens during a Recovery Coaching session?