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(Visit our Schedule Page for workshop dates and times.)

Women's Groups require an interview and an initial 6-month commitment.  The fee is  $150 per month (4 weekly classes per month).

What participants are saying about these groups:

Being a long time member of Chris Zydel's on going Support Art Therapy Group, I can honestly say that participating in the group changed my life in more ways than I could have ever imagined. The loving, nurturing and artistic atmosphere can be a place of deep creative expression, healing of your own soul and tremendous support and encouragement as you deal with life's difficulties. Chris is an amazing therapist, with years of experience. She guides you and gently prods you along on your own healing journey, which is amplified by the group. She shows great compassion as she leads you to find greater strengths and insights into yourself. Using art as a tool for deep creative expression, she encourages you to follow a non judgmental process to bring out your own authentic artist within. The women of the group are true hearts of compassion, unconditional love and support. Having a weekly diet of this kind of experience helped me to have a truer sense of my self, take positive action in my life and have a place to go with any of my life experiences good and bad. The group helped me to heal with my own issues of incest abuse and family alcoholism and dysfunction, as well as create the life I wanted with my husband and daughter. Whatever your needs are the group can support them in a loving and gentle way.

    -- Mary Kecskemeti, mother, jewelry/bead artist

Chris knows how to create and maintain a safe group space in which we can explore our relationships within and outside the group. With warmth, compassion, wisdom and strength she encourages us to take risks, to acknowledge and express any feeling, to speak the unspeakable thoughts. she is generous and flexible and always willing to go out of her way for the benefit of the group. Chris has supported us through almost 6 years as we have traversed our rocky midlife roads that have included the tragedies of death, divorce, conflict and cancer. She has also been midwife to the births of our creative selves as manifest in our various art shows, book publishing's, career changes, community projects and the steady stream of artistic creations both within and outside the group. With Chris's unwavering support we have become like sisters. My life has been immeasurably enriched by participating in various retreats and our group. I look forward to many years of sharing and witnessing the growth and creative expressions of my group sisters.

    -- Meridith Shamszad,
         author of  How I Painted My Way Through Breast Cancer

Chris Zydel has opened many hidden emotional doors which has enabled me to express myself more creatively, while intrinsically allowing healing, compassion and comfort to take place.

    -- Bibi Ana Lai, artist

I have been part of this group for over 6 years now and it has had such a profound effect on my life that it's hard to put it into words. What I can say is that, almost from the beginning, it became such a primary support in my life that I can't imagine my life without it. It's a safe space where I've been able to explore myself, and witnessing other people's work in the group gives me insight in to myself and permission to go deeper within. Chris's facilitation of the group allows us to interact with each other while maintaining the client therapist relationship which makes it doubly powerful. The art stimulates my creativity over and over again and the support and enthusiastic encouragement of the group has allowed me to develop the confidence to develop myself as a photographer and continue to put my work out into the world with greater and greater success.

    -- Kristen Satzman, photographer

Every time I walk through the door into Chris's studio I experience a shift in consciousness. Even before we begin painting and processing, many of the layers of the outer world fall away and I am able to connect more fully with my creative, authentic self. I relax into the warm, safe, nurturing community that Chris has helped us build. She has a deep understanding of people; what we need and how to guide us lovingly towards our goals. Indeed, during the six and a half years I have been in her Creative Juices group, I have made changes in my life that I am profoundly grateful for. Part of this has been my work and the other part I attribute to Chris. She has a deep integrity and she facilitates our group with sensitivity, humor and wisdom. I have spent many years searching for a creativity group and what I have found with Chris has satisfied my expectations and beyond.

    -- Patty Hertz, founder, Magic Mirror Girls Program

I have been painting and creating with a group of women and Chris as the facilitator for over 6 years now. What started out as a 10 week class has become a major strand in the web of my life. Chris holds an unfailing view of the inherent value and dignity of every part of our complex selves. She never flags in her faith in the process through which we are becoming more authentically ourselves. As a perfectionist who is inclined to put myself last on the list and to restrict what I am allowed to do, I need this weekly space to relax my "standards", play, explore and love myself no matter what. Supporting the other group members and accepting their support and love for me is a huge gift. Truly, from one another we receive and to one another we give. From this we live and are inspired and empowered to move into the world with confidence, hope and deep compassion. We are changing the world one week, one heart, one brushstroke, at a time.

    -- Janet McFarland, architect, mother, healer