MISSION

HOW WE DO THIS

You Are Expansive creates supportive, creative spaces for self-exploration and personal growth within a connected community. Through a blend of expressive arts therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and reflective, experiential learning practices, we help individuals deepen their relationship with themselves and others. Our approach fosters emotional insight, resilience, and meaningful connection in ways that honor both individual experience and collective well-being.

VISION

We envision communities where healing is creative, collective, and liberating—where people are supported in reclaiming their full selves and rewriting the narratives they’ve inherited.

You Are Expansive integrates therapeutic, creative, and educational practices to support individuals in building deeper self-awareness, emotional resilience, and connection to others. We do this by:

  • Utilizing the Expressive Therapies Continuum and Radical Imagination to offer creative, sensory, and symbolic experiences that help people access deeper layers of understanding. Through art, movement, sound, storytelling, and metaphor, participants engage both body and imagination as sources of wisdom and possibility, supporting self-authorship and expanded consciousness.
  • Applying the Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy model to help participants build compassionate relationships with different parts of themselves, especially those shaped by past experiences or unmet needs.
  • Drawing on critical and experiential pedagogy by incorporating reflective practices, storytelling, and facilitated dialogue to help participants make meaning of their experiences. We integrate restorative justice principles to support accountability, repair, and relational healing—recognizing that transformation often requires space for honest conversation, mutual recognition, and care.
  • Designing intentional containers, such as workshops, group sessions, and retreats, that emphasize psychological safety, cultural responsiveness, and collaborative exploration.
  • Centering relationship and interconnection, recognizing that transformation happens not only within, but also in the presence of others who bear witness with care and curiosity.

Whether through short-term community-based offerings or deeper therapeutic engagements, we help people access creative expression and self-inquiry as pathways toward greater emotional clarity, self-trust, and relational wholeness.

EVENTS & SERVICES

  • Film Screenings
  • Community Gatherings and Workshops
  • Therapeutic Services- individual, group, family, and couples therapy
  • Trainings and educational workshops Career coaching

List of resources for further exploration:

Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETF)

The Expressive Therapies Continuum: A Framework for Using Art in Therapy 

  • “The Expressive Therapies Continuum: A Framework for Using Art in Therapy” by Lisa D. Hinz provides a clear introduction to the neurological and creative foundations of the ETC.

The Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC): Interdisciplinary bases of the ETC 

  • Kathryn Johnson & Vija Lusebrink’s original article serve as the foundation for ETC, outlining how sensory, perceptual, affective, and cognitive processes intersect in creative work.

        Radical Imagination

        Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown 

        • “Emergent Strategy” by adrienne maree brown explores imagination as a tool for collective change and embodied transformation.

        Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination by Robin D.G. Kelley 

        • “Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination” by Robin D.G. Kelley is a historical and theoretical grounding in imagination as a liberatory force.

        Everyday Activism Network: “How To Use Your Radical Imagination to Envision a Just and Equitable World”  

        • A framing of radical imagination as the “engine” of social-change movements – a collective, hopeful, generative force for envisioning futures beyond oppression, exploitation, and systemic injustice.

        Internal Family Systems (IFS)

        No Bad Parts by Richard Schwartz

        • A clear introduction to IFS, emphasizing that every inner part has a protective purpose and can be met with curiosity and compassion.

        Greater Than the Sum of Our Parts by Richard Schwart

        • Offers an accessible overview of IFS principles and demonstrates how internal systems shape emotions, behavior, and healing.

        Somatic Internal Family Systems by Susan McConnell and Richard Schwartz

        • Explores how IFS integrates with embodied practices, showing how movement, breath, and sensation deepen connection with internal parts.

        Critical Pedagogy and Deschooling

        Raising Free People by Akilah S. Richards

        • Introduces unschooling and liberation-centered learning, highlighting how children and adults can unlearn coercive educational norms.

        Unearthing Joy by Gholdy Muhammad

        • Centers joy, creativity, identity, and criticality as essential components of liberating educational practice.

        Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Free PDF) by Paulo Freire

        • Foundational text in critical pedagogy that examines how dialogue, reflection, and collective action challenge oppressive systems.

        Theatre of the Oppressed (Free PDF) by Augusto Boal

        • Presents interactive, participatory theatre methods that help communities explore power, oppression, and collective liberation.