Nadia Paredes (aka Nai)
FOUNDER/FACILITATOR
Nadia Paredes, MA, LMFT, ATR, is an author, international speaker, and mental health professional passionate about finding creative ways to care for our emotional well-being. With more than 20 years of experience in the mental health field, she has worked with diverse communities, including immigrants, older adults, and pregnant adolescents, providing services from a bicultural and community-based perspective.
As a registered art therapist, licensed marriage and family therapist, and Intuition Painting® facilitator, Nadia combines creativity, mindfulness, and community-based work to develop programs that help people build resilience, reconnect with themselves, and discover their own inner resources.
Nadia served as President of the American Art Therapy Association and currently works as an art therapy supervisor and adjunct professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, and Metáfora Art Therapy School in Barcelona, Spain.
Through her work, Nadia strives to bring mental health into everyday life and remind us that creativity can also be a way to care for ourselves, connect with others, and grow.
The Storyteller:
As a young child, I showed a profound interest in drawing and music. My mom would keep me busy for hours as a child with a pencil and any surface she could find for me to create on. However, as I grew older, society led me to believe I was not an “Artist”, as I didn’t show a natural talent for representational visual arts – in others words, I didn’t draw things as they looked in the world. So, I believed I shouldn’t make Art anymore. Instead, I focused on my talents in music, and I received encouragement, therefore I felt that was where I belonged. Music came to define me. It wasn’t until college, where I rediscovered my love for paint and visual expression.
I moved from Mexico City to Los Angeles in 2010, in part because of my love for the Arts. Before leaving Mexico, I had spent many years trying to fit in the world of Psychology and something always seemed off – that is until I encountered Art Therapy. What a revelation! I had discovered a way back to my love of art, without having to be what society calls an “Artist”. This jump into Art Therapy launched my path to understanding how incredibly powerful Art is on many different levels. I started to notice how having a daily art making routine during Grad School was helping me overcome years of physical symptoms related to Stress, such as Insomnia, never ending Heartburn, persistent coughing and Muscle Contractures. I witnessed how creating was more effective than I thought when I stopped taking daily dosages of medication to help control acidity in my stomach and the recurrent intake of Muscle Relaxers.
Upon completion of my Master’s as an Art Therapist, I continued deepening my clinical knowledge and practice while working with reproductive health, life-stage transitioning and loss – even though it became clear that what I really wanted to do was to create more Art.
At my most desperate hour, when I was feeling bored, frustrated and most importantly, disconnected from my true self, I started looking for classes that could teach me how to use art as a pure expressive medium. I did not want to go with technical skill Art classes that were not giving me what I wanted from the Art World. I was craving raw creative expression, not aesthetics! I felt ready to become the Artist I was meant to be and not continue to fall prey to what society wanted me to believe.
I immersed myself in Intuition Painting® classes and fell in love with the process, as it combined Visual Arts with Movement and Sound. Three years later, I got certified as a facilitator and started designing smaller workshops that include Expressive Arts to help people increase their self-knowledge and awaken their dormant creative. And the rest, is history!
It has been a long road. But now I can say I have found my true path to art, expression, personal wellness and supporting others. I have found the key that has allowed me to remain calm as I move through my motherhood and professional journey. Art has become the tool that has helped me access my higher self, putting me in the direction that I am supposed to be while I accomplish my goals in alignment with my true self. And most importantly, it has allowed me to become the Artist I want to be: one that can share with others the power we all have within.