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CBC Radio Interview 2026

Seniors programs I developed featured on CBC Radio and CTV News.

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Art Therapy for Seniors in Calgary |
Somatic Counselling in Nursing Homes
Clinical, trauma-informed care for seniors—offered in nursing homes and care facilities across Calgary

There is a point in life where being seen, heard, and felt becomes essential.

In the later stages of life, many seniors are navigating profound transitions--grief and loss, reduced independence, chronic pain, dementia or memory changes, and questions of meaning and identity. These experiences deserve more than surface-level engagement. They deserve clinical, compassionate therapeutic support.

I am a Registered Canadian Art Therapist and Somatic Counsellor in Calgary, offering individual, in-room therapy for seniors in nursing homes, assisted living, and long-term care facilities.

This is psychologically grounded therapy—not arts and crafts, and not recreational programming.

Clinical Art Therapy & Counselling for Seniors

My work supports seniors with:

• Grief and loss counselling (loss of loved ones, roles, health, independence)
• Trauma therapy for older adults, including unresolved early life experiences
• Dementia and Alzheimer’s support through art therapy
• Emotional expression when words are limited
• Chronic pain support using somatic therapy
• Reconnection to identity, dignity, and personal agency
• Cultivating meaning, hope, and emotional wellbeing in later life

At this stage of life, there is often a deep need for life review, meaning-making, and emotional processing.

Art therapy for seniors offers a powerful way into this process—especially when verbal communication is limited.

Dementia & Memory Care Support Through Art Therapy

This work can be especially supportive for those living with dementia or cognitive decline, where verbal communication may be reduced, but emotional experience remains rich and alive. Creative expression allows access to memory, identity, and feeling in ways that traditional conversation cannot.
For seniors living with dementia or cognitive decline, emotional experience remains present even when language fades.

Art therapy and Somatic Counselling can:

• Support memory recall and identity
• Reduce anxiety, agitation, and depression
• Increase calm, engagement, and emotional expression
• Offer a non-verbal pathway for communication and connection

This makes art therapy in nursing homes a highly effective and evidence-informed approach to senior mental health care.

A Trauma-Informed, Somatic Approach

My work is grounded in trauma-informed care and somatic therapy, supporting seniors in gently connecting with their internal experience at a safe and respectful pace.

The creative process becomes a bridge—allowing emotions, memories, and inner states to be expressed, processed, and integrated.

Benefits of Therapy for Seniors

There are well-established benefits to therapeutic support later in life. Research and clinical practice show that  therapy and creative therapeutic approaches for seniors can:

• Reduce depression and anxiety in older adults
• Improve emotional regulation and mood
• Support cognitive engagement and memory
• Enhance self-worth and identity
• Provide space for life review and meaning-making
• Reduce feelings of isolation and loneliness

​At the end of life, there is often a quiet but powerful desire: to be known.
To have one’s life, one’s pain, one’s love, and one’s story acknowledged.
Creating a space where this can happen is not only therapeutic—it is deeply human.

In-Home Therapy in Calgary Care Facilities

I provide mobile, in-home therapy services for seniors in Calgary, bringing all materials directly into:

• Nursing homes
• Long-term care facilities
• Assisted living residences

​In our sessions, I bring all necessary materials, including thoughtfully chosen art supplies, music where appropriate, and the option of connection with my gentle therapy dog, Jojo—whose presence often opens doors to memory, comfort, and emotional connection.

• Each session is individualized.

• No artistic experience is required.
• Only an invitation:​ to express, to process, and to be met.​ ​

Book Art Therapy for Seniors in Calgary

If you are seeking professional, trauma-informed therapy for a loved one in a Calgary nursing home or care facility, I would be honoured to connect.

Charmaine Husum 

Goals & Approaches

I am not separate from the work I do. Art, creativity and mindfulness practices have been a part of my own healing and I believe in these modalities to help others as well.

My personal and professional life has followed a path of creativity, hard work and social justice since 1995.  Before pursuing my dream of accreditation as an Art Therapist and Counsellor, I worked on feature films both on and off set as an artist painting scenery and props (www.sceniccharms.com). In this role of heightened creativity and fast pace, working with some of the most talented and prolific artists, directors, musicians and actors of our time, I was  quickly made aware of how creativity could shift the path, direction and energy of a project to either succeed or fail. What I saw was that when people were engaged creatively instead of with a  focus on egoic pursuits, magic was made.

​​I have always believed in magic and use the idea of etheric forces guiding our path in my sessions when appropriate. As a child and teenager it was art and poetry that propelled me through hard times in life. I feel fortunate to have had art and creativity be such a large part of my journey and now as an Art Therapist, I revel in how this modality works to change the lives of others.

My goals are to help others find their own path to healing through the use of art and therapeutic approaches with mindfulness and body centered awareness.  As a Kundalini yoga teacher, my understanding of the body and breath holding keys to healing is central.

​Using the making of art, sand tray and play therapy, clients are invited to uncover the layers of experiences in life to push through obstacles and heal.

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