Jotika Chaudhary Samant

Associate Counsellor
(she/her/hers)

Virtual Sessions

Jotika is currently accepting new clients!

If you are interested in connecting with Jotika, please contact jotika@collective-healing.ca. For existing clients, self-book here.

My name is Jotika! (she/her) I am a Queer, Disabled/Chronically ill, cis, Femme of Colour. I am a racialized settler on the lands I live in, the unceded, unsurendered lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. My family lineage is from Northern India, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and Fiji by way of indentureship. I am an Interdisciplinary Artist, a Community Organizer, an Expressive Arts Therapist.

Expressive Arts Therapy is a type of therapeutic work that supports folks where they are at in the moment. Using various arts modalities (writing, singing, movement, clay, painting, drawing etc.) I support you to connect with your intricate inner world. Through the arts we can explore images and sensations that come up for you and connect them to your emotions and feelings. I support you to work with and understand your nervous system, we will notice what is going on in your body and together figure out how to soothe and tend to what is there.

I am deeply passionate about the arts as a profound and powerful tool to support a coming back into our bodies. The art(s) can hold our pain, sorrow, grief, confusion, rage, hope and so much more. Creating art (writing, drawing, movement, singing, clay etc.) can be an entry point, a doorway to more self-awareness of our nervous system, & create greater connection to what safety, soothing and connection feel like in our bodies. The expressive arts are also a doorway into our imagination, through play and joy. Creating art can be such a powerful way to reclaim our identities, understand ourselves better and tell our stories.

Art has always been a constant in my life and really, it has saved my life. Expressive Arts have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I have always created long before I knew why my body and spirit needed too. As a Queer, Person of Colour, a disabled femme, and a survivor of violence, Expressive Arts (writing, painting, collaging, singing, movement, storytelling) helped me process experiences of grief, familial heartbreak and having a parent with an addiction. Expressive Arts helped me process and understand my experiences of being first generation in the Indian Diaspora, and feeling disconnected from my homelands, my culture, and ancestral religion/spiritual practices.

Throughout my 20’s, I grew up in Queer, Trans, Racialized, Sick, Disabled, Chronically Ill and Spoonie communities, and I’ve learned so much about how I want to create arts based therapeutic spaces to support folks. My therapeutic style and the way I hold space for folks is trauma-informed as well as rooted in anti-oppression and Social Justice. This means, I will meet you where you are at and together, we will figure out how I can best support you and what arts modalities you would like to explore/work with. We will talk about what’s going on in your world and the world at large and how you are feeling impacted. As an Anti-Oppressive, Expressive Arts Therapist, I have a deep understanding of systemic oppression and I bring that knowledge into the room with folks, this means, we will explore together what systems of power (individual, institutional and societal) are affecting and shaping you such as patriarchy, gender, race, class, sexuality, ability and more.

I am focusing my practice to work with Queer and Trans People of Colour and South Asian women, femmes, Non binary and Trans folks. I center QTBIPoC (Queer, Trans, non-binary, and Black, Indigenous and/or people of Colour) in my practice.

It can be really scary, and vulnerable to start/continue therapy. I aim to support folks by building trust based relationships with compassion and care. My approach is gentle, kind and affirming. Lets explore together what liberation through storytelling and expressive arts means to you. I love the phrase let's be hard on systems and soft with each other. This is my approach to being a Therapist.

Here are some examples of why folks come to see me:

seeking support with something you are trying to process or work through
ongoing/past trauma
dysfunctional/toxic family dynamics
addiction of a family member/loved one
exploring identity race, sexuality, gender and ability (& more)
wanting to learn more tools to cope with stress
overwhelm, anxiety, depression, mental health struggles, PTSD
relationship with substances that are not working for you
body image concerns, disordered eating
space to process anger, rage, grief, sorrow
folks who are caretakers and often create space for everyone else & don’t have space to take care of themselves
parentified children who had to grow up very quickly and take care of siblings/parents
exploring what decolonizing means to you
exploring Queer identity and non normative relationship styles such as polyamory
disconnect from art and wanting to explore different art modalities to help tell your stories

As a Disabled, Indian diasporic, Femme Therapist, I bring those realities into the room with me. I want to make space for you to process your experiences with disability, identity, grief, family dysfunction/violence & trauma. The arts are such a powerful way to help us understand what is going on in our bodies, what we need and they can help us process our experiences, hold and understand difficult/ painful emotions. They can help us process and understand experiences of oppression from sexism, racism, ableism, transphobia, classism etc. Oppression is traumatizing. I am a trauma therapist and a big part of my job is to gently support to help you understand your nervous system better, this means we will explore what your nervous systems responses are (fight, flight, freeze, appease etc.) and together, gently find tools that work for you to create more safety, soothing and connection with your body.

The effects of trauma are exhausting. Feeling overwhelmed, anxious, having obsessive/ruminative thoughts, feeling frozen or in fight mode etc etc. are natural nervous system responses when the body has been flooded by traumatic experiences and not had space to process, understand and name what has happened. I can support you to befriend your body and start to understand what you need to self soothe, heal and feel more connection to yourself. We will work together to figure out what you need. We can explore what hope, and abundance can feel like for you. Also, how expressive arts can be tools for social justice and liberation.

All levels of experience with art are welcome. Expressive Arts Therapy is for everyone!

Jotika’s Rates

15 min Phone Consultation
No Cost

Individual Counselling

50 min
Sliding Scale: $100-$130
Standard: $140
Generous: $145+

75 min
Sliding Scale: $130-$160
Standard: $175
Generous: $180+

(As an RSW, Jotika’s rates are GST exempt)

Jotika’s Availability

Location: Mount Pleasant, Virtual

Days and Hours:

Wednesdays 10:00am - 3:00pm & 5:30pm - 7:30pm (Virtual)

Approaches in Therapy

Expressive Art Therapy
Intersectional Feminism
Trauma-Informed
Anti-Oppressive
Client centered
Sex-Positive
Somatic
Relational
Harm reduction
Kink Affirming

Licensure & Degrees

Registered Social Worker (RSW), BC College of Social Workers (#13053)
Ontario Expressive Arts Therapy Association member
International Expressive Arts Therapy Association member
Certificate in Expressive Arts Therapy, Langara College
Bachelor of Social Work, University of Victoria
Social Service Worker Co-Ordinated Diploma minor in Gender Studies, Langara College

Selected Professional Training

Anti-Oppressive Psychotherapy Training- Continuing Healing Consultants
Battered Women’s Support Services crisis line training (BWSS)
Mental Health First Aid – Pacific Community Resources Society
Grief Literacy Training – Being Here Human
Transformative Justice- Mia Mingus
Art into the Heart of it – Lee Williams Boudakian
Anti-Oppressive Facilitation Training- PeerNet BC