Meet Our Team of Expressive Art Therapists for Kids
At Toronto Art Therapy for Kids, our dedicated team of art therapists in training specialize in helping children navigate challenges like anxiety, ADHD, and high sensitivity. We create a supportive and creative environment where kids can express themselves through various artistic mediums. Our approach is tailored to each child’s unique needs, fostering emotional growth, confidence, and self-regulation.
Bee Pallomina
Bee Pallomina is an Expressive Arts Therapist and Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying). Bee comes to therapy through the arts, with over 25 years of experience as a professional dance artist. Holding an MFA in Dance and a diploma in Expressive Arts Therapy from the CREATE Institute, Bee brings both artistic depth and therapeutic training to her work. She is passionate about how creative expression can support healing, connection, and growth—for kids, families, and communities alike.
Bee has supported children and youth in various capacities, including facilitating community arts projects at Mabelle Arts and the Bain Co-op, and teaching guest workshops in schools such as TMU, York University, and Dance Arts Institute for over two decades. She has also facilitated children’s and mothers’ groups through the Here to Help program at the YWCA since 2023. In 2025, she co-facilitated an Expressive Arts training for Here to Help facilitators from across Toronto. She is currently teaching a course in York University’s Glendon College Drama and Creative Arts program.
Bee is also a mom of one. In addition to working with kids, Bee enjoys working with adults and is passionate about providing support to caregivers. Bee works in the west end of Toronto and offers sessions for kids (8+), youth and adults in person and online.
Kate Keenan
Kate is an Expressive Arts Therapist in Training in her final year at The CREATE Institute, Toronto and is a pending member of the Ontario Expressive Arts Therapy Association.
She is also the mother of two children who have both undergone challenging journeys with anxiety and are learning to channel and enjoy the great strengths that come with high-sensitivity.
Kate has a wealth of experience in creating art for and with children. She is a member of the high-energy ridiculously fun outer space rock band for kids, “The Space Chums,” she’s a screenwriter of kids’ television, contributing to social-emotional educational shows such as “Luna, Chip and Inkie” for Knowledge Network Kids. Additionally, Kate co-founded Shrimp Magnet Theatre, where she created and performed critically praised theatre for young audiences in Toronto and across Canada.
Kate has led art classes for kids from many different populations from preschool to young adults including kids with cerebral palsy, at-risk youth, and ESL students in the TDSB’s LEAP program.
Kate was also a therapeutic clown at Sick Kids Hospital where she worked with the Child Life Team to engage one-on-one with children undergoing various intense life challenges. As Turtle the Clown, she offered highly attuned, gentle invitations and a safe space for children to open up and play in their own individual way. She learned a lifetime of lessons from the incredible kids she met there and is honoured to bring that insight into her current work with children, continuing to grow and learn with each unique and wonderful encounter.
Emma Culpeper
Emma is an Expressive Arts Therapist in training in her final year at The CREATE Institute, Toronto and is a member of the Ontario Expressive Arts Therapy Association. She holds a diploma in musical theatre from the Canadian College of Performing Arts, a Bachelor of Music from McGill University and a Master of Arts in Communication & Culture from York University.
Emma remembers very clearly what it was like to be a child with anxiety. These early experiences sparked a deep interest in understanding anxiety and finding ways to support both children and adults who struggle with it. She has worked as a drama instructor and musical director for kids & teens at Camp Ouareau (QC), Camp Kodiak (ON) and Kimberley Summer Theatre (BC).
Emma is passionate about improv and has completed over 300 hours of improv training at The Second City, Bad Dog Theatre, the Social Capital Theatre and Play With Fire Improv, including 100+ hours of training in “Improv for Anxiety.” She believes that improv, drama and play can help kids and adults to know themselves better, to enhance self-confidence and to discover more joy and ease in everyday life.
Emma is thrilled to volunteer as a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters Toronto. Currently, her favourite place to practice her improv skills is in the playground, inventing imaginary worlds and characters with her 7-year-old mentee.
Rieko Asaba
Rieko is an expressive arts therapist in training, a registered child and youth care practitioner, and a registered early childhood educator. She is currently in her second year of training at the CREATE Institute and is a member of the Ontario Expressive Arts Therapy Association.
Born and raised in Japan, Rieko developed a deep appreciation for the arts from an early age. Her family played a significant role in shaping her artistic journey, nurturing her love for music, movement, visual art, poetry, and the tea ceremony – passions she continues to explore today.
Rieko has been actively involved in a community singing circles, and will be completing training as a community singing leader with Mila Redwood in March. Through her lived experience as a newcomer and immigrant woman of color, she has cultivated a deep understanding of cultural sensitivity. She is committed to giving back to the community that once supported her by volunteering as a mentor at North York Community House and the University of Victoria.
Rieko holds diplomas in Early Childhood Education and Human Services from Selkirk College and earned a Bachelor of Child and Youth Care with distinction from the University of Victoria. She spent eight years working as a registered early childhood educator in Nelson, BC, where she was nominated as an Exceptional Early Childhood Educator at the West Kootenay Early Years Conference. She finds great joy in witnessing children’s sense of awe and wonder and is constantly learning from their natural curiosity.
For the past two years, Rieko has worked as a child and youth practitioner in a live-in treatment home at Strides Toronto, where she integrated art-based activities to support mental health of youth.
She is currently completing her practicums, offering one-on-one expressive arts therapy sessions to refugee children and those who have experienced family violence. Believing deeply in the healing power of the arts, Rieko takes a relational, person-centered, and trauma-informed approach to her practice. She brings curiosity, warmth, playfulness, and empathy into her work and is dedicated to learning and unlearning to better support the communities she serves.
Lisa DiQuinzio
Lisa is an Expressive Arts Therapist in Training in her final year at The CREATE Institute, Toronto and is a pending member of the Ontario Expressive Arts Therapy Association.
Lisa is an artist and mother of two young children. Her paintings, sculptures and video works have been exhibited in numerous galleries and she recently received a Chalmers Professional Development Grant to complete a residency studying ceramics in Tuscany, Italy. In addition to her training and experience as an artist, Lisa has worked in theatre, ballet and film creating costumes with historical accuracy and technical skill for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Cirque Du Soleil and the National Ballet of Canada.
Lisa is an active member of her community, volunteering at her children’s public school and with Hospice Toronto since 2020 and has led expressive art workshops for children from a wide range of backgrounds. Lisa believes creativity can be a powerful resource for supporting mental health, discovering your own unique gifts and building connectivity through expression.
Find out more about our Group Art Therapy and Group Drama Therapy for kids in Toronto.