Testimonials

The Creative Art of Being

"A lovely oasis in the middle of our sometime hectic lives"
It is joy wrapped in a package of stimulating and motivational activities, a time to get away from one's hum-drum routine and just be one with the sacred side of oneself.

Silvia Smith
Montreal

 

The Redwood Shelter Residents and Staff Testimonials for WNAMPSL , Toronto, ON

Walking, nature appreciation, mindfulness and peer support and leadership - a curated wellness program designed and delivered by Althea for  women and children living in a shelter who have fled abusive homes.

  • Before I worried a lot, after WNAMPSL (aka wellness walks), I felt lighter. Leaving all the things that bothering me in the steps I left behind.
  • I absolutely, wholeheartedly recommend the WNAMPSL program. I believe in the power of walking, nature appreciation & mindfulness to do the real healing work that all of us can benefit from, but particularly survivors of violence. Althea has an innovative & intelligent program that can only grow in its abilities to create positive change for all that interact with it. 
  • Before wellness walks, at times I’m lazy and tired but after, I noticed that I’m in a good mood and have energy 
  • It was great, changing mind and have time free from kids. Walk together and share our history with each other is nice and I love this program.
  •  I loved walking through High Park. I loved the nature and saw how beautiful and relaxing it is 6. It helps me to look after myself & leave the worries behind. Thanks Althea for sharing your knowledge w/us. It’s a great program for Mommies 
  • Thank you! I look forward to our next round of Wellness Walks. Hope to see and participate in WNAMPSL in the near future. Thank You! Thank You! Namaste! 
  • I loved the program as a whole. I’ve learned how to take time for myself and do some breathing exercises 
  • Yes, I have already start put in what I have learned into my daily life. It actually feels good walking and now I’m not taking the TTC when I’m with my baby which clears your head - just me & P. 
  • I remember a woman saying “Black people don’t walk”. Now she is walking. 11. My mother would not believe me. I walk all this. I’m surprise myself. 
  • This is an amazing activities. Taking people with low income to beautiful nature place to enjoy and discover. 
  • In my role I was not present for most of the program, but I would say that having Althea with us, in a way that fit the needs of the families here, and her flexibility to adapt the program as needed was wonderful...
  • This is a fantastic program to integrate in a holistic approach to healing trauma, providing great tools building stress management and wellness. 
  •  I loved walking through High Park. I loved the nature and saw how beautiful and relaxing it is. 
  • What an incredible person! Althea fit into the culture of The Redwood so seamlessly, with a gentleness and compassion that enabled her to do amazing work with the families here. She went above and beyond to help achieve the goals of this program. 

 

Whitehorse Correctional Centre / Yukon College, Whitehorse, Yukon

My name is Gloria Johnston and I am the Adult Education and Campus Coordinator for the Yukon College – Whitehorse Correctional Centre Campus and I have known Althea Knight for approximately 2 years. Althea coordinated and facilitated the WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Program) with multiple adult living units at the Correctional Centre.

I am writing to recommend Althea Knight for any position which would allow her expertise and innovation to be in service to others in a collaborative capacity. Althea is an incredible facilitator and, with the WRAP program, she created a space of openness, caring and safe expression in a challenging work environment with a vulnerable sector of the population.  In my years of experience, some individuals stand out for their great qualities, Althea is overwhelmingly one of those people. She is well known for her passion, intelligence, positive attitude, diligence and organization. The WRAP program was very well-received here at WCC and the feedback was extremely positive and provided “tools for real change” for many of the participants. She is well respected with the Correctional Centre, and with the College as a compassionate and energetic leader.

I recommend Althea for any role through which she can contribute her remarkable creativity and dedication. I am confident that she would make a wonderful addition to any organization, team or workplace delivering programs or facilitating workshops.

Gloria Johnston, Whitehorse, Yukon

 

Xhastin's Healing Journey, Whitehorse, Yukon 

a land based healing camp created by Yvonne Jack,  with the support of community elders. Xhastin (Yvonne Jack) is a member of the Taku River Tlingit First Nation (TRT). 

I am pleased to be able to write this letter of recommendation for my friend and colleague Althea Knight. In our time spent together, I found her to be one of the most dependable people I have ever had the privilege of working with. 

When working with Althea, it’s evident she has not only passion, but significant experience in working and supporting people with their wellness and healing. During our time together, I witnessed the commitment and dedication that she showed in all areas of her work.  She displayed her experience time and time again with advice that was invaluable to the success of the groups that we worked with.

Althea regularly took the initiative to suggest workshops and activities that would meet the unique needs of multiple groups.  She was incredibly capable, and would often independently facilitate groups, adjusting to their needs as required. As the manager of Xhastin’s Healing Journey, I am very particular about who works with the often-vulnerable individuals seeking our services, and had complete faith in Althea in all areas.

I was continually impressed with her integrity, grace, and knowledge, and her ability to support all members of the team by demonstrating respectful and non judgmental behaviour at all times.

I would not hesitate in the future to have Althea as an integral and invaluable part of any work I am involved in, and I’m certain if you hire this will be your conclusion as well.  Sincerely, Yvonne (Xhastin) Jack

 

St Mary Catholic Academy/MWB, Toronto

I am so grateful for our mindfulness session. I love learning from you.

I loved seeing how you handled students that were uncomfortable with mindfulness, or even resistant to the practice. I thought you handled those students wonderfully and appropriately. I loved that you included movement to the practice, called each student individually to respond and included everyone.

I also loved that you handled each situation for what it was and accepted anything that happened.

Thank you for coming to St Marys again Althea. You are a wonderful inspiration and I love learning from you.

Have a wonderful summer. 

Sonia Bellissimo,  special needs class instructor
Toronto, ON

 

OCASI - Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, Toronto, ON

Althea was a Peer Champion with the Neighbours, Friends and Families Campaign last year and she did a phenomenal job creating something called "Love Walks", which are soulful and meditative walks where participants were able to reflect on gender-based violence at the end of the walk. She really is a special and magical woman, able to create really comfortable spaces for folks! 

Sidrah Ahmad, Senior Coordinator, Gender Based Violence Program (she/her)

Toronto, ON

 

Ending Violence Against Women - Telling Our Stories, Immigrant Women’s Resilience

Althea, thank you so much for coming out and sharing these rich stories with our kids, I hope we can have further opportunities! I did read through quickly the novels and was really impressed, especially by how the difficult content was handled, and it still needed careful and professional facilitation to properly convey to the kids, thank you for providing it! 

Calhoun, Vice Principal, Victoria Park, Toronto, ON

 

Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, Toronto, ON

Althea, thank you so much for facilitating such an engaging workshop in the Parkdale area this week! 

Krittika Ghosh, Senior Coordinator, Violence Against Women, OCASI

Women’s Wellness Thursdays with Althea - Curated for Ecuhome Housing Corporation’s Residents, T.O.  

  • More – We don’t want this to end.  Why can’t we continue?
  • Loving, Supportive, Beautiful
  • The whole group meetings made me feel more calm and relaxed.
  • The facilitator is a lovely woman who is very open, understanding, outgoing, positive and energizing. The group is very open and educating.
  • Fun, creative, and  relaxing. 
  • I really loved the self wellness/meditation parts
  • I learned to take time-out for myself.
  • Loved making and doing art
  • A nice place to make new friends and spend some time to explore your inner self
  • I liked interacting and sharing ideas
  • It felt good to dance and write and I want to remember to do this when I feel crappy.
  •  A time to relax and express our thoughts
  • I liked the positivity in the group and the people within the group.  
  • Caring and Sharing
  • Relaxing, Revitalizing and Respectful
  • Here we release negative emotions in a healthy way

 

Day of Reflection Workshop for The Staff at Cardinal McGuigan Catholic High School, Toronto, ON

Dear Althea,

The Staff of Cardinal MCGuigan Catholic High School thank you most sincerely for the energetic engagement and sincere solidarity you have shared with us on our Day of Reflection. It has given many of us much to consider and reflect on how we may take better care of ourselves.  May your courageous openness to life’s horizon inspire you evermover to reach new potentials and new avenues of leading others to wellness! THANK YOU!

 

The Creative Art of Being©, Osaka, Japan

Hi Althea,

This is Keiko. attending your workshop yesterday.

 Thank you for your workshop.  When I look at my drawing at home, and looked at last year's my paintings,

 Yes, it is very different. As you said I may make a progress.

 Art will make us easy to feel something very core in ourselves, and express, which is hard to say in words in daily life.

 Through your workshop, I had a chance to express, and  through what I painted, I know myself or my situation better, and that encourages me to the next.I don't know what it is now, but connecting to the reality, I am excited about this now.I enjoyed the conversation with you, too.  From the heart,we can understand each other easily,

Feeling is very individual but same in the world beyond the languages, culture, It was the chance to make sure about it. It is nice that we know not how different we are but how same.   

Anyway I'm looking forward to seeing you next time.  Love Keiko

 

The Creative Art of Being©, Osaka, Japan

Dear Althea

Thank you for your workshop.It was a pleasure to meet you.

Your workshop is very fun and unique, but you are more fun and very fantastic than that. \(^o^)/

Your presence can make people feel so happy. ♪♪♪

We appreciate your visiting to Japan. (Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. ! ! !  )

Miki Osaka,
Japan

I had a great experience through these workshops of Althea Knight!!
They were thoroughly amazing!!
Michiko Fujikawa Mullins
Osaka, Japan

Althea has the ability to connect with all vibrations of a person creating a symphony of the soul. She balances and respects opposites allowing for a stillness to expand through which truth says 'Hello'.
Rebekah Paltrow Neumann
New York U.S.

Althea brings joy and vitality to everything she does. Her work one-on-one with her clients is no exception.
I have had two sessions with Althea, and found them to be simultaneously energizing and calming. Althea has a gift for creating a safe space to fully experience emotional and spiritual energy. I found the sessions gave me a new perspective on old issues, and helped me release what was no longer useful to me.
I believe in order to work successfully with Althea one must have an open mind, and allow oneself to “go with the flow.” I am grateful for her work and highly recommend her.
S. Siddorn
Ottawa, Canada

I felt privileged and highly honoured to spend a day with Althea. She is a real master in creating a most inspiring, cosy and extremely safe space. I found it interesting to observe my inner world being expressed in so many different ways other than words and how different blockages and densities dissolved when drawing them, dancing them through the body or putting them into sound and rhythm..I admire Althea's limitless optimism, enthusiasm and unwavering faith that shine through her and around her all the time and eventually also melted everything in me that was not alike. I feel I myself have become much more positive oriented, happy and joyful...Thank you Althea for being in my life.
Maja Bratuz,
Nova Gorica, Slovenia

"On February 21st and 22nd 2009 Althea held a Sacred Play Transformational  (The Creative Art of Being) Workshop in Ellon, Scotland. This was a very new thing for a small town in the northeast of Scotland but she came, she saw and she conquered! Everyone was touched by her love, compassion and beauty and benefited hugely from the spiritual energy, voyage of self discovery and release of old thought patterns. This resulted in many new opportunities opening up for those who attended, with offers of travel and invitations to other workshops appearing within days. Haste ye back Althea."
Lots of love,
Jan Brooks
Ellon Scotland

Dear Althea
Thank you very much for a beautiful, beautiful work.
Your work certainly has ignited the Divine spark of creativity in me.
Thank you very much for your love.
Lots of Love
Chieko,
Osaka Japan
Althea is a true teacher and a patient, creative healer.
Her careful interest in us and our potential guides her to confidently and expertly forge a relationship of trust and harmony.
She possesses and unwavering commitment to helping people to open to each other, to love one another, and to find healing and happiness
Her own diverse experiences enable her to guide us to remarkable results.
I have worked with Althea over several years, and through her limitless energy and devotion to me, I have moved through some daunting challenges and questions, gained immeasurable understanding and insight, and am alarmingly even-tempered.
Working with Althea, I have been helped to feel unburdened, unencumbered, unlimited, and infinitely energetic – utterly free.
She has lovingly and patiently taught me that life can be an exhilarating experience. Her own life has been a vivid illustration of that teaching. It is a lesson that I could not have learned without the skills and the trust that Althea has lovingly and diligently instilled in me.
I am learning to inhabit my life wholly and with confidence. Fear and insecurity – physical and emotional – have begun to melt away. I am surprised by what I can do and am excited to test myself in new ways. And I have Althea to thank for guiding me here.
Andrea Robinson
New York
I found Althea's creativity workshop a real blessing. After many years I was finally able to express my creativity again. I used to draw a lot before I had fallen into crisis with my ex-partner. After that time my creativity stopped. Althea helped me to express my feelings again and to override the boundaries inside me. I learned a lot of things about myself and about my creativity at this workshop. I realized that I have so many judgments inside me, that were preventing me from expressing my higher energies and possibilities. The most important thing I learned from Althea is that by expressing what is bothering you, you and the whole group can work on those things together and everyone benefits. Althea is such a blessed person, you can learn so many things from her, constantly, and over and over again.
She is blessed to feel what others are feeling and guide them in a loving way. When I came back home from this creativity workshop, my 2 year son was dancing with me, because I think he felt a new energy in me. He was very excited about the paintings I brought back home, because I think he saw something only a two year child can see, a lot of energy and positive vibrations which jumped out of me and onto the paper with the help of Althea.
Lucija Zupan,
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Althea came to visit one of our clients, and after speaking with her about an assortment of things including her work, I asked her if she would be willing to hold a workshop that very day with the clients at our nursing home, most of whom are substance abusers or suffer from chronic depression . Without hesitation, she agreed to work with them.
She had the patients, assemble into a circle and began the counseling programme, or as she would term it, the mini-workshop. Althea listened to their various experiences and circumstances that led them to their present situations, she asked gentle yet insightful questions and shared relevant stories from her own experience. She encouraged and motivated them, provided them with emotional support and most importantly prayed with them.
The work was very well received by the patients and was indeed beneficial, as it is always good when others can look beyond what they are are and their struggle to overcome their addiction and recognize their greater need for change. After the session, most were more dedicated to bring about the change needed in their lives and were more optimistic about their future.
I was so pleased with the results, that I asked Althea to return which she kindly agreed to do on short notice. The patients were so pleased to see her again and were excited to reassemble and begin the work. They enjoyed the sessions so much that they asked her when she was returning to Jamaica and if she would continue to work with them on a regular basis.
Althea was able to quickly establish a level of trust and safety with the men, whereby, they felt that she understood them, would not judge them, and would provide appropriate and useful guidance.
My staff and I , are extremely grateful for the vitality and enthusiasm that she brought to our home and most importantly, the inspiration that she provided for the patients. And we trust that Althea will be greatly rewarded for donating her time, her experience, and her expertise to our organization.
We hope that she will come back very soon and wish her well on her work and travels.
God Bless you Althea.
Mrs. R. Gillings-Wilson
Rhodes Peaceful Movement Nursing Home,
Kingston 5,
Jamaica.
November 23, 2008
P.S. The men continue to be more cheerful and are still talking about you and your work.
“She made a believer out of me.” As a first comer to Altheas workshop, I must say that I wasn’t without trepidation, however, I entered my time with an open mind and a willingness to accept whatever may come. Althea’s infectious energy and spirituality was apparent from the first moment we sat across from each other. During the session I experienced many interesting feelings and an opening within that left me happy and tired. Althea has a true gift for helping those who are willing to accept, and even those who don’t, can’t help but be touched by the love and enthusiasm she exudes. Althea has helped me to see life with a more clear perspective and positive attitude. Thank you for sharing and helping me regain a part of me that has been missing, once again the future is bright. See you at the next sitting.
Andrew Trumbach
Toronto, Ontario

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