Somatic trauma specialist, art therapist and charity founder, Melbourne
Atira Tan is a somatic trauma specialist, expressive arts therapist and humanitarian, and the founder and chief executive of Art to Healing, a registered Australian charity providing trauma recovery and mental health care to women and children who have survived gender-based violence and sex trafficking.[1][2]
She has worked on the front line of trauma for more than twenty years, from the brothels of Nepal to refugee camps on the Burma border, and the charity has supported thousands of women and children since 2005.[1][2] She was born in Singapore, raised in Melbourne, and works internationally.[3]
Her clinical training is in expressive arts therapy and somatic work: an MA in expressive art therapy, a graduate diploma in transpersonal art therapy, certification as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, and a 500 hour senior yoga and meditation teaching registration, with a PhD in expressive art therapies in progress.[3] She spoke at TEDx Byron Bay in 2013 on ending child sex slavery.[1]
Atira's qualifications cover three fields. In the arts therapies she holds an MA in expressive art therapy and a graduate diploma in transpersonal art therapy, and she is completing a PhD in expressive art therapies.[3] In the somatic field she is a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, the credential issued to graduates of Peter Levine's three year training.[3] In the contemplative field she holds a 500 hour senior yoga and meditation teaching registration.[3]
She has also published in peer-reviewed journals and written a book.[3]
Atira founded Art to Healing in 2005 and is its chief executive and founding director.[2][3] It is a registered Australian charity, ACN 616352893 and ABN 41 616 352 893.[2]
Its mission is to provide trauma recovery and specialised mental health care to women and children who have experienced gender-based violence and sex trafficking, so that they are free from slavery.[2] It works through partnerships with government and non-government organisations in eight countries across Asia and Australia, and runs a women's transformational programme in Nepal.[2]
Its clinical model is the same one she practises: expressive art and play therapies, counselling, Somatic Experiencing, the Neurosequential Model, reproductive and sexual health education, yoga and mindfulness.[2] The charity is where she built the practice.
She also founded Yoga for Freedom, a global yoga and social change movement that has raised more than sixty-five thousand dollars since 2016.[3]
Atira teaches somatic trauma resolution, and separately teaches facilitation of psychedelic-assisted work.[1]
Her flagship is a nine month Somatic Psychedelic Facilitator Mentorship, and she runs masterclasses on working with specific substances including ayahuasca, psilocybin, 5-MeO-DMT, MDMA and ketamine, alongside training in trauma-informed plant medicine facilitation and somatic integration.[1]
Trauma is the through line between the humanitarian work and the training. Her position is that the facilitator's own regulated body is the instrument, the same claim Somatic Experiencing makes.[1]
Her work has been covered in Yoga Journal, The Guardian, Medium and Mindfood, and her TEDx Byron Bay talk in 2013 was on ending child sex slavery.[1]
Yes. Atira Tan holds the mark Henosis Certified Practitioner, awarded after an assessment by a human being against the Henosis Standard. The mark is earned, never bought, and it can be revoked.
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Entry 300104