Jessica Day/Sagaate (She/her)

Sagaate currently practices in Edmonton and is originally from Fort William First Nation in Thunder Bay Ontario. She is a member of the mukwa dodem, bear clan, and her ancestry is Anishinaabe, Finnish, English and Irish. Her mixed ancestry highly influences her therapeutic approach, providing counseling for children, youth, adults that is grounded in Indigenous-Relational, Trauma-Informed, and Multi-Cultural Feminist perspectives. She graduated from the University of Victoria in 2015 with a BA in Child and Youth Care with and Indigenous Specialization and completed her Art Therapy Diploma with the Kutenai Art Therapy Institute in 2022-she is in good standing with the Canadian Art Therapy Association. 

Sagaate is a skilled group facilitator and workshop developer utilizing the expressive and community-based arts. She has Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), Sand Tray, Eco-Art and Expressive Arts training. Sagaate has extensive experience working with people who have witnessed and experienced abuse, trauma, relational challenges, cultural dislocation, and discrimination. She has worked in schools, not-for-profit and government agencies, on reserve with Indigenous communities and Friendship Centres, and has provided art therapy privately to adults. 

Areas for therapeutic focus include:

• Culturally specific arts based interventions and group workshops (regalia making/sewing, beading, moccasin making, smudging available)
• Exploring early childhood attachment trauma and family dynamics
• Identifying anxiety and trauma responses and developing healthy coping strategies
• Intergenerational healing, dream processing, and deepening spiritual connection to self and others
• Behaviour intervention and self-regulation techniques and resources for parents
• Topics for children and youth could include self harm, disordered eating, emotional regulation, depression, anxiety, chronic stress, sexual assault & abuse, substance use & harm reduction…and more!