CEO & FOUNDING DIRECTOR

Somatic Trauma Specialist & Educator

Expressive Art Therapist and Researcher

Activist, Author & Speaker

ATIRA TAN

With over seventeen years of experience working with trauma-informed approaches alongside art therapy, Somatic Experiencing, yoga, and mindfulness, Atira has a deep commitment and passion for empowering and healing women and girls globally from the inside out. Hailing from Singapore, she has a deep understanding of Asian cross-cultural women’s issues through her own journey of recovery and empowerment from gender discrimination and domestic violence.

Since 2004, Atira has set up numerous clinical art therapy and trauma recovery programs, researching the benefits of art therapy, somatic therapies, yoga, mindfulness, and ritual in trauma recovery and sexual abuse, from the refugee camps in the jungles of Burma, earthquake-hit areas in Nepal, to the wide-open spaces of rural Aboriginal communities in the desert of Australia.

In addition to her work at Art to Healing, Atira has worked as a clinician and supervisor in Australia and the Asia – Pacific region in the contexts of psycho-social care, mental health services, disaster relief, community health, and as a higher educator in Transpersonal Art Therapy in Australia. She is also in private practice, specializing in sexual abuse recovery, complex and developmental trauma.

A MA graduate in Art Therapy from Latrobe University in Melbourne, Atira has been featured on TED and spoken at numerous international conferences as an advocate against child sex slavery. She is currently completing her Ph.D. doctorate in Expressive Arts Therapies at the European Graduate School in Switzerland.

Atira has authored numerous articles and chapters on art therapy and sex trafficking and has been published by Jessica Kingsley (2012), Routledge (2019), and other peer-reviewed journals, including a #1 Amazon Best Seller in 2020 with AMA publishing.

E: atira@arttohealing.org