Nadia Paredes (aka Nai)
FOUNDER/FACILITATOR
Nadia Paredes helps people connect with their inner creativity and empower their mind and soul through her expressive arts programs. Nadia is the founder of Nadia Paredes - Creative Studio, a bilingual resource for empowering, healing, and artistic inspiration. With expertise and training as an Art Therapist, Mindfulness and Positive Psychology expert, Intuition Painting facilitator and a Licensed Martial and Family Therapist, Nadia creates programs for transformation, creativity, and art making as an emotional management practice. Her offerings include mindfulness based programs using embodied arts, art journaling for personal wellness, public speaking engagements and process based art groups. She also has a Youtube Channel, Podcast, Instagram and TikTok channel in Spanish called Revolución Creativa, with Art Therapy inspired content and meditations targeted to unlock the creative within. Nadia has a published article in the Alternativas en Psicología Journal and has experience as an international Speaker. She is also an Art Therapy supervisor and adjunct professor at Loyola Marymount University.
The Storyteller:
As a young child, I showed a profound interest in drawing and music. My mom would keep me busy for hours as a child with a pencil and any surface she could find for me to create on. However, as I grew older, society led me to believe I was not an “Artist”, as I didn’t show a natural talent for representational visual arts – in others words, I didn’t draw things as they looked in the world. So, I believed I shouldn’t make Art anymore. Instead, I focused on my talents in music, and I received encouragement, therefore I felt that was where I belonged. Music came to define me. It wasn’t until college, where I rediscovered my love for paint and visual expression.
I moved from Mexico City to Los Angeles in 2010, in part because of my love for the Arts. Before leaving Mexico, I had spent many years trying to fit in the world of Psychology and something always seemed off – that is until I encountered Art Therapy. What a revelation! I had discovered a way back to my love of art, without having to be what society calls an “Artist”. This jump into Art Therapy launched my path to understanding how incredibly powerful Art is on many different levels. I started to notice how having a daily art making routine during Grad School was helping me overcome years of physical symptoms related to Stress, such as Insomnia, never ending Heartburn, persistent coughing and Muscle Contractures. I witnessed how creating was more effective than I thought when I stopped taking daily dosages of medication to help control acidity in my stomach and the recurrent intake of Muscle Relaxers.
Upon completion of my Master’s as an Art Therapist, I continued deepening my clinical knowledge and practice while working with reproductive health, life-stage transitioning and loss – even though it became clear that what I really wanted to do was to create more Art.
At my most desperate hour, when I was feeling bored, frustrated and most importantly, disconnected from my true self, I started looking for classes that could teach me how to use art as a pure expressive medium. I did not want to go with technical skill Art classes that were not giving me what I wanted from the Art World. I was craving raw creative expression, not aesthetics! I felt ready to become the Artist I was meant to be and not continue to fall prey to what society wanted me to believe.
I immersed myself in Intuition Painting® classes and fell in love with the process, as it combined Visual Arts with Movement and Sound. Three years later, I got certified as a facilitator and started designing smaller workshops that include Expressive Arts to help people increase their self-knowledge and awaken their dormant creative. And the rest, is history!
It has been a long road. But now I can say I have found my true path to art, expression, personal wellness and supporting others. I have found the key that has allowed me to remain calm as I move through my motherhood and professional journey. Art has become the tool that has helped me access my higher self, putting me in the direction that I am supposed to be while I accomplish my goals in alignment with my true self. And most importantly, it has allowed me to become the Artist I want to be: one that can share with others the power we all have within.