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Growing up in Ontario, Laila
developed a natural love of the outdoors while camping, canoeing
and hiking with her friends and family. Her leadership interests
took root as a Katimavik group leader and from there she travelled
around the world on a many outdoor adventures.
Reflecting upon these journeys, Laila says the most important thing
she has learned is that there are rich rewards for choosing to be
awake in this life. In this context, to be awake is to consciously
open up to and develop self and environmental awareness through
the senses, intuition and a connection to a greater whole. This
learning process has become Laila's way of life and is the very
essence of Aziza.
Also a dedicated artist, Laila paints original artwork and has had
a series of successful shows in Toronto. Her images are deeply personal
and express her joy for the beauty inherent in the simple pleasures
of living. A passionate belief in the healing power of art combined
with her enthusiasm for travel and intimate experience of the Gestalt
therapy process has led Laila to launch Aziza Healing Adventures.
Laila Ghattas has a private practice in Toronto where she conducts
group art and therapy workshops for individuals and corporations,
as well as individual therapy and Reiki treatments. She leads international
personal growth retreats in spectacular natural settings. She speaks
and publishes on creativity, self-acceptance and compassion, Impeccable
Leadership and the healing benefits of retreats. Laila
also applies her art to a line of gift products called  .
You can read Laila's personal
accounts on the influences and events that lead to the creation
of Aziza Healing Adventures by clicking
here.
Click
here to read an interview with Laila about Aziza Healing
Adventures, created by WomenCanDoAnything.com
Employed by Love,
the journey to Aziza Healing Adventures, one of 40 stories in Conscious
Women, Conscious Careers
available at amazon.com. If you would like to purchase a signed
copy by Laila Ghattas, please email.
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Educational and Professional Experience
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| Laila Ghattas is an artist, Gestalt
therapist, group facilitator, Reiki practitioner and the founder of
Aziza Healing Adventures and Deluscious Wearables. She studied at
York University for her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Arts, concurrently
graduating with a Bachelor of Education, Special Education Part One
and Ontario Teachers Certificate. A graduate of the Gestalt Institute
of Toronto, Laila holds an undergraduate certificate in Gestalt Theory
and Methodology and a postgraduate certificate in Gestalt Therapy.
She completed her Expressive Arts Certificate at Sir Sanford Fleming
College. Laila has her Reiki 1st & 2nd degree in the Usui System
of Natural Healing taken with Reiki Master Anita Levin in Toronto. |
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About Gestalt Therapy
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Gestalt means whole in German.
Gestalt therapy came about in the 1950's as part of the Human Potential
Movement. It is an accessible, practical psychotherapy that encourages
self-acceptance and self-support. At its core is an interest in how,
not why, we choose to limit our awareness. It demonstrates ways to
work towards expanding our observations of the world and ourselves,
and acknowledges the individual as connected and responsive to the
immediate environment.
By exploring the emotions, feelings and perceptions of the present
moment, Gestalt therapy heightens awareness to behaviour patterns.
This is the first step in therapeutic change. Those who practice Gestalt
therapy develop an awareness of the excitement and immediacy of being
fully present in the moment, which fosters an ability to respond authentically.
This leads them to be open to more appropriate choices previously
unconsidered, rather than continuing with habitual behaviour. The
result is an evolution towards living a more meaningful and authentic
life.
For an excellent, more detailed introduction to Gestalt therapy please
visit www.gestalt.org/yontef.htm |
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In Praise of Art Exercises
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Janie Ryne was the admired and
long-hailed expert in the field of combining art and Gestalt therapy.
Her own words, sincere and passionate, offer the most eloquent support
for including art exercises in the personal growth process.
“We have alternatives....we can begin the courageous search
for finding in ourselves what is genuine.
We can learn to give up falseness and grow into realness.... For
me.... this experience of unlearning and regrowth ...is a process...(and)
the most effective (way) is to use art materials to make images
that allow me to rediscover not only some of the simple, naive wisdom
of the child I was but provide me with the visual imagery that evokes
associations, resonances and insights that are available to me if
I just take the time to become aware of them. I think of my expressive
drawings as sources of learning....They show how I , as a mature
person, can bring all of these realizations together into the pattern
of my own gestalt, whose every part is related to the total configuration
that is me- past present and future- and that I and my environment
are ever-changing and ever- interacting.” p. 4,5. “....your
drawing does have a lot to do with you- with the way you see and
feel and think and with the way you perceive. When you do an art
activity, you are experiencing yourself....” p. 6.
Taken from Janie Ryne The Gestalt Art Experience ,1973, revised
1996, Magnolia Street Publishers, Chicago Illinois. ISBN 0-9613309-6-1
It's the poet Ted Hughes who was once asked in an interview if
poetry is someting that gives hope. He replied: "For myself,
I formulated the notion that art is in general a psychological component
of the immune system. As the body tries to heal itself from any
stress or shock or infection, the corresponding harmonic, in consciousness,
is art. So our constant struggle to pull ourselves together and
to deal with difficulty and injury and illness and with threats
and fears, manifests itself - at a psychological level - as art.
We may not think at the moment that it's the most valuable thing
we do, but of any past civilization it's the one thing we want to
preserve, because it still operates for us as medicine."
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Sea Kayaking, Anyone?
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Sea kayaking is an extraordinary
way to spend meditative time outdoors. It provides the sublime experience
of feeling at one with the water while offering the heady liberation
of self-propulsion with the vessel's quick and elegant responsiveness
to the gentle stoke of your paddle.
Sea Kayaking is an easy activity to learn with the friendly help of
our skilled instructors and doesn't require a high level of physical
strength or fitness. So don't be deterred if you've never imagined
yourself gliding under the sun in a sea kayak before. Once you have
tasted the pure pleasure of this sport you'll be ignited in a way
that you'll never forget! |
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Aziza: (Ah zee zah) Is
Arabic in origin meaning cherished one, beloved, invincible. It is
also the name of a beneficent African Faerie race offering practical
and spiritual knowledge to people. It is a word that is in perfect
balance, a palindrome.
Heal: to make whole, to restore to health, to restore to original
purity or integrity, to cause an undesirable condition to be overcome.
Adventure: an exciting or remarkable experience involving risk. |
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Circle is the symbol for wholeness,
completion.
Water is the archetypal realm of emotions and feelings.
Spiral is an ancient symbol for spiritual journey toward self transformation.
“The center of a spiral is the center of the self as it goes
through the forward movement of time yet never loses the essential
spirit of its origin. We are who we are and experience deepens and
elevates the soul simultaneously.” 1
“If we are intimately connected to the healing and becoming
powers of the spiral then why is our world so chaotic? Doczi, Carl
Jung, and Joseph Campbell all agree in principle that the ancient
masters, unlike our modern selves, were in touch with the actual
life essence as a reflection of biological makeup, as their prolific
use of the spiral symbol demonstates (Doczi, p. 28). Because our
technological age has pulled us in an outward rather than inward
direction, we've lost the generative relatedness between ourselves
and everything around us (Doczi, p. 28). That is to say that we
have forgotten the sense of awe in our association with the natural
world in its ability to provide an example of the naturally assured
process of death and rebirth. We have also lost our enthusiasm because
we no longer share in the divine energy realized from recognizing
the God within. Our emergence into organized religion and politics
has acted to suppress our individual stirrings toward mystery and
transcendence as many choose to live unaware of the connected, synchronatic
fabric of the universe. So how can one reach within to grasp these
mind-boggling concepts? We come back again to Jungian psychology
and the appreciation and expression of the archetype.” 2
1., 2. Paula Vaughan 1998-2001, reprinted with permission. Research
Paper /World Mythologies and Cultural Anthropology. www.nemorensis.net/anthromyth
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