Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Anastasia Canfield.
Hi Dr. Anastasia, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My work as a creative helper started very early. My father is a kind-hearted and philanthropic man who would take me to nursing homes and adult daycare facilities to spend time with people who did not have family or who had not seen their family in a long time. This led me to begin playing piano in some of these facilities and finding that this was moving beyond words. Later, I learned about the field of music therapy. Since then I have become Board-Certified as a Music Therapist with supervisory privilege, Licensed as a Professional Counselor in the state of Colorado with supervisory privilege, Nationally Certified as a Counselor, and Registered as a Play Therapist. My practice, Creative Remedies, was born from the desire to use the creative arts to reach people in ways that many other forms of communication or media could not.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I started Creative Remedies in 2019. We all know what happened in one short year after that. However, my business was in its infancy while I was also pursuing a second Master’s degree and so I was not actively looking to grow it at that time. This offered a unique opportunity to take things slowly and learn about adapting and pivoting quickly which is often the Achilles heel of many businesses. Other struggles are more broad. The arts and human services are fundamentally at odds with capitalism and it is a complicated push-and-pull to be accessible and serve people while also keeping the lights on. This will likely always be a struggle, but becoming comfortable with discomfort is part of growth.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Creative Remedies is a unique creative arts therapy practice that serves all ages. We have a clinic space in Aurora, but we also travel to some facilities and organizations we partner with. Our focus is serving people at the intersection of neurodiversity, trauma, and mental health, but this is a broad group. For example, some of the people we serve have experienced acquired or traumatic brain injuries and we support their physical/physiological needs while also supporting their emotional regulation and memory recall. This is difficult to explain in a text medium since we use music to support these skills and rehabilitation, but we use creativity as the “back door” or “bottom up” approach to supporting mental health, skill development, trauma processing, and rehabilitation. We also offer a complimentary consultation and free initial intake session. This sets us apart because we want people to feel comfortable moving forward with the service before finances get involved. This is one of the facets of our economic justice initiative which is also a distinct aspect of Creative Remedies as well.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
I am constantly reading and the process of knowledge acquisition is grounding to me in and of itself which allows me to do my best work and become a more competent professional at the same time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.creativeremediesllc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativeremediesllc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/creativeremediesllc
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@creativeremediesllc7533
