"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed."

– Carl Jung

About-Exprecious-valerie-garden

who is valerie?

My interest in expressive arts started at a very young age spending a lot of time with my deaf grandparents in Antwerp, Belgium. Using not only sign language, but also facial expression and body language, I developed a very creative way of expressing myself. Growing up, my grandparents taught me a unique approach to the world and, unknowingly, planted the seed of my professional and personal life. This childhood experience together with several studies in psychotherapy, psychodrama, art therapy and dream therapy is the foundation for Exprecious. After a yearlong trip with my husband and two young kids, we decided to move to Israel permanently in 2012. This is where I currently hold weekly dream workshops, group sessions, and individual sessions. I also work as a freelance therapist with different institutions in Israel.

vision

Exprecious is the expression of my life’s vision; meaning getting out of my comfort zone in order to expand and improve myself as much as I can.  By doing so I become the person I was born to be. One evening in 2009, my husband and I watched the movie “Into the wild,” which opened up a debate on how to live our lives, our responsibilities, and dreams. It didn’t take long for us to decide to take off and take our kids to fully explore the world and its different cultures, nature, and people. I lack words to express to what extent these ten months changed us. Essentially, it allowed me to reconnect with myself as a woman, a mother and moreover, as a citizen of this world. We made the decision to move our family to Israel permanently and not long after, I expanded Exprecious’ vision and goals.

magic happens outside the comfort-zone-exprecious
Exprecious-mission-about

mission

I have worked many years in a shelter for abused women, where I also gave my first Expressive Arts Group Therapy Session. I will never forget the day that one of the women was able to release her anger by throwing a clay statue of her ex-partner out of the window. The relief and renewed energy I felt in her and seeing so many other women opening up during various creative processes were genuinely touching and inspiring. The effect that these creative processes have on people who are struggling or seeking a better understanding of themselves has encouraged me to make this my professional and personal purpose.

Professional REsumé

Valerie Popowski Reichman

Experience

2018 - Present

Exprecious Dream Workshop

Ongoing weekly workshops in groups of 10 participants following mainly the Jungian approach and the Ulmann method.

2016 - Ongoing

Family Centre in Netanya & Private Treatment Centre in Ra'anana

  • Psychodrama combined with expressive arts for families with problematic educational issues.
  • Individual treatment and dyadic treatment for children and their parents. Classical therapy combined with psychodrama, role play and art.
  • Psychodrama therapy for a group of women who have experienced physical and verbal abuse and for a group of children with social issues.
2011-2018

Freelance Therapy Projects

  • Psychodrama guidance with adult criminals – Rehabilitation project – Adult Probation Service & Prisoner Rehabilitation Service, Israel
  • Psychodrama guidance with stroke survivors 
  • Individual treatments in the Hadassic Boarding School for French adolescents.
  • Creative Therapy for adults and children integrating expressive arts such as dance, movement, plastic art, music and drama.
  • Expressive arts project for child survivors of a typhoon in the Phillipines – The Red Pencil – Humanitarian Mission
  • Assistant at Tiltan College, specializing in psychodrama.
  • “Mirror” workshops on self-image for high school girls, approved by the Ministry of Education in Israel.
  • “Mirror” workshops on self-image for women looking for personal growth.
  • Group facilitator at WIZO (Beit Heuss), Herzliya Pituach.
  • Guidance of a group of at-risk youth, Zeitan boarding school, Lod.
  • Guidance of a group of adults suffering from schizophrenia, Tel Aviv.
2001-2011

Child Focus

Providing emotional support for families of missing children and mediating between the families and the authorities.

Guidance of the families after the child’s return and support during the stages of adaptation and re-establishing the relationship.

Working at the Emergency Phone line and providing a support to parents and children in distress.

1998-2001

Shelter for Abused Women

Working as a personal and group counsellor for women who were victimised by their partner.  Working on self-esteem, resilience and social integration.

Education

2018

Certified Dreamwork Professional - Institute for Dream Studies

2017

Couples Therapy for Treatment of decreased physical desire, Claire Rabin Institute, Israel

2017

Master's degree in Society & Arts, the Academic College of Society and Arts, Israel

2016

Psychodrama studies, Tiltan College, Israel

2015

Group facilitation in combination with arts and holistic approaches, Israel

2013

NLP Fundamentals Course, Belgium

2012

Dance and Movement Therapy Course, Belgium

2005

Training in group facilitation and drama therapy - Artevelde Hogeschool Ghent Belgium

2002

Bachelor Creative Arts Therapy - Artevelde Hogeschool Gent, Belgium

languages

French 100%
English 100%
Dutch 100%
Hebrew 100%
Sign Language 100%