Portrait of an Artist
/Personal experience with Loss and Love of Art is a driving force for a new therapist at Valerie's House
Monika Urbanska arrived in the United States to start a new life with her family at the age of six, in 1992. A native of Poland, she did not speak English and began to use art as a form of communication as she learned the language.
"I have always been a visual person," Monika said. "Art became a natural coping skill at home because my mom was an artist."
Monika and 9-year-old Cash painting Valerie's House fence mural on Fowler Street in Fort Myers.
The little girl who learned English through watching cartoons and movies knew that art was how she could help others. "Kids can use art throughout their whole lives," she said, "and you don't have to be talented to be creative. Art has always been helpful to me".
That coping skill soon became a life skill. Today, she uses art and its powerful images as a therapy to help children and adults in her role as a Family Support Counselor at Valerie's House. She leads many of the children's grief support groups and assists in the caregiver and grandparent groups.
Monika's mom, an artist herself, was very nurturing and taught her the value of art and how the world of art and creativity transforms people. When Monika was very young, her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Sadly, she lost her battle in 2007, when Monika was in college.
Monika received a bachelor's degree from Boston University and in 2009, moved to Florida with her brother. She soon began teaching special needs students at De LaSalle Academy in Fort Myers. She enrolled in the graduate program at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College and received a Master's Degree in Counseling and Art Therapy.
Through her own grief experience with her mom's illness and death, Monika knew her life's work was going to be in counseling and began volunteering at Valerie's House.
"Having a Valerie's House when I was a teenager would have been so helpful to me while I grieved", she said.
Monika joined the staff of Valerie's House in May 2020 as a Family Grief Counselor, specializing in Art Therapy. The Pandemic has led to an increase in grieving children, and Monika now also leads various virtual individual and group therapies for children and their caregivers. Her focus is always art and how it can be applied as a tool to help in the grieving and healing process.
Monika looks for specific indicators in a person and how particular forms of art and images may connect with them.
"A graphic image seen by a child can mean something entirely different to an adult," she said.
Art Therapy can reveal a child's emotional state, and Monika uses different forms of art and images as a tool during her sessions. Art Therapy also builds confidence and helps children form bonds with each other. "It opens up a conversation with the kids," Monika said.
Art Therapy provides a pathway to healing, and Monika uses an individual's unique brand of creativity to build on those pathways.
"Monika has dedicated her life to helping children who are hurting by using the healing power of Art Therapy," Valerie's House Founder and CEO Angela Melvin said. "Her understanding of loss and her creative approach to helping families heal is making an impact on everyone in our programs."
Please consider helping Valerie's House continue to provide Art Therapy and the necessary tools to love and care for families while they grieve by donating today.
