Self-care Spotlight: Navigating our Inner world

Self-care Spotlight: Navigating our Inner world

Author: Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona April 26, 2025 Duration: 30:17
This episode is a solo journey into thoughts, feelings, and taking perspective on our lives that support our growth and transformation. About Free Arts: Free Arts’ research-based program model, Art + Mentors = Resilience, helps children build the resilience they need to maintain personal well-being by connecting them with caring adults and creative activities that develop their personal skills and sense of self. Free Arts believes that healthy connections with adults create change. Through partnerships with local child welfare agencies and shelters serving families, Free Arts is able to provide this intervention to children free of cost to program participants.  To become a Free Arts Volunteer Mentor, please visit FreeArtsAZ.org/Volunteer  About Canvas of the Heart: Hosted by Matt Sandoval, CEO of Free Arts   Produced by Alvaro Morello   Music by Epidemic sound: Tell ‘em no by Flux Vortex, Free Throw by Timothy Infinite  Contact the podcast at hello@freeartsaz.org  Follow us at   Youtube.com/FreeArtsofArizona  Facebook.com/freeartsaz  Instagram: @freeartsaz  Twitter @freeartsaz  You can make your donations to Free Arts at FreeArtsAz.org/Donate 

Canvas of the Heart is a quiet space where stories of healing and creativity intersect. Produced by Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona, this podcast explores the profound impact of artistic expression on young lives marked by trauma, abuse, neglect, and homelessness. From its home in Phoenix, the organization pairs trained adult mentors with children and teens, using creative work as a steady path from pain toward resilience. Each episode offers a genuine look into this process, sharing voices and experiences that might otherwise go unheard. You'll hear about the legacy of this work not as a simple success story, but as a complex, human journey. The conversations within this podcast naturally unfold to reveal how a brushstroke, a written line, or a performed moment can begin to rebuild a sense of safety and self. It’s about the tangible ways art functions as a language for emotions that are too difficult to speak aloud. Tuning in, you become part of a wider conversation on mental well-being, the necessity of human connection, and the quiet strength found in making something new. This is more than a series about a program; it’s an auditory window into the transformation that happens when a caring community provides the tools and the space for creativity to flourish. The Canvas of the Heart podcast documents these subtle, powerful shifts, emphasizing that healing is not a solitary act but a collaborative masterpiece in progress.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 26

Canvas of the Heart
Podcast Episodes
Art Heals Arizona! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:33
For 30 years, we've put the words "abused children" on our letterhead, our emails, our collateral — including the materials our own participants could see. This episode of Canvas of the Heart is about why that had to cha…
Artist Spotlight - Kris Kollasch [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:55
In this episode of Canvas of the Heart, we sit down with Kris Kollasch, an artist who has been involved with Free Arts nearly since our inception 30+ years ago. She shares some of her favorite artist mentorship moments o…
Mentor Voices - Listening to the Experiences of Volunteers [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:07
January is National Mentoring Month, and we are celebrating the work of volunteer mentors by listening to two mentors' experiences. Free Arts’ research-based program model, Art + Mentors = Resilience, helps children buil…
Regulation and Co-Regulation Skills for Children and Families [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:51
Join Matt and Erina as they discuss the Free Arts Family Program, regulation, and co-regulation. Erina gives a brief overview of the history of the Family Program and how it has grown in the past three years and what a F…
Inside the Mentor Toolkit with the Skill of Treasure Hunting! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:09
Are you ready to dig into a new season of Canvas of the Heart? Season four kicks off with Matt and Beth talking about a key concept we teach our mentors during our volunteer training, treasure hunting. They explain what…
Stigma and Mental Health [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:23
In this episode, we discuss the social effects of stigma on those who experience adversity, trauma, and mental illness. At Free Arts, our language and approach to participants reflect a respect for the whole person and t…
Ep. 18 The Power of Choice [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:09
An important part of the Free Arts experience is creating choices for the children, teens, and families served by its trauma-informed programs. In this episode, listen to Jenna, Matt, and Beth discuss why "choice" assist…
10 Ways That Art Heals [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:25
Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona is a nonprofit organization that uses the power of the arts to help children who have experienced the trauma of abuse, neglect, and homelessness. Free Arts’ research-based program…
FAQs from Volunteer Mentors [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:25
Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona is a nonprofit organization that uses the power of the arts to help children who have experienced the trauma of abuse, neglect, and homelessness. Free Arts’ research-based program…