A Canadian art therapist, author and interdisciplinary practitioner whose work lies at the intersection of art, trauma, mental health and human experience.

In Canada, her clinical practice has developed over many years alongside women living with different forms of trauma, people navigating cancer and oncology care, and children affected by multiple and complex traumatic experiences. Her work is rooted in the realities of people whose bodies, relationships and sense of safety have been profoundly disrupted, and in the question of how creative processes can offer another space in which to express, reorganize and make meaning of those experiences.
Alongside her clinical work, Desrosiers has maintained an artistic practice since 2012. Writing, visual art, collective creation and interdisciplinary artistic projects have progressively become part of the same trajectory: exploring what can be expressed through image, material, gesture and creation when words alone cannot hold the complexity of an experience.

In recent years, she has extended this work to Ukraine, returning repeatedly to work in the context of the ongoing war. There, she has facilitated art-based therapeutic interventions with veterans, people receiving psychiatric care, women living with grief and loss, and people experiencing the psychological consequences of prolonged insecurity and conflict. Her work in Ukraine did not create her interest in trauma; it profoundly expanded it.

Working with people whose traumatic experience is still unfolding has led her to explore what she describes as active trauma: situations in which danger, loss and instability cannot yet be spoken about exclusively in the past tense. This field experience has further shaped her reflections on safety, the body, agency, collective experience and the role of artistic creation when the external environment itself remains uncertain.

Her approach uses the creative process as a space for expression, relationship and meaning-making. Art is not approached primarily as something to be produced or interpreted, but as a way of creating movement around experiences that may still be difficult, impossible or premature to put into words.

Desrosiers is also an author, educator and creator whose broader work moves between clinical practice, artistic practice and social engagement. Across these different territories, the same questions remain: What helps a person remain connected to themselves and to others through rupture? What can creation make possible when language reaches its limits? And how can we care for people while respecting the complexity of what they are still living through?

At the 3rd Rethinking Mental Health Care Conference, she will facilitate an art therapy workshop drawing from this trajectory and from her field experience working with trauma, complex trauma and active trauma.