María Mendoza, M.A.
Creative Life Mentor and Consultant
Psychology and Art are my favorite blend.
As a Jungian-oriented scholar and facilitator, I have dedicated myself since 2014 to the research, design, and implementation of expressive and self-knowledge methodologies, especially through the technique of collage. Since then, the transformative results of these methodologies have continued to amaze and inspire me.
I have extensive experience in therapeutic and psychosocial support for individuals and communities in various territories of Colombia, in addition to working in various organizations and projects of peace and reconciliation between 2016 and 2019. After several years of work in the field of trauma generated by the violence and armed conflict in my country, I felt the need for a change of approach to start my own projects and reach more people from a less painful and more generative place.
Thus, my creative work with collage evolved towards the search for meaning and the new form that my career wanted to take. Through the creation of images, I was discovering, with increasing clarity, a new horizon where I could deploy my skills and capacity for service. Then, I came to the vision of my true vocation: to help people discover their own vocation, accompany career and life transitions, and guide projects of all kinds in the different phases of the creative process.
The expressive and creative methodologies have led me on a path of self-knowledge, expression, and expansion that to this day I continue to cultivate and share with people around the world interested in starting or strengthening this experience of search and encounter with the essential, which is, as the Little Prince says, invisible to the eyes.
Education
M.A. Engaged Humanities and the Creative Life with emphasis in Depth Psychology
Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, California
B.A. Psychology and Sociology
Javeriana University, Bogotá, Colombia
Open Studio Process Facilitator
Open Studio Project, Chicago, Illinois
Expressive Sandwork Facilitator
International Association for Expressive Sandwork, Bogotá, Colombia
Courses in Collage Techniques
CCAE, Boston, Massachusetts
Certificate in Art-therapy
Sasana, Bogotá, Colombia
Certificate in Humanitarian Action and Peace Building
Javeriana University, Bogotá, Colombia
Awards
Global Innovators Scholarship
Pacifica Graduate Institute
Final Dissertation with Honors
Artistic Experience and Life Meaning
Javeriana University