Welcome

Originally from Romania, Silvia earned her Master’s from the University of Bucharest with an interdisciplinary degree in philosophy, psychology and pedagogy, and became one of first psychologists in orphanages. Education has continued to offer her new work opportunities in Switzerland, USA, and Canada. In 2000, she graduated from OISE, University of Toronto with a M.Ed. in Human Development & Applied Psychology, and was able to bring new contributions with OISE.A.A since 2012, when life brought her back from the USA. She was the Chair of the Leaders and Legends Award and has been rewarded with the Arbor Award (2016), which was one of her dearest achievements. Silvia has worked as a psychology professor at Centennial since 2012 and she is the founder of Rites of Passage –an educational and counseling organization. During the recent years she developed a series of emotional focus – art & music healing programs, which became the start point of small group counseling and workshops. Today, the work continues with various  communities in Toronto and overseas.

 

Art and music -as healing mediums - help clients develop a safe re-creation of a well-defined and balanced growth in the urban space.

It prepares individuals to survive abrupt changes which many times create anxiety, depression, and risk for suicide. Sometimes, as life changes, the unknown is easier to be expressed on a canvas and music than words. It is just a good way to start talking about expectations, a new life, or how to recover. 

 

The work represents an educational counseling intervention within the modern initiation as a compared model to oldest rites and rituals in which the individual belonging to a community is prepared to be transformed from a child to an adult, from a girl to a women and mother, from a youngster to a mature individual.