GATHER THE WOMEN GLOBAL MATRIX

My name is Gayle Crosmaz-Brown & my business is the Zhii Healing Arts Studio in downtown Peterborough at Citi-Centre. My present career is that of an energy healer and counselor. I say present career because my lifetime of careers and personal journeys reads like a bucket list. This bucket list has been my lifetime of educational experiences all of which have guided me toward my present work in helping others with their life issues.

I am reminded of a conversation I had with my grand daughter, now 16, when she was around 5 or 6 years old. She would name off all the things she wished to accomplish in her life, things from paleontologist, marine biologist, artist, politician, archeologist and so on but could not decide which one she should pursue. She was a very precocious child for her age. I remember telling her she did not have to decide on any one particular career, I told her that there was no reason why she could not do everything she wished to accomplish in her life. All she needed was the desire to do it and with a confident heart she would do it all. MY grandmother taught this mindset to me at a very early age by watching her example. This is exactly what I have been doing for the past 37 years, fulfilling my childhood bucket list of desires. As a child I wanted to be an artist, but then I also wanted to be a fashion designer plus I dreamed of writing a book about my life experiences ever since I was a teenager. I wanted to travel across Canada and experience living in and exploring our beautiful country. I also visualized a strong loving family relationship. Now these dreams may not seem too much out of the ordinary for most but I was also saddled with life long hindrances and emotional traumas dragging me down into negativity like an anchor. I started my existence in an extremely dysfunctional family severely affecting how I lived my life imprinting within me how I saw myself. This too was training for my present career; experiencing, sharing, healing, and overcoming emotional issues led me to my present status as a healer. I started life out as an artist; I had received no formal training even though going to art school was my deepest desire. In 1978 at age 25 I presented my Bristol board portfolio full of detailed pen and ink drawings to the curator of the Northumberland Art Gallery, asking for an honest evaluation. I BELIEVED I was an artist my family and friends told me I was an artist but I wasn’t sure if I was just playing or if this could be a serious career. The curator, who became a friend for many decades guided me not to go to art school, he suggested that I keep practicing my techniques, making and learning from my own mistakes and grow my own unique personality of style. I took his advise not only within the idea of my art but also in the concept of my life. I continued for the next several decades living life and drawing as well as learning from my many mistakes moving beyond my own wildest dreams. With John’s encouragement I submitted my work in several competitions, winning many awards including one from the Ontario Society of Artists as well as a contract to be published. I was commissioned to do 3 drawings for a coffee table art book called “Under This Roof” the show toured for 14 months to major art galleries across southern Ontario. I have since been published many times, my instructional art book sold internationally and can still be found and bought on the internet. Since most of my earlier work was in pen and ink and that of a historical architectural nature, I can be found in two recently republished Historical Atlas’s; Hasting County Atlas and Peterborough County Atlas. My art has gone through many stages and growth, I taught from my home studio through Loyalist College, Belleville, Ontario and then at North Island College, Comox, British Columbia on Vancouver Is. Painting commission work and teaching enabled me to stay at home as an art career mom, I was always there to greet my girls when they arrived home from school. For personal reasons, I felt being there for my children was of ultimate importance; this was the strong family unity of my childhood desires.

Since traveling was part of my long time dream, I set off for and lived in Calgary, Alberta a couple of times in my early life, later it was Yellowknife, NWT and then Vancouver Island. Art as a means of my inner healing was always a mainstay even when I had to perform other jobs to support my career. I was a real estate agent, I worked in property administration and management, and I was a full time carpenter building houses and drafting blueprints with my husband for over a decade. I full filled my fashion designer dream by opening a vintage clothing shop. My creativity took on many different facets such as mural painting, art signs, house, people and animal portraits. I even had the opportunity to perform the duties as director of the long time running Buckhorn Fine Art Festival, Buckhorn, Ontario. My husband and girls are always part of all my choices, they accompany me at trade shows, they have aided me in teaching classes and the girls have preformed, by singing at my many networking events. They are forever an interracial part of my life and my career. We enjoyed the adventurous lifestyle of traveling and exploring Canada together, including being homeless in the rain forest. There was one point during the early 90’s when we lost our home and possessions during the recession. So with spirits high I said, “We are moving to Vancouver Island.” Packing up what few possessions and small amount of money we had left we all headed west. We lived homeless in a tent in the rain forest where the girls gathered stones from the beach. I painted local scenes on the flat little rocks then the girls would sell the mini scenes to the tourists. Within 6 weeks we were in a house where I started up my art classes and within 6 months I had an art store and studio in Courtney, BC. I was teaching my girls that positive belief over rides all negativity, what you believe makes it real. In addition to much hard work!

It has been the life long struggle to overcome emotional and physical abuse, which led me to what is the most important career choice I have ever made. I began my emotional recovery with another one of my bucket list options, which was that of a writer telling my story. I wrote a rough draft of my experiences from the age of 4 to the age of 25 and how they affected my emotional growth. I wasn’t sure if anyone would be interested in what I had to say so I took my rough draft to an acquaintance, Graham Woods, a professional novelist and a writer of TV movies for CBC. He immediately felt my message would reach more people & quicker if it was made into a movie instead of a book. He was excited to write the screenplay and sold the idea to CBC. The movie “Anne’s Story” was released in 1983, viewed by over 2 million people across Canada. It was rereleased in 1984 in the U.S. for Canada week and then in South Africa in 1985. The movie was shown in sexual assault centre’s across Canada and the U.S. as a teaching tool. I was able to successfully have to have a short story published in a booklet called “Voices” which is still used in sexual assault centre’s in Canada. I used these life experiences as the premise of my public speaking in high schools, Rotary International, Probus Group and sexual assault centre’s talking about speaking out against abuse.

The information I have gleaned from all my experiences in life, the ups and downs and how to over come them with joy is all part of who I am and what I teach. I am an energy healer, today energy as an alternative therapy is the fastest growing means of healing. I hold a discussion and meditation group, provide one-on-one counseling sessions, and conduct an art therapy group at the studio. Recently music therapy, another of my passions, is about connecting with Alzheimer’s and dementia clients in local Peterborough nursing homes. It has been getting some serious attention; I facilitated an art therapy workshop with clients from Community Living across Ontario at their annual “People First” conference.

I have finally taken that step toward writing and finishing my book. However it doesn’t cover the issues I thought I was going to cover these many decades, but it instead is a book of awakening to a positive lifestyle. Positive thinking is merely icing over a negative thought, It just makes negative easier to swallow. Positive belief is all encompassing with no negativity in the mix, it ultimately becomes your reality. What you believe is what you are, there in lays the problem. If what you believe is negative than that becomes real too. I believe