Broken Bowl®: Healing and The Ancient art of Kintsugi

Date: Saturday February 28, 2026
Time: 10:00am–5:00pm Pacific Time (with an hour lunch break)
Location: NWCEAI Studio: 1631 15th Ave. W. Ste 305 | limited to 12 participants
Available CEs: 6
Facilitator: Christa Brennan,LPC, LCAT, ATR-BC
Cost: $219.00

Registration Deadline: Wednesday February 25, 2026

Broken Bowl is an experiential workshop based on the Japanese philosophy of Wabi Sabi and the ancient practice of Kintsugi.

Kintsugi is the practice of repairing broken pottery with gold, and Wabi-sabi is a Zen Buddhist philosophy that teaches us to embrace the imperfect nature of life. Broken Bowl borrows these concepts and applies them through the use of art therapy to help individuals with grief, loss, and trauma. This approach treats the cycle of breakage and repair as a part of an object’s history rather than something to be discarded or disguised. It serves as a metaphor for our own healing process as individuals.

In this day-long, hands-on workshop, you will engage in a process of intentional destruction by breaking your bowl, decorating the pieces to help make meaning, and finally putting them back together to create something new. This creative approach to grief work merges expressive arts with attachment theory, trauma theory, and Niemeyer’s constructivist theory of meaning making. This deeply personal experience aims to help you cultivate radical acceptance, curiosity, and self-compassion and may bring up strong emotions surrounding loss. Therefore, it is recommended that participants bring a journal/notebook to help them process the day. Participants will learn the fundamentals of Broken Bowl, and how to apply it to a variety of clinical settings.

Learning objectives

1. Participants will learn clinical applications of Expressive Arts Therapy in grief, loss and trauma counseling.
2. Participants will be able to define the concepts of Wabi Sabi and Kintsugi.
3. Participants will learn key concepts of resiliency related to Zen Buddhism.
4. Participants will learn understand the five stages of Grief as defined by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.
5. Participants will learn to apply the concepts of Neimeyer’s Constructivist Theory of Meaning Making to Broken Bowl.
6. Participants will learn about the benefits of Broken Bowl when used with individuals who are grieving or healing from trauma.

Required Materials

• Optional: journal/notebook
• All other materials will be provided. 

Northwest Creative & Expressive Arts Institute Cancellation & Refund Policy

Earning Continuing Education Credits

To receive a CE Certificate for completion of this workshop, you must officially register, attend the workshop in its entirety and complete an evaluation form after the workshop. The evaluation form is emailed to you by the following Friday of the workshop. After completing & submitting the evaluation form, a CE Certificate will be emailed to you within 5-7 business days.

Who is eligible to receive CEs?

• Nationally: Approved NBCC Provider for Mental Health Counselors, Marriage and Family Therapists, and Licensed Social Workers (you are responsible for confirming that your organization/state will accept NBCC credits.)
• New York Licensed Creative Arts Therapists (LCATs
• Washington State School Counselor/Teacher (OSPI) Approved by the Washington State Office of Public Instruction as a “Washington State approved clock hour offering workshop.”
• If you are outside of Washington State, we advise that you check with your state licensing board to confirm that they accept NBCC Approved CEs. 

Northwest Creative and Expressive Arts Institute is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed creative arts therapists. #CAT-0123.

Northwest Creative & Expressive Arts Institute (NWCEAI) has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7104. Programs that do no qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Northwest Creative & Expressive Arts Institute (NWCEAI) is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.