Mari Grande LCSW, LCAT; Art and Trauma Therapist

05/05/2026

There is something a circle knows about you that words sometimes cannot reach.

The MARI Mandala has been used in art therapy for decades.

Not only as an assessment, but as a mirror for the inner world.

A way of asking: where are you right now. What are you carrying. What is ready to move.

On May 17, I am hosting a live 2-hour workshop to introduce you to this framework. We will explore the Great Round, trace its 12 stages, and make a mandala together.

Whether you are a clinician looking for new tools, or simply someone curious about what the circle might show you. You are welcome here.
Register here: https://www.creativehealingintegration.com/page/697767

MARI mandala workshop, mandala for self-discovery, art therapy online, expressive arts healing, mandala and psychological process

05/04/2026

There is something a circle knows about you that words sometimes cannot reach.

The MARI Mandala has been used in art therapy for decades. Not only as an assessment, but as a mirror for the inner world.

A way of asking: where are you right now. What are you carrying. What is ready to move.

On May 17, I am hosting a live 2-hour workshop to introduce you to this framework. We will explore the Great Round, trace its 12 stages, and make a mandala together.

Whether you are a clinician looking for new tools, or simply someone curious about what the circle might show you. You are welcome here.

Register here: https://www.creativehealingintegration.com/page/697767

MARI mandala workshop, mandala for self-discovery, art therapy online, expressive arts healing, mandala and psychological process

05/03/2026

Powerful substack article about motherless living:

On the CNN "r**e academy" story, the ten thousand year erasure of the Mother, and what we do now.

04/28/2026

In the MARI Mandala, Stage 4 does not just hold the energy of new beginnings in a general sense. It also touches something much earlier. The developmental pattern of the mother and child relationship.

At this threshold, something can arise that feels like longing. A longing for reassurance. For permission. For someone to say it is safe to begin, that there is support waiting on the other side of the first step.

For many of the people I work with, particularly those healing from early relational wounds or the impact of a critical or unavailable mother, this longing is deeply familiar. The question underneath beginning is often not simply "what do I want to create?" but something older and more vulnerable: "Do I have the right to take up space? To follow this impulse? To bring something of mine into the world?"

These questions arise from early layers. They are not signs of weakness. They are fingerprints of experience.

And recognizing them is often where the real healing begins.

Where in your life are you still waiting for permission to begin?

04/27/2026

When something new is trying to come into being, the nervous system needs enough safety to let it unfold.

This is something I see consistently in my work. People often interpret the difficulty of beginning as a motivation problem or a discipline problem. But frequently it is neither. It is a regulation problem. The system does not feel safe enough to take the risk of starting.

Stage 4 of the MARI Mandala speaks directly to this. It reminds us that beginnings are not purely acts of will. They are whole body experiences. And the body needs care, rhythm, rest, and encouragement before it can feel supported enough to step forward.

This is not a detour from the work. It is the foundation of it.

If beginning something feels harder than it should right now, the most useful question may not be "why am I not doing this?" but rather "what does my system need in order to feel safe enough to start?"

04/26/2026

One of the things I return to often in my work is the difference between a grand opening and a tender start.

We celebrate grand openings. We plan for them, announce them, dress for them. They feel certain and complete.

A tender start is different. It is the first breath of something that is not yet sure of itself. The fragile beginning of a new way of being, a new creative direction, a new sense of self that has not yet found its full voice.

Stage 4 of the MARI Mandala holds that energy. It is not the dramatic leap. It is the quiet, real, slightly shaky first movement toward something that matters.

In my experience working with people, the tender start is often where the most meaningful growth begins. Not in the confident arrival, but in the uncertain, hopeful press forward.

Where in your life is a tender start asking for your attention right now?

https://marigrande.com/april-and-mari-stage-4-the-courage-to-begin/

04/24/2026

Something I find endlessly meaningful about the MARI Mandala is its structure.

It is not just a circle. It is a circle divided into four quadrants. The top half represents consciousness. The bottom half, the unconscious.

Stage 4 sits right at that horizontal threshold, the boundary line between what we know about ourselves and what is still forming beneath the surface.

What I find so clinically and symbolically rich about this is how precisely it maps onto lived experience. Most of us can feel when something is moving beneath our awareness before we can name it. A restlessness. A quiet pull. A sense that something wants to change even though we have not yet decided to change it.

Stage 4 is that moment. And April, as the fourth month, carries that energy naturally.
What in your inner life is crossing a threshold right now?

Join the MARI Inner Circle to learn more here: https://marigrande.com/april-and-mari-stage-4-the-courage-to-begin/

04/24/2026

Most of us have been taught to wait until we feel ready.

Until the idea is clearer. Until the timing lines up. Until we feel certain enough, strong enough, sure enough to begin.

But in my experience, both personally and in the work I do with others, readiness rarely arrives before beginning. More often, it is the act of beginning that calls readiness forward.

April carries this energy in a quietly powerful way. There is something pressing just beneath the surface for many of us right now. Not urgency. Something softer. A sense that something in you is getting ready to break through, even if you cannot fully name it yet.

This month I wrote about what that threshold feels like, why it can stir both excitement and vulnerability at the same time, and what the MARI Mandala reveals about the courage it takes to let something new begin.

If April feels tender, this reflection might offer something useful.

Read it through the link below👇🏼

https://marigrande.com/april-and-mari-stage-4-the-courage-to-begin/

What feels like it is just beginning for you right now?

04/22/2026

I am so excited to offer.

This May, I am hosting an introductory workshop about the MARI Method, a symbolic framework developed by art therapist Joan Kellogg that brings the ancient form of the mandala into a structured clinical context rooted in Jungian thought and developmental theory.

We will explore the origins of the MARI, the structure of the Great Round, and the clinical relevance of mandala making in art therapy practice. There is also an experiential component, so you will have the chance to create your own mandala and begin applying reflective inquiry to your image.

This workshop has been approved by the Art Therapy Credentials Board for 2 continuing education credits.

Sunday, May 17, 2026 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. Eastern Online via Zoom

Early registration is $65 through April 30. Regular registration is $75.

Whether you are a healing professional, someone curious about the MARI, or simply drawn to mandala making and symbolic work, you are warmly welcome here.

Register here 👉 https://www.creativehealingintegration.com/page/697767

02/04/2026

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