MEET YOUR CREATING

MANDALAS TEAM

Creating Mandalas: Our Team Story

CREATING MANDALAS began as a partnership between two sisters: Susanne Fincher and Marilyn Clark. Much to our surprise and delight, we discovered that we shared common interests and forged a deep friendship as adults. We presented mandala workshops together for several years. Then our lives got busy with family and other work. Marilyn stopped mandala teaching. Susanne continued presenting week long mandala intensives with her friend, Elizabeth Rucker, until Elizabeth decided it was time to retire. Fortuitously, Marilyn was then available to rejoin Susanne.

In the early 2000’s we started to work together again with a new vision: a certificate program on the theory and use of mandalas incorporating the ideas of C.G. Jung, Edward Edinger, Joseph Campbell, Joan Kellogg, and Stan Grof. The text for the program was Susanne’s book Creating Mandalas. The program combined training and independent research. Upon completion participats were awarded a Certificate of Completion in “Mandala – Holistic Reflection of the Self.”

We were busy, and we needed more hands and brains to do the work. In 2012 we invited Susan Johnson, a graduate of our CREATING MANDALAS Certificate Program (CMCP), to join us on staff. Susan accepted our invitation, and we danced with joy when our partnership expanded to a team. She lives near Susanne in Atlanta, is enthusiastic about the CREATING MANDALAS program, and finds uses for mandalas that suit her passion for social justice and spiritual growth. And then Paige Scheinberg came in 2014, first as an art therapy supervisee of Susanne’s, then as a CMCP student, and now as a full fledged member rounding out our CREATING MANDALAS team as a credentialed art therapist, a workshop leader, yoga practitioner and teacher. Yes, we needed a talented millennial or two to help bring us into the 21st century.

Our sisterhood has expanded to four, each of us with our own expertise, passions, and goals. Monthly conference calls find us dreaming, planning, and laughing as we enjoy this rich soup of creativity. You can be sure that the soup is served up in a round--mandala--soup bowl and that it nourishes each of us.

YOUR CREATING MANDALAS TEAM

SUSANNE F. FINCHER

More than 40 years ago I discovered my love of creating mandalas. In 1976 during a time of grieving, I found that sketching circular drawings made me feel calm. Someone told me that I was creating mandalas. I began studying the writings of psychoanalyst C. G. Jung because he had described circular drawings, which he called mandalas, in his work with patients. My interest grew and I found my way, thanks to a tip from Marilyn Clark (my sister), to the MARI (Mandala Assessment and Research Institute) training of Joan Kellogg, an art therapist living in Baltimore, MD.

Joan’s ideas inspired me: rooted in ancient concepts, yet useful in contemporary mental health work. She became an important mentor for me and encouraged me during the writing of my first book,
Creating Mandalas. I obtained training and licensure to offer counseling and art therapy as a Licensed Professional Counselor, and a Board Certified-Registered Art Therapist. In my therapy practice, and through my books, lectures, classes, and workshops, I have introduced thousands of people in the US and beyond to the spiritual, psychological, and health enhancing dimensions of creating mandalas. I continue creating mandalas as a personal reflection dedicated to healing myself, my fellow beings, and the planet we all share.