Art Healing Program
The Power Of Art Healing
At Art Of Our Soul, we believe that art has the ability to enhance one’s mood, emotions, and other psychological states. Addicts and alcoholics often suffer from anxiety, stress, depression, and isolation. Art has the potential to contribute toward reducing stress and depression as well as serve as a vehicle for alleviating the burden of this challenging disease.
Art helps people process and express experiences that are too difficult to put into words. Art can be a refuge from the intense emotions associated with illness. We strongly believe the imagination knows no limits in finding creative ways to express grief and trauma. In particular, molding clay can be a powerful way to help people express feelings as there is tactile involvement at a somatic level. This method also helps to begin communication and cathartic release while revealing unconscious materials and symbols which cannot be expressed through words.
How Art Impacts The Soul
There’s a big difference between clinical art therapy and art used as therapy. Art *IN therapy centers around the creative process as a healing tool. The advantages of using art *IN therapy:
1) Help patients express feelings/emotions in a safe environment.
2) Help gain insight into what the patient is feeling through artistic representation: color choice, composition, etc.
3) Make recovering addicts feel confident, valued, and empowered by exploring their creative side by reconnecting with their inner-child.
We believe art used In therapy helps recovering addicts express their emotions, improve self-esteem, manage addictions, relieve stress, improve symptoms of anxiety and depression, and cope with recovery. Art allows a person to convey ideas and emotions while exploring issues in a way that allows a person to communicate in a non-verbal way. Many recovering addicts initially feel hesitant about exploring and addressing those issues in group therapy (12 Step Meetings), this is a healthy alternative.
How Our Program Works
Art Of Our Soul partners with behavioral health clinics and addiction treatment centers to offer 90 minute art sessions. Each partnering clinic or group sends up to 15 patients for an art session. Classes are held at the Art Of Our Soul studio located at 935 E Indian School Road in Central Phoenix. What makes this place special: All teaching artists are recovered addicts or have suffered mental health challenges. We believe this background and experience is crucial in order to connect with the ARTicipants in their recovery. *All art supplies will be provided. Each person will leave with their own unique piece of abstract acrylic art.
Who Is Brandon Lee
Brandon Lee has been in recovery from addiction for more than 13 years. He hit his rock bottom in 2010. Brandon struggled to find hope or joy in early recovery. He suffered severe depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. After 11 years of continuous recovery, Brandon experienced his first relapse. That relapse led Brandon down a dark path to a point of wanting to end his life. At that time, Brandon was a 5-time Emmy Award winning news anchor for CBS News in Phoenix, Arizona. He had just published a best-selling memoir on mental health, Mascara Boy. Brandon felt the weight of shame that so many others have experienced after a relapse. Brandon worked with a therapist to reprocess his childhood trauma: sex abuse, physical abuse and neglect. As Brandon began to heal from the childhood trauma he experienced, he began having vivid dreams of artwork. A little boy kept appearing in his dreams by throwing paint on him. Brandon's therapist encouraged Brandon to give painting a try. Brandon went to the art store to buy some art supplies. He turned his guest room into a make-shift art studio. Months later Brandon had another vision: to leave his 22 year career in news and open Art Of Our Soul to give trauma survivors the gift of art in the same way art has helped Brandon heal from his trauma. Brandon left CBS News in September of 2021. He opened Art Of Our Soul two months later in November. Art Of Our Soul opened its doors with 3 committed programs. In 14 months, Brandon is now operating the flagship studio with more than 16 partnering programs, providing art healing sessions to more than 600 trauma survivors each month. He helps more than 8,000 trauma survivors heal through art each year. The trauma Brandon has experienced in his early life has led him to his purpose. Brandon is one of the most sought after public motivational speakers. He travels the country to speak about how trauma impacts our minds and bodies, and how we can use those traumatic experiences as an opportunity to find our life's purpose.
Program
(We can explain how the service we provide to your clients is billable to insurance)
Includes:
4 Art Healing Sessions/Month
15 People Per Class
All Art Supplies Included
4 Social Media Marketing Posts/Month (300k ppl reach on social)
Team Bonding Events
Art Of Our Soul offers Team Bonding Events for up to 14 people per session. Please send a message through this website to reach the Art Of Our Soul team to book your next event!
*Team Building Events*
$150/person
Minimum of 10 people
Maximum 15 people
90 minute session
Meet The Team
Brandon Lee, CEO
Ashley Walton: Yoga, Breathwork, Sound
Bex Cox: Yoga, Breathwork, Sound
Brandon is the Founder and CEO of Art Of Our Soul.
Bex Cox: Yoga, Breathwork, Sound
Ashley Walton: Yoga, Breathwork, Sound
Bex Cox: Yoga, Breathwork, Sound
Bex is a 200-hour certified yoga teacher whose work is rooted in compassion, advocacy, and an unwavering belief in others. Her presence is soft yet powerful, meeting people exactly where they are while gently encouraging growth, healing, and self-trust. She carries a deep commitment to those who have felt unseen or unheard, using her voi
Bex is a 200-hour certified yoga teacher whose work is rooted in compassion, advocacy, and an unwavering belief in others. Her presence is soft yet powerful, meeting people exactly where they are while gently encouraging growth, healing, and self-trust. She carries a deep commitment to those who have felt unseen or unheard, using her voice to advocate for underserved communities and to amplify the voices of those still finding their own.
Her relationship with yoga began as a personal refuge and evolved into a transformative journey of recovery and self-discovery. Through years of dedicated practice, Bex experienced firsthand how movement, breath, and mindfulness can restore connection to the mind, body, and spirit. This lived experience reshaped her understanding of healing and inspired her to extend these practices beyond herself and into the community.
Bex has played a key role in expanding access to holistic healing by bringing yoga, sound, and creative expression into justice-involved spaces. She also developed and launched a yoga, sound, and art-based program within a leading nonprofit organization, creating opportunities for individuals to explore recovery through creativity, embodiment, and connection.
For Bex, yoga is not simply something she teaches, it is something she lives. It informs how she shows up in her relationships, her recovery, and her service to others. Her work is guided by the belief that healing is possible for everyone, and that being truly seen can be the beginning of transformation.
Outside of her professional work, Bex values connection and community. She spends time with her partner, her dog, and close friends, and remains actively involved in the recovery community, where she is often found supporting others. At the heart of everything she does is a message she carries into every space: “I believe in you!"
Carey Gerst: Art Facilitator
Ashley Walton: Yoga, Breathwork, Sound
Ashley Walton: Yoga, Breathwork, Sound
Carey is a healing artist passionate about using creativity to spark healing, connection, and joy. Her own story has been shaped by trauma, and through the process of creating, she has experienced how art can bring comfort, release, and healing in ways words sometimes cannot. That personal journey is what fuels her passion for helping ot
Carey is a healing artist passionate about using creativity to spark healing, connection, and joy. Her own story has been shaped by trauma, and through the process of creating, she has experienced how art can bring comfort, release, and healing in ways words sometimes cannot. That personal journey is what fuels her passion for helping others find freedom, confidence, and hope through creative expression.
Through art, she creates safe, meaningful spaces where people feel seen, supported, and empowered to rediscover their voice. Her work with incarcerated individuals and kiddos is especially close to her heart, as she has witnessed firsthand how art can restore dignity, inspire transformation, and remind people of their worth.
Ashley Walton: Yoga, Breathwork, Sound
Ashley Walton: Yoga, Breathwork, Sound
Ashley Walton: Yoga, Breathwork, Sound
Ashley is a certified 200+ hour yoga teacher who brings a grounded, heart-centered presence to every space she enters. With specialized experience in leading yoga, breathwork, and sound healing sessions, her work extends beyond traditional studios into prisons, rehabilitation centers, and community-based programs. She is deeply committed
Ashley is a certified 200+ hour yoga teacher who brings a grounded, heart-centered presence to every space she enters. With specialized experience in leading yoga, breathwork, and sound healing sessions, her work extends beyond traditional studios into prisons, rehabilitation centers, and community-based programs. She is deeply committed to making these practices accessible to justice-involved, adolescent, and underserved populations, creating spaces where individuals can reconnect with themselves through presence, mindfulness, and inner awareness.
Ashley’s teaching style is intuitive, compassionate, and engaging. She blends clear, effective guidance with gentle humor, offering thoughtful adjustments and a calm, steady tone that helps students feel comfortable, supported, and empowered. Drawing from her own lived experience in recovery, she understands the transformative power of yoga: not just as movement, but as a pathway to healing, spirituality, and self-connection both on and off the mat.
Known for her authenticity, warmth, and grounded energy, Ashley creates environments where people feel safe to show up exactly as they are. Her presence invites a balance of strength and softness, encouraging growth while honoring each individual’s unique journey.
Outside of her work, Ashley finds joy in spending time with friends and loved ones, caring for her family, and cheering on her daughter at volleyball games. She dreams of one day owning a farm, where she will open a goat yoga studio that blends her love for animals, community, and healing into a space that feels both playful and deeply restorative.
Dillon Penny: Art Facilitator
Kelly Kjos: Yoga, Breathwork, Sound
Brittany Reppert: Art Facilitator
Dillon is Art Of Our Soul's lead art facilitator at our studio inside Lewis Prison Complex in Buckeye, Arizona.
Brittany Reppert: Art Facilitator
Kelly Kjos: Yoga, Breathwork, Sound
Brittany Reppert: Art Facilitator
Brittany is an Art Of Our Soul art healing facilitator who works hand in hand with incarcerated women at Perryville Prison Complex and also works with the youth incarcerated at Adobe Mountain.
Kelly Kjos: Yoga, Breathwork, Sound
Kelly Kjos: Yoga, Breathwork, Sound
Kelly Kjos: Yoga, Breathwork, Sound
Kelly is one of the most sought after yoga facilitators in Arizona. She holds e-RYT 500, YACEP certifications and is the Founder of Smarana Yoga: School of Hatha Vinyasa.
Kelly began her Yoga practice in 2002. She obtained her first 200 hour certification in early 2014, with the intention of being able to bring the practice into jails, p
Kelly is one of the most sought after yoga facilitators in Arizona. She holds e-RYT 500, YACEP certifications and is the Founder of Smarana Yoga: School of Hatha Vinyasa.
Kelly began her Yoga practice in 2002. She obtained her first 200 hour certification in early 2014, with the intention of being able to bring the practice into jails, prisons, and inpatient rehabs.
Between 2014 and 2017, she obtained 4 additional, specialized 200 hour certifications including being certified by James Fox, the founder of The Prison Yoga Project. Her 6th certification was a 300 hour advanced intensive in Hatha, Pranayama, and meditation, with world renowned master teacher Everett Newell of Zuna Yoga.
The practices of Yoga and meditation are indispensable to her mental, emotional, energetic, and spiritual health, as well as her sobriety.
Yoga isn’t something we “do”...it is an Eight Limbed path that she lives daily.
Passing on this ancient wisdom, especially to those that are incarcerated and/or in rehab is her passion, as she has been in both herself. The only time she could escape the gravity of her mind and those facilities was when she was on her mat, and knew her calling was to bring it back in and share it with those who might benefit the most
Her favorite parts of teaching in institutions are: seeing the light in student’s eyes after they practice, hearing their feedback about their experience, and making everyone feels seen and supported.
She teaches in an accessible way that empowers everyone in the room to return home to themselves…the center of their beings, a place that can be healed and will remain calm, still, and safe.
Franchise Opportunity
Create An Art Of Our Soul Studio At Your Hospital or Behavioral Health Campus
Beginning in 2023, Art Of Our Soul is offering behavioral health clinics and hospitals a franchise opportunity to provide an art healing experience for all trauma survivors. Art Of Our Soul is an innovative music and art therapy program that has earned the praise of mental health experts nationwide for its profound impact on helping trauma survivors create new neural pathways that help release dopamine. Art Of Our Soul has become a critical part of treatment centers' overall clinical programs. In fact, it's often rated as their patients favorite experience while in treatment. There is no program like this in healthcare which is why healthcare leaders encouraged Art Of Our Soul's founder, Brandon Lee, to figure out a way to reach a larger census. That's exactly what Brandon has done. He has created an opportunity for clinics and hospital systems with a large census to build an Art Of Our Soul studio on their campus so they can offer this incredibly impactful program to their patients.
This is a unique franchise opportunity in that there are NO royalty fees. It's structured in a way that will be highly profitable for the franchisee. The services that Art Of Our Soul provides are billable to insurance.
If you are interested in learning more, please send a message through the contact form on this page and Brandon will respond to walk you through how the program works including the costs involved to bring this program to your patients.
Our Partners
