Jessica Waters, PhD, LADC, CIMHP, CAGCS, E-RYT500

Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor | Integrated Emotional Wellbeing , Creative Wellness and Restorative Arts Specialist

Jessica “Jes”  Waters is a distinguished Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor (LADC) in Nebraska and credentialed in Colorado and Vermont. With a rich academic background, including a Ph.D. in Transpersonal Counseling-Psychology, and ongoing Integrated Medicine and Functional Medicine Training Jessica brings over 35 years of experience in education and human services to her telehealth-based practice.

Her expertise extends to trauma-informed expressive arts therapy, integrative medicine for mental health, clinical trauma treatment, and advanced grief counseling. She is deeply committed to the mind-body-spirit connection, employing innovative approaches that include somatics, movement, mindfulness, herbs, supplements, and lifestyle changes.  She is a colon cancer survivor who has a strong interest in gut health and emotional well being as well as post colonectomy gut health.

As a practitioner deeply engaged in Bhakti yoga for over 2 decades, Jes holds E-RYT500 and yoga teacher credential. Specializing in accessibility for diverse needs, she offers trauma-informed chair, bed, restorative, and accessible Yin yoga. A certified mindfulness teacher and coach, she has completed extensive training in Mindfulness Mind Fitness, MBSR, and Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness.

Beyond her academic and therapeutic achievements, Jes is recognized for her dedication to community service, having received the President's Volunteer Service Award twice. Jessica grew up in the middle of cow country outside Kansas City, born with art and music epigenetics in her family lineage. Her love for art came when she was introduced to process and expressive artmaking. Born amidst a thunderstorm and delivered from her ancestors (Anishinaabe/Cherokee/Osage/German/Irish/French) through the Thunderbird. In her timid youth, she could find expression without voice in music at the paino getting lost in arpeggios or hyperfocusing on color and movement as "the paint has it's own mind.... it knows where it wants to go."  Through contemplative, deep connection, she  follows the direction of the inner workings of the messages that are delivered through the spirit world to her, often not consciously knowing what will be revealed, but simply, trusting the process. Engagement in creation is an act of prayer, whether singing, composing, creating visual art , writing or movement.

She has served as a educator, professional development instructor, curriculum developer, school based resilience specialist, intentive outpatient addictions counselor, Executive Director and founder of a non-profit serving the homeless, private practice alcohol and drug counselor and integrated medicine for metal health practitioner. She has experience in her life with multiple traumas, sexual trauma recovery, addiction recovery, cancer survival and believes whole heartedly in a loving God Energy that creates miracles.

Heavily inspired by the Sufi poet Rumi as well as sound healing, Bhakti, Quakerism, Universalism, Progressive Christianity, Indigenous and Shamanic experience, field recordings and experimentation with found sounds, she engages in a transcendent, channeling and intuitive process in creating her art. Jessica also has experienced and learned from. the following faith paths: Sikhism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Foresquare International (Pentacostal), Community of Christ (RLDS), Lutheran, Centers for Spiritual Living (CSL), Unity, Unitarian Universalists and is a certified chaplain and hospice chaplain. She embraces all people’s, from whatever spiritual or religious path, or non spiritual or relgious path, they come from and is open and accepting to all genders, identities, orientations, ethnicities and cultures. She predominantly serves women in her practice.

She is the 7th generation of fine artists who were illustrators and commercial artists as well as worked in fibers, ink and paint.  She became an art and music teacher, settling in to teach art for over 2 decades and pursing expressive art therapy, healing arts and transpersonal, creative expression education, ultimately becoming an addictions counselor, psychotherapist, workshop facilitator and alternative medicine practitioner working in expressive arts therapy.   She has been featured on public, college and internet radio around the world since 2009.  She focuses on a body of work that combines her original musical compositions, voice and spoken word, & poetry with her visual art that create holistic, transpersonal experiences for the viewer and expressive, conceptual mixed media fiber collage and sculptural projects.

Predominately self-taught by watching her mother and grandfather, she also has studied at the Kansas City Art Institute (Certificate in Fine Arts - Mixed Media), the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology’s Creative Expression post graduate and doctoral program and her MFA work in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College, art history at Lindenwood, music technology at Southern Utah. She has been an expressive arts specialist working with trauma, grief and addiction healing with integrated therapies as well as an arts educator, school based resiliency practitioner and non-profit organizer. She completed numerous clinical treatment and coaching certifications from 2019-2024.

She's studied numerous expressive and formal art classes as a teacher of art in the public schools for 25 years and encouraged students to be confident in their intuition, innovation and creative risk taking, expressing what they want and need to express instead of following the rules of elements and principles.

Other specialties include:

• Therapeutic, Shamanic, Contemplative and Intuitive Art

• Trauma Informed Practice Expressive Arts including Restorative Embodiment and Nature Based Expressive Arts

• Cal State San Marcos Healing Through Art for Palliative Care

• Heath in Arts & Arts in Health* Certifications (*pending)

• University of Central Florida's Healing Through Art program

• Mindfulness and Contemplative Art Practitioner Certification

• Therapeutic Art Practitioner Certification

• FOAT Level 1 Certification

• SEL Arts Integration