How Art Transforms Identity After Military Service

Exploring how creative practices reshape personal and cultural identity post-service through visual arts.

In this video from our Reimagining Health Care Leadership event, Dawson Wambolt, a psychologist who specializes in working with veterans with PTSD, discusses his vocational veterans’ rehabilitation program focused on training them in the visual arts. 

He shares his own military background, including the impact of losing colleagues and his subsequent struggles with mental health and career direction. After leaving the military, he transitioned to working with troubled youth and eventually pursued a career in psychology. 

With funding from the True Patriot Love Foundation, he developed a six-week intensive arts program, partnering with artist and veteran Jessica Wiebe and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. 

The program saw significant improvements in psychological well-being and personal growth among participants, with several veterans pursuing further education and even becoming professional artists.