“Teaching and learning help each other grow (敎學相長): teaching was itself my growth.”
In 1996 I chose the path of becoming an expressive arts psychotherapist and began studying the mind. In September 2005 I took my first step with Haengbok Yeolgi in Yongin.
Thirty years have passed in the blink of an eye. For the first ten years I mostly taught art therapy and counseling; then, laying the theoretical foundations of Food Expressive Arts Therapy, I began the specialist courses.
Teaching became my own growth and the ground on which my scholarship stood firm. As the saying goes, “among any three people walking together, one is my teacher” (三人行 必有我師). Every teacher I met in these courses has been my teacher. I thank all the teachers who walked with me.
Twenty years have flown by since the day we shared food and learned the aesthetics of creation and the virtue of letting go. I opened again, one by one, the countless course records left in the cafes of the healing space Haengbok Yeolgi and the Korea Food Expressive Arts Therapy Association.
Over the years the course names changed little by little: Level 3, Level 2, Level 1, specialist instructor, master instructor, training supervisor. But when the association reorganized its certification levels in 2025, they could finally be arranged into three paths.
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The first path
Level 1 Food Expression Counselor: the first step to meeting myself
An introductory course in which you feel the healing qualities of food as a medium in your body, come to understand yourself and heal yourself.
- 2006–2010
Starting with the first Yongin cohort, we carried the food expressive arts therapist course through weekend intensives in Seoul, Busan and at Changshin University in Changwon.
- 2010–2011
A new genre of psychotherapy called Food Expressive Arts Therapy was born, and in 2011 the Korea Food Expressive Arts Therapy Association was founded. Understanding Food Expressive Arts Therapy (Yangseowon), which I wrote with President Kim Min-yong, came out at this time too. Level 2 basic courses also opened in Daegu and Gangwon Province.
- 2012–2013
We ran the Level 1 specialist course and a specialist course in New Jersey, USA, and in June 2013 the association’s Food Expression Counselor qualifications (Level 2, Level 1, training supervisor) were registered as private certifications with the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training.
- 2014–2019
From the second Tongyeong cohort, the Seoul, Cheonan, Tongyeong–Jinju and Suji classes to the first cohorts in Jeju and Gunsan, Level 1 specialist courses blossomed all over the country.
- 2021–2024
During the pandemic we continued the Level 1 course on Zoom, and opened Level 1 certification courses with branch head Lee Kyung-sook of the Gyeongnam branch, Professor Lee Bong-soon of the Gunsan branch and Osan University’s continuing education center.
- 2025 onward
Level 1 Food Expression Counselor now consists of Basic Course 1, Basic Course 2 and Food Expressive Arts Therapy in Practice, 20 hours each and 60 hours in all. This autumn of 2026, too, I am meeting new teachers on Zoom.
Food Expression Counselor continuing education, held online 
The Food Expression Counselor course at Osan University’s continuing education center 
The Level 1 Food Expression Counselor course of the Gyeongnam branch: thank you, branch head Lee Kyung-sook 
- 2006–2010
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The second path
Professional Food Expression Counselor: standing as someone who teaches
A course in which those who have completed Level 1 grow into counselors and instructors. The former specialist instructor, master instructor and training supervisor courses have led to today’s Professional Food Expression Counselor.
- 2011–2017
We held capacity-building workshops and advanced study groups for training supervisors, and in 2017 ran the fifth training supervisor course at Haengbok Yeolgi in Guro-dong. The time when teachers gathered from Jeju, Daegu, Tongyeong, Jeungpyeong and Cheonan shared their own theories in demonstration lectures is still vivid.
- 2018–2022
We widened the specialist’s path with the Level 1 specialist course, the Level 1 specialist instructor course, the master instructor certification course and the Changwon specialist instructor course.
- 2023–2024
I ran an intensive specialist instructor course with the teachers of Yegaram Academy in Yesan, and a two-day, twelve-hour specialist instructor course at the Tongyeong branch. Being my first long lecture in five years since the traffic accident, it made me all the more grateful. Case supervision on Zoom late into the night was precious learning too.
- 2025
I ran an intensive specialist course with neuroscience content for the Yesan teachers, and in September spent a whole day on Zoom with the former specialist and master instructors in continuing education to convert their qualifications to Professional and Senior Food Expression Counselor. It was time spent online with specialist teachers from all over the country, including Jeju, Daejeon, Busan and Jinju. In December I opened the first PuNolChi positive coaching class as a talent donation at a child protection agency in Yongin, and teacher Kim Yong-bok kindly helped as my assistant.
Today’s Professional Food Expression Counselor course is made up of:
- Theories of person-centered expressive arts therapy, positive psychology, neuroscience and active imagination
- Food Expressive Arts Therapy across the stages of life
- 70 hours of PuNolChi Mind Journey group counseling (becoming the master of your life, becoming a true person, building healthy families and society)
- Experience as client and counselor, supervision and lecture training
- Certification examination and case presentation
Once certified, you can teach the Level 1 Food Expression Counselor basic courses. I myself keep learning by receiving supervision online, together with teachers from China, from Jeon Tae-ok, a master of person-centered expressive arts therapy.
The Professional Food Expression Counselors who represent Korea are among the very best anywhere in the world. I am grateful to be able to work with them.
The Professional Food Expression Counselor course at the Tongyeong branch with Dr. Kang Dul-soon 
The Professional Food Expression Counselor course at the Tongyeong branch in 2024: DreaM coaching, cooking and eating your dreams 
Food Expression Counselors in intensive training in the PuNolChi Gongnol (study-play) coaching course in Yesan - 2011–2017
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The third path
From food expression coaching to PuNolChi coaching: seeping into everyday life
PuNolChi: when you express with food and play, the miracle of healing happens. This is the path by which that miracle spreads beyond the counseling room into schools, families and everyday life.
- 2011–2019
Starting from happiness coaching, it grew into food expression coaching for self-healing, the food expression happiness coaching instructor course and second specialist instructor cohort, the food expression mandala happiness coaching specialist course, and happiness coaching for the Korean Women’s Association in Singapore. In 2018 the first holders of the food expression Gongnol (study-play) learning coaching certificate emerged.
- 2020–2021
During the pandemic we held on to one another with free Zoom lectures every week at 8 p.m. Centered on the book The Food Expression Study Method That Builds Your Child’s Self-Esteem, we ran ten sessions each of the Gongnol coaching instructor course and the master instructor course on Zoom, studying self-esteem, self-efficacy, metacognition and brain coaching together. Gongnol Coaching Center No. 1 opened in Tongyeong, and with the Korea Suicide Prevention Counseling Center we also opened the second cohort of the PuNolChi respect-for-life specialist instructor course.
- 2022–2024
In the association’s seventh master course we worked on PuNolChi coaching for people who are depressed and anxious, and in schools in Buyeo, Asan and Seosan we continued creativity coaching and Gongnol learning coaching.
- 2025
The teachers of Yesan stood on their own as PuNolChi coaching specialists: one completed sixteen weeks of supervision as a learning coaching specialist instructor, and others presented PuNolChi coaching cases at an institution on the first day of September. They showed me the conviction that you can help someone even without a master’s or doctoral degree.
- 2026
That path now continues into the PuNolChi Academy top leaders’ course.
My thanks to the PuNolChi “Anabaram” (people who share generously and keep changing) coaches, who share good influence anytime, anywhere.
Dr. Park Mi-sook, who was the first to write a food expression havruta book in Tongyeong and keeps up wonderful work: thank you 
Congratulations to the new Gongnol coaching specialists: with Kwak Hyun-sook, my graduate student at Daejeon University, and Park Mi-sook, head of the Tongyeong Havruta Education Center 
Cheering on the PuNolChi coaching specialists who represent South Chungcheong Province 
Thank you, teacher Han Young-nam, for sharing what you learned in PuNolChi positive coaching and using it so well in after-school care classes 
A case presentation after a class at the Sapgyo Community Children’s Center by teachers who learned PuNolChi happiness coaching and deepen their expertise through talent donation - 2011–2019
The road ahead
Apart and together: two paths that grow deeper
Now that the 2025 reorganization has made the three paths clear, each of us means to grow deeper in our own place.
Level 1 Food Expression Counselor · Professional Food Expression Counselor
The path that carries on the expertise of Food Expressive Arts Therapy
The expertise of Food Expressive Arts Therapy will be carried on through the Food Expression Counselor courses by President Kim Min-yong of the Korea Food Expressive Arts Therapy Association and the branch heads across the country.
PuNolChi coaching
PuNolChi Coach · PuNolChi Master Coach
I intend to design properly and roll out the PuNolChi coaching course, which supports everyday care of mind and body, as two levels of certification: PuNolChi Coach and PuNolChi Master Coach (working titles).
See the PuNolChi Academy coaching courses →Food expression, unfamiliar at first, became a mirror in which some met themselves, and for others a strength to stand up again.
Meeting myself at Level 1, taking another’s hand as a professional counselor, seeping into life through coaching: the PuNolChi Mind Journey.
PuNolChi, as K-Contents and K-Healing Arts, keeps evolving and growing together with those who take an interest and join us, and with those who have stood by us for nearly twenty years.
I am deeply grateful to the K-FEAT association family and the branch heads and teachers across the country who have walked with me. With five minutes a day of psychology on the dining table, I will walk the next twenty years too, apart and together.
With love, Healing Santa Kim Ji-yu
This story was first posted in the Haengbok Yeolgi activity news board of the healing space Haengbok Yeolgi cafe and was edited for this page.