My therapeutic approach is individualized to your specific needs. I integrate different aspects of the below approaches to help you gain a very thorough therapeutic experience.
What is Art Therapy?
Art therapy is a therapeutic approach that taps into creative activities—like drawing, painting, sculpting, or even simple doodling—to help people express their thoughts and emotions. Art therapy can be a powerful tool to help uncover deeper parts of an individual and strengthen insight. It goes beyond traditional talk therapy by offering non-verbal ways to process difficult topics, which can be incredibly valuable when words fall short.
About Art Therapists:
Art therapists are master-level mental health professionals trained in art therapy and psychotherapy. There are state specific licenses and national board certifications that an art therapist must obtain to practice.
Art therapists use creative processes like drawing, painting, and sculpting to help people explore emotions, improve self-esteem, manage stress, and work through trauma. Trained in both psychotherapy and visual arts, they guide individuals or groups in expressing thoughts and feelings that may be difficult to articulate verbally. This therapy can be beneficial for a wide range of issues, including anxiety, depression, PTSD, and grief, among others. Art therapists work in diverse settings like hospitals, schools, mental health clinics, and private practices.
Who can Benefit?
Art therapy can be helpful to anyone of all ages and backgrounds.
Often used to reduce stress, boost self-esteem, manage trauma, or support those dealing with mental health challenges like anxiety or depression, art therapy doesn’t require any artistic skill. Instead, it focuses on self-expression and personal growth through creative exploration, making it accessible to anyone looking for new ways to process emotions and find relief.
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) is a structured, evidence-based therapeutic approach specifically designed to help children, adolescents, and their families cope with the effects of traumatic experiences. However, it can also be used to treat adults! It integrates traditional cognitive-behavioral techniques with trauma-sensitive interventions to address the emotional, psychological, and behavioral impacts of trauma, including PTSD symptoms, anxiety, and depression.
TF-CBT typically includes:
Psychoeducation about trauma and its effects.
Relaxation and stress management to help clients handle emotional distress.
Cognitive coping to identify and change unhelpful thought patterns.
Trauma narrative development, where clients gradually tell their trauma story, helping them process it in a safe and structured way.
In-vivo exposure, where safe situations previously linked to trauma are revisited to reduce fear.
Conjoint parent-child sessions to strengthen family support and communication.
TF-CBT is widely regarded as highly effective, with strong evidence showing it can significantly reduce trauma-related symptoms and improve overall mental health.
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Psychodynamic psychotherapy is a therapeutic approach that focuses on understanding the influence of unconscious processes, early experiences, and interpersonal relationships on current behavior, thoughts, and emotions. Rooted in psychoanalytic theory but typically shorter and less intensive, psychodynamic therapy aims to help individuals gain insight into unresolved conflicts and unhelpful patterns that may be affecting their lives.
Core elements of psychodynamic psychotherapy include:
Exploring Past Experiences: Therapists and clients discuss early relationships and significant life events to identify recurring themes and patterns that may still be impacting present-day behavior.
Uncovering Unconscious Motives: By examining feelings, thoughts, and memories that might be suppressed or partially hidden, clients can gain awareness of how these underlying motives shape their actions.
Understanding Interpersonal Patterns: The therapist helps the client see how their interactions and relationships with others might reflect unresolved issues or habitual ways of relating learned in childhood.
Transference and Countertransference: Similar to psychoanalytic therapy, clients may project feelings onto the therapist that reflect past relationships (transference). The therapist observes their own reactions to these projections (countertransference) to better understand the client’s relational patterns.
The goal of psychodynamic psychotherapy is to increase self-awareness, foster emotional resilience, and enable individuals to make healthier, more conscious choices. This approach is used for treating a variety of conditions, including anxiety, depression, personality disorders, and relationship issues.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Skills (DBT skills)
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills are techniques designed to help individuals regulate emotions, improve relationships, tolerate distress, and live more mindfully. Originally developed to treat borderline personality disorder (BPD), DBT is now used to support a wide range of mental health issues, especially those involving intense emotions, self-harm, or difficulty with interpersonal relationships. The four core DBT skills are:
Mindfulness: Involves being present in the moment without judgment. It teaches individuals to observe and accept their thoughts and feelings without reacting impulsively.
Distress Tolerance: Focuses on managing crisis situations without resorting to harmful behaviors. Skills include self-soothing, distraction, and practicing acceptance to tolerate intense emotions.
Emotional Regulation: Helps individuals understand and manage their emotions effectively. Skills include identifying and labeling emotions, reducing vulnerability to emotional triggers, and increasing positive emotions.
Interpersonal Effectiveness: Teaches people how to communicate assertively, set healthy boundaries, and maintain self-respect in relationships. Skills include strategies like DEAR MAN (Describe, Express, Assert, Reinforce, Mindful, Appear confident, Negotiate) for effective communication.
DBT skills can help people create more balance in their lives, build emotional resilience, and navigate relationships more effectively.
Eye movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR)
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy technique designed to help individuals process and recover from traumatic experiences and distressing memories. EMDR primarily targets the negative beliefs, emotions, and physical sensations that are often stored in the brain after a traumatic event, which can lead to ongoing symptoms like anxiety, PTSD, and depression.
During an EMDR session, the therapist guides the client to recall specific distressing memories while engaging in bilateral stimulation, typically through guided eye movements, tapping, or auditory cues. This process helps the brain reprocess traumatic memories, making them less emotionally charged and allowing the person to integrate these memories in a healthier way. Over time, EMDR can lead to significant reductions in trauma-related symptoms and improved emotional resilience.
EMDR is recognized as an effective treatment for PTSD and other trauma-related issues and is supported by organizations like the American Psychological Association and the World Health Organization.
