Individual Art Therapy

Sealed Tight. You’re not one to air feelings openly.

You have a hard time talking about your emotions. It’s not that you don’t have deep thoughts. In fact, tons of feelings are bubbling within you. You just don’t know how to get them out.

Or, you know something isn’t right inside. But when you try to find the words, you’re just… blank. You don’t know what’s wrong, and even if you did, you wouldn’t know how to talk about it.

Art is another way to communicate, just like talking or writing. Instead of chatting about your thoughts and feelings in therapy, we make art about them.

You don’t need an ounce of artistic skill to benefit from art therapy. If you’re an art fanatic and love to get creative, then you’ve come to the right place, too!

You’re tired of talking with no destination in sight.

You’ve tried talk therapy before. At first, it was a relief to unload everything on your mind and feel validated. But eventually, you reached a point of talking in circles without progress.

Art therapy helps get thoughts and feelings outside of you so you can see what’s going on. Difficult issues become easier to work with. Emotions seem less daunting. New insights surface.

You get to the bottom of concerns faster because art psychotherapy goes around the limitations that language and self-judgment place on your ability to see and solve problems.

There’s also a neurological benefit. Art therapy engages your brain in bilateral stimulation, much like EMDR therapy. It connects your creative, emotional, and imaginative right brain with your rational, logical left brain. We access your deepest needs, hopes, and problem solutions by building a bridge between the right- and left-brain hemispheres.

Art therapy paints a new picture.

Wait! Before you say, “I’m no good at art,” I encourage you to try.

Doodles are welcome, and I like to say, “Stick people have feelings, too!” We don’t care what the artwork looks like, only what benefit you get from it.

Plus, when was the last time you practiced making art? Maybe yesterday. But maybe not since third grade. No one expected Serena Williams to be good at tennis without practice. The same goes for artmaking. That’s why I’m here to help. I make it easy, so you can get to healing.

We choose art materials according to your comfort level and what you want to work on in counseling. I enjoy markers, oil pastels, and collages. You might like colored pencils, paint, sculpture, or photography. Digital art is another option; we can draw on the computer.

A Few of My Favorites

Meaning-Making through Mandalas

Mandalas (art made within circles) can serve a lens into personal development, identity, and meaning. The archetypal symbols that naturally surface in mandala art help you work through difficult experiences and life milestones. Mandalas can be a source of creative inspiration, an access point for deep knowing, and a guide map to wholeness. Therapeutic work with mandalas is inspired by psychotherapists like Jung, Hillman, Erikson, Kellogg, Cohen, Thayer-Cox, and more.

I use mandalas in art therapy sessions. I also teach other healing professionals about them in workshops.

Therapeutic Hand Papermaking

Hand papermaking mirrors lifecycles: birth, death, and rebirth. The process begins with a cathartic release of frustrations as you tear and prepare fibers. Recycled fabric is beaten to a pulp. Submerged in water, it’s formed into paper. It is transformed into paper that becomes a card, journal, or artwork. The paper is a metaphor for the counseling process. The difficulties of life tear us apart, but through our deconstruction, there is potential to be born anew.