Come in, take off your shoes and stay a while.
Art Therapy
Art Therapy is a type of therapy that helps you to communicate with yourself and your therapist through the use of art or the creation of art. The use of art expression and the process of art-making is another language where you can recognize and acknowledge emotional upheavals and begin the healing process. When you have an experience that leaves you feeling troubled, guilty, angered or unhappy, you can begin working through these feelings using the creative process.
NO ART SKILLS OR EXPERIENCE is NECESSARY. Your mind and body know how to create the same way your lungs know to breathe and your eyes know to blink. It’s a fundamental drive that is built in to your body. You use all of your senses during the process and this creates a connection that contributes to the healing process. Art Therapy can help people who are braving emotional, mental and health concerns, as well as those who are seeking growth in any are of their life.
Art Therapy for Children and Adolescents:
Using art as a language to communicate helps children and adolescents that may not have the verbal vocabulary to articulate what their minds and bodies recognize as upsetting feelings and thoughts. Art bridges that gap and helps to connect mind and body to integrate feelings, behavior and language in a way that is meaningful and makes sense to them and allows for healing and positive transformations.
Sandtray Therapy
What is Sandtray Therapy? I like to call it a safe space within a safe space. The Sandtray is a place where you can show me your world, thoughts and feelings in a way that incorporates images into your narrative. This helps me to understand you in a new way where I can help you. When you have an experience, whether it’s pleasant or distressing, the information becomes stored in the right side of our brain. Language skills come from the left side of our brains. Because of this, it can become difficult to put into the right words what you are trying to say with verbal skills alone. That is where the sand tray can help you express your thoughts and feelings through the use of the tray and miniatures. Because you are doing this in my office (safe space), within the boundaries of a sand tray (another safe space), you can experience security during this process. The best part of this is it’s for EVERYONE! There is no age limit to who can engage in the sand tray.
Integrative Therapy
There are many approaches to psychotherapy just as there are many methods to treating physical symptoms. In my opinion, not one method for any treatment works best for every person. Being unique and wonderfully-made are the best things about being a human being. Because every person is so unique, I choose to take an integrative approach to therapy. This involves taking a close look at who you are, where you are, where you want to be and incorporating various therapeutic tools and approaches to help you reach your goals.
I use this approach with every client whether using traditional psychotherapy, Sandtray or Art Therapy. This allows flexibility in how I can help you and how you can navigate the changes that are happening in your life.
Faith Based Counseling
Faith based counseling incorporates spiritual beliefs in to the therapeutic atmosphere. This role will be different for every person and every therapist. The extent of that spiritual aspect will be considered and incorporated as discussed during the initial sessions together. Some people simply want to experience a therapeutic relationship with someone who understands and shares many of their same beliefs. Others may want to focus on the spiritual aspect in order to achieve their physical or emotional goals. My background is a Non-Denominational Christian foundation. If you have a spiritual background and would like this incorporated into your therapeutic relationship then please discuss this with me so that we can work together to help you achieve your spiritual goals.