frequently asked questions

Art Therapy is a healing modality that involves art making, creativity, and counseling with the support of a credentialed Art Therapist, with the goal of overall improved quality of life. The beauty of Art Therapy is that you do not have to be “good at art” or be a “creative person” to benefit from it. 

It's true that making art requires creativity, and it's also true that creativity is a powerful force within each of us. Creativity allows us to CREATE changes in our lives, make meaning of circumstances, and imagine possibilities. Without creativity, we wouldn't be able to use language or daydream or even have hope during tough times. We all have the ability, need, and drive to be creative, but some of us have lost touch with this power (dare we say SUPER power?). 

We can think of creativity as a muscle: the more you use it , the stronger it becomes. Creativity is not about being the next Picasso; it’s more about personal power and connecting with our own ability to express ourselves, which can help us problem-solve in our daily challenges, have more fun, and experience fuller, richer lives. Tapping in to our own creativity with Art Therapy can help reduce stress and anxiety, while promoting resilience, personal insight, problem-solving, self-esteem, emotional expression, and life balance. 

 It can be helpful to think about creativity and art in relationship to sports. The benefits of art and creativity aren’t meant to be reserved for a few elite gifted professional artists….just like the benefits of athletics and fitness are not meant for just a few gifted professional athletes. 

Art Therapy is more about the process of communicating and expressing in a creative way, and much less about the art product.  So, the art in Art Therapy is really only used as a means of communication and expression, AND, since there is no wrong way to express oneself or communicate, then there is no wrong way to make art. 

Art therapy sessions can involve a variety of creative and expressive activities, such as drawing, painting, collaging, doll making, poetry, and more. At times Art Therapy can be fun and relaxing, and at other times it may stir up painful emotions...in either case the emotional expression is normal/healthy/beneficial as important part of the healing experience as we move toward physical, mental, and emotional wellness 

Most people want to be healthy, but many of us struggle to make the most of nutrition. Nutrition Therapy is an individualized clinical approach that promotes a greater sense of nourishment in the physical and psychological body, through nourishment and balance in multiple areas of life. 

In the western world, nutrition is often only considered when it comes to weight management, but our mental and physical health are dependent on the nutrients we consume and absorb, and how they are utilized by the brain and body. We each have individual variations in our genetics, cultural preferences/traditions, health histories, wellness goals, and relationships with food. We can use the food and nutrients we consume to support our psychological health and physical well-being.

Nutrition Therapy involves working with a functional medicine nutritionist, who looks at nourishment from multiple angles including food, friends, emotions, work, environment, and thoughts. How we are nourished in each of these areas can greatly affect our health and function. When the interconnections between these parts of our lives are truly identified and valued, we can move toward more permanent shifts in self-care, as we move away from dis-ease and distress.

At the initial nutrition visit, we will review the results of your completed nutritional intake assessment, gather more details of your nutritional history and relationship with nourishment, and discuss your goals for working together. Initial recommendations will be made depending on your level of readiness, priorities, and goals.

While many people are familiar with how life events and stress can influence mental health and mood, fewer are familiar with the effects that food and other nutrients can have on our mood and outlook. Many dysfunctions that show up as mental health symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, obsessiveness, addictions, and apathy, can be supported by nutritional interventions in addition to psychological support. The foods and supplements we take in can also influence neurotransmitters and enhance communication between the gut and the brain. In addition, identifying and minimizing foods that can exacerbate symptoms or influence inflammation in the brain and body can greatly influence treatment outcomes and provide a greater sense of vitality and lasting wellness.    

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a therapeutic approach that is found to be highly effective in relieving traumatic stress symptoms. It can be used to successfully treat many conditions, including depression and anxiety. 

EMDR is based on the Adaptive Information Processing model of the brain. This model holds the following concepts:

• “Memory Networks” in the brain are the basis for our perceptions, attitudes, and behavior.
• The information processing system (our brain and nervous system) normally moves towards health, or “adaptive resolution”. Like digesting food, we incorporate what is useful for future use, and discard content that doesn’t have use or value.
• When a disturbing event occurs, it can get locked in the brain with original pictures, sounds, thoughts, feelings, and body sensations. For example: if we were to remember a humiliating event from when we were young, we may feel the hurt and embarrassment as if it were fresh, rather than years past.
• Unprocessed material often manifests itself through physical sensations.

How EMDR helps:

• EMDR seems to stimulate the information and allows the brain to reprocess the experience. This may be what is happening in R.E.M. or dream sleep. The eye movements (or tones or tapping) may help process the unconscious material.
• EMDR may assist in increasing neural connections between groups of synapses or memory networks allowing the isolated traumatic memories to be connected with adaptive information.
• EMDR may re-route neural pathways, so that a memory no longer triggers an emotional response (in the limbic centers of the brain), but instead connects with higher reasoning areas of the brain (the prefrontal cortex).
• EMDR also helps by developing dual awareness - the ability to remember past events and related sensations and emotions, while simultaneously experiencing yourself in the present, safe, now.
• EMDR also helps by providing controlled exposure and desensitization to disturbing material. It is your brain that will be doing the healing and you are the one in control.

What to expect with EMDR:

• History taking: we will discuss your current symptoms, what triggers them, past events that may be related, your beliefs about yourself, and your hopes for the future.
• Developing a target: we will pick specific, pertinent images that represent traumatic or upsetting memories, and discuss the feelings, thoughts, and body sensations associated with them.
• We will find words related to the memory that describes what you think of yourself in your worst moments, even if you know it isn’t true.
• We will generate a statement that contradicts the negative belief.
• We will develop some calming resources before we process and memories.
• We will process memories associated with thoughts, feelings, images, and body sensations. We will do this by using eye-movements, audio tones, and/or tactile taps. These “sets” of Bilateral Stimulation usually last about 30 seconds to a minute. During these sets you may experience many fleeting thoughts, evolving images, and new insights. You do not have to do anything special, just let whatever happens, happen.
• Ideally, at the end of each session, you will no longer feel disturbance from the memory, however, complete closure is not always possible in each session. We may use calming resourcing to ground at the end of the session.

Please visit www.emdria.org for up-to-date research. You can also watch a video here.