With a Bachelor’s of Fine Art from Bowling Green State University, I began my artistic journey and continued to use art as an outlet for expression over the course of 20 years. It was the innate healing power of art that drew me to become an art therapist. Societal conditioning, and systemic oppression have sought to take this personal power from us, having us believe what will make us whole again is outside of us. I wanted to share through art, what I believe is already an available healing power within all of us. I use a person-centered approach where you are the expert of you, and my goal is to create a safe space to explore what’s happening in your world. In order for us to work towards meeting your needs and goals, I will begin by seeing the world through your lens, understanding what the experiences you’re having are like for you.

I use the creative process in tandem with other psychological treatment modalities in a safe space of co-creation with you. Are negative thoughts and beliefs weighing you down? Let’s explore them with CBT. Do you want to explore who you are becoming and write a new story of yourself? Narrative therapy could be a path. Is anxiety keeping you in a state of disassociation and disconnection? Mindfulness approaches can bring awareness to our sensations and calm back into focus. The goal is finding the best way to work together on your terms, at your pace. In art therapy we can use color, texture, and shapes to help you discover your personal meaning and symbology, an inner language taking place within you. This is how art therapy works as a unique-to-you model of exploration for personal growth and healing.

I have a deep reverence for the cycles of life and feel there is an imbalance in our modern society around holding space for endings and beginnings. This is why I am committed to holding sacred space for grief with you. We live our lives in cycles, but most of us have been conditioned to see it as one straight line. Can we really fully live into our new birth if we never stopped to give love and attention to what we lost to get there? It’s important that space is made to transition through endings and beginnings. Skipping over these transitions and rites of passage can rob us of our wholeness of spirit. Know that you don’t have to experience the pain of grief alone and that here, there is space to slow down and lean in, when you are ready.