Welcome

Welcome to my Website! So glad you have taken the time to visit my website. Here you will find information about my work as a therapist and my creativity workshops.  These are stressful times we live in. The Covid-19 virus is affecting all of our lives in one way or another.  Job loss, depression, relational difficulties, concerns about staying safe only add to all the other stressors in life.  As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, I'm here to listen, give feedback and help and support women through the ups and downs of life. Together, we can identify your stressors and coping abilities, methods to develop strengths and learn tools to manage anxiety, depression and lower the effects of stress in your life.  Anxiety and depression can keep you stuck and unable to manage your life, but with support and guidance, you can feel better.  More and more women are developing chronic illnesses and are struggling to identify what they want to do with their lives.  Loneliness is on the rise as is the long term effects of trauma. The good news is, you do not have to suffer alone. You do not have to live day-to-day in emotional pain. Together we explore the issues that can affect relationships including those you have with yourself. One technique I use is cognitive behavioral therapy to uncover thought patterns that contribute to low self-esteem, anxiety and depression that can block happiness. Understanding the core beliefs you carry within is an important step to identify self-sabotaging behaviors. Support is only a phone call away. You deserve to have a life you are excited to wake up to. As women, single, married, widowed, partnered or divorced, we must learn self-care, how to set healthy boundaries, how to say "No," and when to ask for help. With self-exploration, understanding how past trauma can affect one's life today,  the healing process can begin! My Therapy Practice Specialties Individuals Art & Talk Therapy Women Anxiety Depression Career & Work Dilemmas Creative Freeze Chronic Health Issues Being Single in a Coupled World To be a Mother or Not  My fees: My fee for individual, 50 min session is $125. If you are struggling financially due to the Covid-19 pandemic, you can also work with me through the OPEN PATHS PSYCHOTHERAPY COLLECTIVE, which provides sliding scale fees. Go to their website at: www.openpathpsychotherapycollective.org for more info.  Video Therapy Due to the cover-19, therapy sessions are being held via telephone and/or video conferencing. Confidential remains my Talk Therapy I bring a wealth of life experiences both professionally and personally to the work I do with clients. I provide a safe and warm approach to therapy using a combination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Solution Focused Therapy and Mind Body approaches.  Whether we use traditional "talk" therapy and/or integrate creative expression, personal therapy can be an adventure rather than a drain.  Knowing oneself is an amazing gift to give to yourself. A therapy begins when we first connect over the phone. I will ask you a few basic questions about why you are seeking therapy at this time in your life and what your goals are for therapy. I will explain to you briefly how I work, my fee and the location of my office. If we decide to work together, we will set an appointment date and time.  I will email you my intake form and questionnaire for you to fill in and bring to the first session.  On the scheduled date, we will meet. I try to make clients feel comfortable to talk about what is going on in your life. I don't "fix" clients; I help guide and support you. Art therapy is a mental health profession that uses different art mediums to express thoughts and feelings. Images, colors and symbols will trigger feelings quicker and easier than words alone. It is not about how good an artist you are, it is about putting your feelings down on paper or expressed with clay. The process is here and now. It is not about the product. Client and therapist discuss the what it was like to create the art and what came up while creating the art piece. Therapists do not interpret, the ask questions to help clients make sense of their art. I do not take insurance, but I can provide you with a SuperBill that you can submit to your insurance company. My regular 1 hour fee is $125. I take checks, cash and Paypal and Venmo. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 24 Hours 1800-273-8255 Teen Hotline 800-852-8336 A few tips for coping with the COVID-10  PAUSE.Breathe. Notice how you feel  TAKE BREAKSfrom COVID-19 content  MAKE TIMEto sleep and exercise  REACH OUTand stay connected  SEEK HELPif overwhelmed or unsafe General public health information WORKSHOP NEWS QUARANTINE ART MAKING  Pick up your paint brushes, oil pastels, art journal, colored pencils and start creating to decrease anxiety, loneliness, frustration and more. As an art therapist and psychotherapist, AND a creative mentor, I see my role as helping to inspire women to explore their fun-loving and daring creative side, which we all have!  And, how you can use art to express thoughts and feelings that might be difficult to express with words alone. Engaging in a creative practice can add calm, joy and insight into your life.  What is so amazing about process art, is that it is not about right or wrong or whether you consider yourself artistic, it is about allowing yourself a safe place to play and explore what comes out on the page! It is not judging what you create, but allowing yourself to enjoy the freedom of the process.  I combine my varied background in the arts, psychology, spirituality, and women's studies to my work with women.  Aids in Managing depression, anxiety, and stress Increases insight into your life Improves motivation and focus Provides time for you Adds joy to your life Collage A creative practice: Through the process of art-making you build a healthy, loving and trusting relationship with yourself.  I believe the saying goes, the most important marriage you will ever have is with yourself! Why is this important? Because, whether you are in a relationship or find yourself alone, which chances are you will at some point in your life, you have enjoy your own company. That's right. So, I help women like themselves whether alone or partnered. It is essential to your emotional well being. I will write more about that later. Lastly, if you are a woman lacking motivation, or living with a chronic illness or wanting to feel happier and more content in your life, I might just be the therapist you are looking for.  Or, my workshop Women and Creativity might be worth checking out. I offer in person, group and workshop sessions. Many challenges can get in the way of getting to an office appointment therefore, traditional in office sessions are not always an option. There is nothing worse than being in emotional pain, wanting support and guidance, but not having the energy or time to make it across town. Having choices is what women need today.   MANDALA

Calm your Anxiety Away - create a mandala

If you've followed my blog, you know I write a lot about the art of mandalas. The Sanskrit word that means simply "circle." Every culture uses some form of the circle as a tool to promote calm, healing, meditation, enlightenment and more. Carl Jung, the Swiss Analyst believed the mandala is the voice of the unconscious. In my workshops, the art of creating mandalas, you create freestyle mandalas that represent where you are in your life today. No one mandala will look the same. We use colored pencils, collage and crayons to create personal mandalas. It is fun, connecting, relaxing and  telling.

How do mandalas help with anxiety? First, the circle is a contained space that provides safety. Second, creating mandalas is a meditative process that allows you to become centered, focused and relaxed, especially when you can silence the critical voice within. It helps to train the active thinking brain to be in the here and now and be totally in the process rather than product. Even if you color an already pre-printed mandala, your focus is on the design and not the thoughts in your head.  You can download pre-printed mandalas off the internet and color away.  Allow yourself to let go and let the process happen  You do not have to be an artist or even consider yourself create to make a mandala.  Be aware of how the shapes, images and colors affect your mood. Ask your critical voice to step outside as you move around in your circle.  You can even draw a freestyle circle on a small piece of paper if are waiting for a test or exam to begin and watch how your anxiety and worry shift.

The next time you feel yourself feeling overwhelmed, create a circle and begin coloring!

TAMING THE BEAST OF ANXIETY...1 mandala at a time

We all experience anxiety....anxiety is our fight or flight response that warns us of danger. It is a primal feeling that has its roots in protecting us from danger, BUT, we have learned through evolution to use it even when we are not physically in danger. It comes up at crazy times for instance when we are afraid we've made a mistake. OR, have a made a mistake and worry about the outcome. Anxiety surfaces when some feeling triggers a fear response that has us feeling unsafe. Another example might be when we have to give a speech or lecture. One of man's most feared events besides death is public speaking. Ask anyone and they will tell you they would rather do anything than speak in front of a crowd. I believe when we are experiencing a bout of anxiety, we are also in a place of not trusting ourselves. We fear something will go wrong; we will be laughed out; we fear we will embarrass ourselves in front others. At this moment, we have lost the ability to trust that we will be OK. In other words...we feel as though we are looking into the eyes of danger, we in fact, we are not in danger. Coloring mandalas are one creative technique that can aid in the calming of anxiety. Coloring within a boundaries of the circle provide a sense of safety, and boarders. Mandala is the Sanskrit word for "circle." I could write for lines about mandalas, but for this posting, I'm focusing on the use of mandalas to aid in managing the beast known as anxiety. If you can draw a circle, you can create a mandala...and it doesn't have to be a perfect circle. You can also print pre-drawn mandalas and color them in with markers, colored pencils, crayons or any other drawing medium you wish. You can make them as small or large as you wish. You can draw a circle using a circular object as a guide. Once you have created your circle, begin to draw within the circle. You can begin anywhere in the circle you wish. Begin drawing and observe how you begin to focus on the circle and not on your worry. I invite you to take on the mandala when you are faced with worry. Enjoy the process. For more about mandalas, read some of my earlier posts.

The "MAGIC" of Model Magic

It is always a challenge, well at least for me, when a teen comes into session with their head hung low, unwilling to participate in therapy, and wanting the session to end yesterday! I don't know what I would do if I didn't have training as an art therapist. Recently, a young boy ambivalently came into the playroom remarking that he didn't want to be there and didn't want to do "anything." I validated his feelings and at one point, asked him where in his body he feels the intense feelings he was having. He reported, "his stomach." I quickly told him that many times we have physical symptoms when the feelings have not been expressed. I let him mull on a few of the things I said and then handed him a large piece of model magic. Model Magic is a clay-like substance that comes in different colors and hardens if you leave it out in the air. It is soft to touch when first opened and stays soft if kept in a plastic bag. Young and old love it's texture and its tactile experience. Colors can be mixed to make interesting combinations of colors or you can color pieces with magic markers also creating a beautiful kaleidoscope of color combinations. I suggested my client hold the clay in his hands to see how it felt. He continued to hang his head, but also proceeded to play with the clay by squeezing and twisted it eventually lifting his head up. I showed him how the clay can be made into a ball and that it can bounce. At one point the boy made a ball out of the clay and began to toss it in the air and against the wall. As I worked with another piece of clay, I also formed a ball and asked him if he knew how to juggle. Be then made two balls out of the same piece of clay and began to juggle with two and eventually with three balls of clay. I acknowledged what a good juggler his is and this might be something he can do when he is feeling anxious. I know this teen plays basketball, so at one point we both shot baskets into the waste basket using the balls we had made. My client appeared to relax and engage in the process with me. 5 minutes before the end of the session, my client announced he wanted to leave and I walked with him to the waiting area to wait for his parents. If children and teens are not taught how to manage anxiety, they become adults that are not in control of their overwhelming worry. Knowing tools to manage anxiety is as important as knowing how to take care of a headache or toothache.

I made sure that he understood that juggling and or tossing balls was something he could do when he felt anxious. It is important for children and teens to have tools they can turn to when feelings come up that they have difficulty managing. I call it their emotional toolbox. I suggested he come up with some other tools he can used when he feels overwhelmed by anxiety and worry.

Experiencing ANXIETY from a different perspective

AnXiEtY - comes in many different forms from debilitating, to annoying, to nonstop, to somewhat under control, to life-saving and to hopefully, a place of calm. Anxiety does not come from out of nowhere. It is produced by our thoughts. Usually, thoughts about the past or future. Unless we are eye-to-eye with a real threat, which is about fear, anxiety is something that comes from our beliefs and thought patterns. I believe in the idea of seeing anxiety and the emotions connected to anxiety as energy. Therefore, if we can change our thoughts, we can decrease our anxiety. Sounds easy, right, well, research is discovering that there is another component to lowering anxiety and that is emotional energy, which Peter Strong, PhD calls, Emotional Feeling Energy. He goes on to say, that this is "what gives meaning and power to our thoughts." "These beliefs become trapped energy."
Art directive
From an art therapy perspective, I would ask, what does this energy look, feel, taste, smell and sound like? What shape is it? What color is it? Then, I would ask you to draw this image. Pick a color that represents this energy or emotion. After you put the image on a piece of paper, practice introducing another color that modifies or allows the original color to feel better. Surround your anxiety image with this new color and work with altering and introducing this new color into the original color. Be mindful of how you feel during this process and if your anxiety shifts. This idea is not to get rid of the anxiety, but to work on modifying the energy so it doesn't feel as intense.
Try practicing this exercise and be aware of any shifts in your anxiety. Journal about the process. Remember, to practice being with the feeling that you are experiecing instead of the anxiety. The feeling will not kill you. Try not to run from it. Be still and allow the feeling to be acknowledged.

Quotes taken from Peter Strong, PhD: www.mindfulnessmeditationtherapy.com

AnXieTy: Can Creating Art Really Help Me?

You have a test coming up and though you've studied, just the thought of it has your heart racing, your palms sweating and your mind going nonstop. You try breathing and that seems to work for only a few minutes; then you try a relaxing bath, but once you leave the tub, dry off and change clothes your thoughts resurface and you're faced with your racing thoughts again. You're convinced you can "fix" your anxiety yourself without medication. Your therapist tries cognitive therapy with you where you've tracked and challenged your irrational thoughts, but your cognitive brain just won't listen or take the bate. As an art therapist, I might suggest ways to manage your anxiety including the above ideas along with another too: the circle. I've written about creating mandalas a lot on my blog, because I believe in the healing power of them. More specifically, the calming effect they can have on our over-anxious minds.

I would introduce how creating mandalas, (Sacred Circle) can help promote calm during bouts of anxiety and worry. Drawing a circle can be done in almost any setting. I don't recommend it while you are driving. But, if you keep a pad with you, you can create a circle while waiting for a doctor's appointment, studying, before a test, waiting for a blind date to arrive or pretty much any situation that brings anxiety and/or worry on. I have made a few suggestions about approaching your circle below.

Promoting Calm Amidst Anxiety & Worry

• Keep a journal or pad with you at all times.
• BREATE


• Keep a few colored pencils, markers or regular pencils with you


• You might have the blank pages already traced with with a circle


• The circle can be any size you wish


• Begin in the center of the circle and draw outward


• Leave perfection and judgements outside


• Staying within the circle, allow your pencil to led the way


• It might be helpful to choose calming colors


• Focus on the circle


• Breathe


• Continue drawing until you feel you have reached a place of calm


• Finish when you feel your mandala is complete


• Bring this calm with you and return to the circle when you feel anxiety surfacing again


• Move on to what tasks need your attention

What I am suggesting is the creation of the mandala circle to help you relax and focus your thoughts. The circle provides a safe and secure area to work. Doodling works too, but I recommend the circle because it provides a contained area in which to work.