About Caren

Caren Sacks, MA, ATR-BC, LCAT, ATCS is a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist, Psychotherapist, and Art Therapy Certified Supervisor in New York.

Caren has provided clinical services in the mental health field for more than 35 years. She has had the pleasure of working with people of all ages, from young children to aging adults, from diverse backgrounds and in a variety of settings. Caren has worked with individuals regarding a variety of issues and concerns, exploring and supporting how one copes and manages with anxiety, depression, life transitions, school and peer concerns, career stress and transitions, self-esteem, learning differences, divorce, relationships, and loss.

Caren’s focus and attention is always to be present with, and be aware of the individual needs of each person she works with. In her private practice Caren incorporates several therapeutic approaches to meet individual needs: supportive psychotherapy, creative expression, and building self-compassion. She strives to develop a connection and create a safe environment for whomever she is working with so they can be able to share their thoughts, their feelings, and their experiences whether through talking or using art making as a form for communication. 

As an Adjunct Full Professor in the Graduate Art Therapy program at The College of New Rochelle for over 20 years, one of the many classes she taught, was Art Therapy for Children. What she felt was most important to bring to her students was an awareness, understanding, and appreciation of early childhood development. Also important was introducing a variety of developmental theorists and facilitating students in developing a visual language for seeing, understanding, and supporting a child’s early art making and experiences. She especially enjoys witnessing Art Therapy graduate students’ enthusiasm, their thirst for knowledge, their dedication to learning to provide others with opportunities to heal and to grow as well as incorporating creative and expressive and traditional means.

A new endeavor for Caren has combined her many years of working with children in therapy, educating others to do the same, and facilitating art making experiences for children, with her commitment to sharing the joy, the benefits, and the calming experiences of art making. This has culminated in her writing:

• Draw Paint Tell, about a child who loves art making

• Draw and Discover: An Art Making Journal for Kids for children to create in, exploring their creativity and self expression

• Vision and Voice: An Art Making Journal for Teens (coming soon)

Learn more about books by Caren Sacks…

Credentials & Certifications

• LCAT- Licensed Creative Arts Therapist

• ATR-BC- Registered and Board Certified by the American Art Therapy Credientialing Board

• ATCS- Certified Art Therapy Supervisor

Caren’s Work with Children

Caren’s professional work as a clinician, supervisor and educator, has also included many years of facilitating Mommy and Me art groups for toddlers. Her focus was always on providing developmentally appropriate art making experiences for the children in her groups who were 18 months to 3 years old. The art making invitations encouraged exploration, play, use of a variety of materials, and as a result the children experienced a sense of wonder, joy, sharing, communication and accomplishment. It was also important to Caren to provide the parents and caregivers with both the experience of witnessing their child be able to create art independently, as the art making invitations were age appropriate and designed for a child to succeed, as well as introducing the child’s adults to information about early childhood art making development.

Her commitment and dedication is to assure children have an opportunity to make art, play, explore their creativity, and build strong communication skills, at home, in schools, and if needed, in the treatment room. She stresses the need for awareness and consideration of each child’s developmental age and abilities.

A Witness to Personal Growth and Awareness

As a facilitator in art making workshops, as an Art Therapist, a supervisor, and as an educator, Caren has witnessed countless times where art making has...

• Offered a bit of respite, of calm, to a stressed teen, child or adult.

• Been a successful addition to one’s coping skills.

• Provided a new understanding or awareness of an issue and has perhaps offered a new solution to try.

• Lead to self-expression when words were just not enough.

• Told a story, making visible something that needed to be seen and heard.

• Allowed for positive feelings about one’s art expressions, regardless of the final piece.

• Been met with wonder, and surprise, as something new was created, that did not exist before.

Supervising Professionals

When supervising professional Art Therapists, Caren supports the individual growth and development of each supervisee’s skills and identity as an Art Therapist. Believing that supervsion is a designated time to look at, address, and explore treatment issues as well as being aware of, and learning from one’s own feelings reactions and responses to the person or group one is engaged with in treatment. This she accomplishes in a safe, comfortable, respectful, supportive relationship.

Read more about Caren’s Services