My Services
Art Therapy with Children
Children want to tell their story. Yet often it can be challenging for children to find the words to express themselves or words may not be enough. Art making is familiar, fun, and engaging, it becomes a vehicle for self-expression, discovery and exploration.
Caren works with children who have a variety of needs using art and play modalities. She strives to create a safe place for children to explore, to create, to express themselves and to share their feelings and experiences. Caren supports each child in recognizing their strengths, learning effective coping skills, identifying and managing challenging situations and their responses, expressing their thoughts, feelings and experiences in ways that allow them to feel successful.
Caren meets with parent(s) at the beginning of therapy and maintains ongoing open communication throughout therapy. Parent(s) are welcome to share experiences and behaviors with her as they arise. She encourages teamwork between parent(s) and herself in the interest of a child’s well-being and success. This relationship supports the treatment and makes available a venue to address parenting concerns as well.
The duration of treatment will vary depending on the child and the issues that need to be addressed.
Art Therapy with Teens
The lotus flower is said to thrive in dirty murky waters.
Adolescence can be a challenging time, it can feel like muddling through dirty murky waters, fraught with confusion, struggles with identity, and much more. It can be an exciting time as well, as adolescence is also a time of creativity, imagination and self-exploration.
Art Therapy offers a teen the opportunity to express themselves visually, to communicate difficult feelings, situations and experiences visually. It can support teens in addressing internal conflicts, increasing self-esteem, problem solving, building social skills, and stress reduction. Art therapy can help one tell their story.
Art making can be calming, can help quiet one’s internal dialogue, and critique.
Caren’s work with adolescents, builds on creating a safe space for them and establishing a supportive relationship with each teen she works with. Caren is dedicated in supporting each teen in expressing themselves, in building self-awareness, learning new skills to manage anxiety, stress and perhaps feelings of isolation and depression, and in practicing self-compassion. She does so with respect, hope, building a connection, empathy, and identifying and encouraging the strengths each teen develops, so they can thrive.
Art Therapy & Psychotherapy with Adults
Caren works with adults employing both traditional talk therapy as well as Art Therapy, sometimes the lines between the two are blurred. Art making can be in response to an issue, or a feeling that is being discussed. Creating an image that reflects or evolves from a discussion can be beneficial in moving a conversation forward, in gaining a new insight, in expressing ones feelings in a different way, in increasing one’s self-awareness, in finding a solution or a new way of looking at or understanding a situation, a relationship, a feeling. The process of creating the image can be relaxing and meditative, offering a sense of calm. This bit of respite often opens up a person to being able to explore further, deeper, or perhaps leaving it as is. You always determine where and how far to explore any given image or issue. Art Therapy can offer finding new ways to think about and respond to old concerns.
Supervision with Students & Professionals
As a credentialed Art Therapy Supervisor, ATCS, Caren offers Art Therapy clinical supervision to new professionals, experienced Art Therapists, and students individually and in small groups. Supervision meetings can be weekly or bi-weekly. If deemed appropriate, meetings can be on a monthly basis as well. When supervising professional Art Therapists and Art Therapy students, Caren supports the individual growth and development of each supervisee’s skills and identity as an Art Therapist. Believing that supervision 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 incorporating art making to enhance the process.