Couples & Individual Therapy Online in California In Person Therapy in Tiburon
Counseling for Creatives
Therapy for Artists in the San Francisco Bay Area
Finding meaning in one’s work and flow in the creative process can mean the difference between a prolific life as an artist and the overwhelming feeling of futility that can lead to resignation. Therapy can help expand your work to its fullest potential.
Reimagining Your Future & Refining Your Vision
The Rigorous Process of Self Examination
Emotional sensitivities can offer exquisite openings for experiencing and translating one’s unique perspective of the world in a way that is transformative for both the artist and the viewer. Frequently, however, because this process is so deeply personal and intimately linked to an individual’s sense of self worth, perceived failure or lack of productivity can feel devastating. Conversely, depressive tendencies and poor self-esteem can make accessing one’s innate talent much more challenging than it would otherwise be. The work of self-understanding is critical to making impactful work and requires the inner strength to proceed with confidence. Creative blocks arise when the essential work of self-examination is neglected, likely because the issues that most need attention require confrontation that feels too difficult, disruptive, or painful to attempt. As a result, we feel a void - that sense of “nothingness” that comes up when the one thing we really need to address is ignored but refuses to go away, occupying the space where ideas would otherwise freely travel. We can’t get to a place of creative flow because something is in the way, demanding our attention, even as we attempt to turn away.
Invest in Your Work
Finding Inspiration and Creative Flow
Confronting our wounds, as individuals, artists, writers and thinkers is a necessary precursor to vulnerability and the subsequent opening of inspiration. For people who are drawn to create and invent, share their stories, and translate the world via their unique perspective, the intersection of personal and professional is the place where innovation comes to fruition. To know ourselves, our histories and our potentialities, is to know the future direction of our work as thinkers, makers, and writers. The more personal the depths to which we delve, the more universal the work becomes.
Exploring Your Artistic Voice
Learning to listen to oneself is crucial to identifying and exploring one’s artistic voice. For many creative individuals, their work is inextricably tied to the meaning of their existence. By understanding ourselves better, we come to understand our creative potential and expand our capacity to produce work that feels authentic, unique, and impactful, which in turn makes our lives ever more fulfilling.
At times, an image, idea or fragment of a song still unwritten will show up seemingly without effort, appearing almost of its own accord, and before we understand how or why. Slowing down to listen to and explore the meaning of this new material can be an expansive process for the spirit and intellect through which we come to know ourselves better, making the work of art an endeavor of enlightenment that works in both directions. The deeper our understanding of ourselves, the richer our work becomes and the more nuance with which we see our work, the fuller and more dynamic the picture of our humanness becomes.
Integrating Creative & Therapeutic Processes
I am a psychodynamic psychotherapist with a background in fine art and philosophy. I have been a therapist in the counseling department of the San Francisco Art Institute, where I once was an art student myself, working with practitioners of all genres, media and disciplines. I earned my Master of Fine Arts from Bard College in 2007 after completing the ICP-Bard Program in Advanced Photographic Studies at the International Center of Photography in New York City.
Allow me to walk with you along the path of the artist’s way, uncovering your hidden or forgotten talents, finding integration in the creative process and breathing new meaning into your work. I offer individual sessions as well as private workshops for small groups of collaborators in written word, visual arts, interdisciplinary studies and new media.