The Creative Sanctuary, LLC

I’m a Board-Certified Art Therapist and a Licensed Mental Health Counselor. I believe therapy works best when insight, emotional regulation, and creativity are part of the same process: not treated as separate things. For many people, talking alone isn’t enough, especially when emotions feel big, confusing, or hard to name. My work combines art therapy with skills-based approaches like Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to help make internal experiences more tangible, manageable, and workable. Much of my background has been in developing and facilitating structured therapeutic programming in both group and individual settings. I’ve spent years creating art-based curricula that integrate DBT-informed regulation skills with narrative exploration and symbolic thinking. That structure matters to me. It helps therapy feel contained and intentional, while still leaving room for curiosity, creativity, and depth, especially for clients who feel stuck in their heads or overwhelmed by purely verbal approaches. When it’s clinically appropriate, I also incorporate non-traditional and symbolic materials into my work. This might look like fiber arts such as crochet, relief or dimensional media, tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, or tarot imagery used as a reflective and narrative tool. These aren’t gimmicks or “fun add-ons.” They’re ways of externalizing inner experience, slowing things down, and creating a shared language we can work with together. At its core, my goal is to help clients build understanding and regulation at a pace that feels supportive rather than overwhelming. Therapy doesn’t require having the right words or knowing exactly what you feel. Sometimes it’s about practicing skills, noticing patterns as they emerge, and watching something take shape—one piece at a time.