Therapeutic Arts
and
Counseling
313 South Clinton Street
Grand Ledge, MI 48837
517-927-3382
Couples
EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy)
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. – Lao Tzu
Individuals
Hope and Healing
“Turn your demons into art, your shadow into a friend, your fear into fuel, your failures into teachers, your weaknesses into reasons to keep fighting. Don't waste your pain. Recycle your heart.” Andrea Balt
Children
The world is a challenging place. Children piece their world together, making sense of it from the information around them. Confusing experiences can be distorted in a child's emerging world view. Therapy targeted at a child's developmental stage can help clarify experiences and equip children with the emotional tools to cope in a very bewildering world.
Philosophy
In order to prosper, we must find purpose, health, and fulfillment in our lives. Our mental health largely depends on our understanding of the world and our thoughts about ourselves, other people, and the future. I embrace a model of mental health and well-being that recognizes our essential and shared humanity. Anne Lamott echoes this sentiment.
"Our lives and humanity are untidy: disorganized and careworn.
To heal, it seems we have to stand in the middle of the horror, at the foot of the cross, and wait out another’s suffering where that person can see us." When someone else sees our pain and "understands," we don't have to harbor it anymore. The power of building trust and creating safety in the therapeutic relationship encourages healing.
I like to use an eclectic approach, with all modalities rooted in Biblical truth. My method is two-fold: balancing present functioning with exploring and integrating emotional injury. I incorporate skills from Dialectical and Cognitive Behavior therapies to help people cope with immediate stressors and combine them with Acceptance and Commitment, experiential, creative arts, and emotionally focused modalities to facilitate insight and healing at a deeper level.
The art of therapy employs the creative process to help people explore self-expression and, in doing so, find new ways to gain personal insight and develop new coping skills. "The creative act arises out of the struggle of human beings with and against that which limits them." Rollo May
