The blending of Somatic, Gestalt, and Creative arts therapy generates a dynamic, holistic, and experiential therapy that focuses on your present moment experience and encourages our natural movement toward creativity, spontaneity, and growth. Sometimes "thinking" or "talking" about problems is not enough, and a deeper level of experience and creativity is needed to get to the heart of a difficult situation.
Beyond talking, we help people connect to their inner resources by bringing attention to the way their bodies and emotions mix with their beliefs and thoughts. We’ll uncover the patterns, habits, beliefs, and blocks which contribute to stress and interfere with your satisfaction. By using the creative process with an emphasis on the here and now, you can find a supportive environment in which to heal within yourself. Clients often find that the creative and experiential process gets to the essence of what's really happening and promotes self-awareness, esteem, and insight.
Creative Now Therapy is a name inspired by the power of the present moment and how important this mode and way of being is in life and in therapy. It is a reminder for myself (Cris) and the therapist’s here at CNT to always return to this place as a way to heal, be, and explore.
Somatic therapy includes + brings attention to the experiences of our bodies, including sensations, emotions, feelings, and yes, even your thoughts, and how they all interface to create a fuller picture of our situation. We experience life events and trauma in our body, meaning that thinking or rationalizing our way through is only part of the picture, we need to include our embodied experience in order to heal.
Moreover, many of us have had to survive by or have been socialized to diminish the connection to our body (move away from our feelings) to avoid painful situations as child. While this was a brilliant solution at the time, as an adult this can have deep consequences including anxiety, depression, and other significant health issues. Bringing our body, it’s sensations and feelings, into the therapy situation along with our thoughts and stories can help us uncover beliefs and ways of being that are not in our awareness but are deeply impacting our behavior and choices. Together we will create a sense of safety within your body to support you in better tolerating life’s shifting sands and inevitable uncertainties. But more than that, you can learn to open to your immense creativity and expansiveness by including the wisdom of your body.
Gestalt psychotherapy brings attention to your present moment experience, the therapist–client relationship, environmental and social contexts, and the myriad of adjustments we make from moment to moment. We will engage in real-time therapeutic experiments to deepen our awareness and try out new behaviors to co-create organic coping skills. We will wade through many moments together: some empowering and positive, others challenging, difficult, or dark. These moments will be safely held and welcomed and will allow you to expand in your ability tolerate lifes changing landscapes. This has an additional important function: your integration and moving into wholeness.
Art therapy can assist us in accessing core material that can often slip under the radar in talk therapy. Sometimes we don’t have the words to begin, or we don’t even know what or why we’re feeling the way we are. Art making and exploration activates a different part of ourselves and engages our creativity to move out of the experience of stuckness and into visualizing solutions, calming our nervous systems, becoming reacquainted with our strengths, or discovering something new about ourselves or our situation.
We are created in relationship; the gaze of our caretakers literally shapes our nervous systems as infants and their behavior impacts how we relate to our ourselves and others well into young adult hood and really for the rest of our lives. We weren’t designed to learn how to move through this world by alone, we learn in relationship. When we are feeling sad, lonely, or stuck we need a safe, healing environment and relationship to move forward, one that therapy provides.
Book your free initial consultation by clicking the orange button located on every page or send us a message through our contact form Here. After that Cris, the Clinical director or one of the therapist’s that you’ve emailed will get in touch with you set up a free 15-minute consultation call to see if we might be a fit. If you decide to move forward with us, you will be given a dedicated time slot and a HIPPA protected Zoom link to begin your weekly 45-minute telehealth or coaching sessions. You will also be connected to our portal where you can view and sign our practice forms. Our first session will be blend of a session and an intake to make sure forms and pertinent information is shared by both the client and therapist.
You might be wondering, “how should I prepare for my first session with you?”
There is no need to prepare anything. Therapy is an exploration of the self. Let’s get to know you just as you are. If you do want to prepare, please bring art supplies and any other healing tools you'd like to be part of therapy. We’d also love to hear about what you want to get out of therapy and your ideas about what therapy is or can be.
It may also be supportive (but not necessary) to consider the following:
1. You're curiosity will be your biggest ally.
2. Staying with and reporting on your present moment experiences
3. Sharing your honest reactions to creative experiments in mindfulness, especially if you don't like how something feels or if you simply don't want to do something - often a great exploration can come from this.
4. Allowing your reactions to happen as much as you safely can
5. Some willingness to experience uncomfortable feelings
Initially it’s always best to give therapy some time, at least 5-8 sessions to see if you are a fit. This provides an opportunity to establish a working therapeutic relationship in order to safely move through a range of experiences with your therapist. This includes when you are feeling stuck, uncomfortable or even disappointed with therapy, as these experiences often mirror and/or point to a dynamic occurring in your life outside the room.
If you do find that you’re a fit with your therapist, I believe that exploring the duration of the therapy is a conversation unique to every client that is important and necessary to have. Some people who come to therapy, meet their personal goals, and move on in 6 months to a few years, while others come to therapy to engage in a process of self-exploration that is on-going in their lives. Sometimes people discover that their reasons for being in therapy change over time, impacting their decision to leave or continue.
Individual and Couples psychotherapy sesions meet online weekly or biweekly for 45-minutes via Zoom .
Group psychotherapy sessions meet weekly online for 90-minutes via Zoom.
We ask that you make an ongoing weekly commitment to therapy in order to establish rapport and a strong working relationship. Bi-weekly sessions are available on a case by case basis and after you've been with your therapist for a period of 1 month.
Individual psychotherapy session fee's range between $125-$225 depending on your providers sliding scale availability.
Couples psychotherapy session fee's range from $150 - $250 per session depending on your providers sliding scale availability.
Group psychotherapy session fee's are $75 per session.
If you would like to use insurance, I am happy to work with you to determine your out-of-network coverage, as I am an out-of-network provider and do not directly accept insurance. My sessions are often reimbursable (up to 70% depending on your plan).
For your protection and confidentiality, we recommend self-pay for therapy as insurance companies require disclosure of highly personal information and sometimes restrict the amount of sessions you can have. Additionally, rather than going back and forth with insurance companies all day, we focus entirely on providing the absolute most effective therapy to my clients. For these reasons, we choose not to be on insurance panels.
However, there are programs through your work or out-of-network coverage from your insurance to help you with payment. If you decide to use insurance please check your coverage for out-of-network benefits prior to our first meeting, we can also do this for you, but it requires sending your insurance card information, address, and date of birth upfront, understandably some folk are uncomfortable with this. So, we recommend that you call and ask the following questions to determine your benefits:
• Do I have out of network coverage for 45-minute psychotherapy sessions?
• What is my deductible and has it been met?
• How many sessions per year does my insurance cover?
• What is the coverage amount per therapy session for an out-of-network provider?
If approved, you pay Creative Now Therapy in full at the time of our session, and we will provide you with the documentation you need to file a claim with your insurance company or we can file your documentation for reimbursement directly to the insurance company with our billing software.
We at Creative Now Therapy are committed to creating an environment of appreciation and respect for race, ethnicity, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, physical/mental ability, sexual orientation, marital or relationship/s status, care giver/parental status, and socioeconomic status. We are dedicated to providing multiculturally sensitive services that affirm the dignity, worth, and value of all.
We believe that every client comes from a different background and unique set of circumstances, and therefore we treat them as the expert of their experience. We are comfortable naming differences in the room and exploring how this might be impacting our client’s experience in therapy and in their lives.