Making your First Therapy Appointment

Making the First Leap

Making the choice to start therapy can be vulnerable. There’s fear your uniqueness may not be seen or accepted. Will you be judged? Does this make you “crazy” or appear weak? How can you feel okay with opening up to a stranger? How does talking about all this emotional pain help? With the stigma around mental health, you may feel embarrassed to seek help. Ultimately, we all have parts of ourselves that feel like a mystery. A trusted art therapist understands that confidentiality is vital to having a relationship that can “go there” and be “left there” safely in the therapy space.

Making art can help you let down your guard. Alongside an art therapist, you are guided to create on paper what is often hidden in the mind. Art therapists have worked in a variety of art media and choose supportive materials that help you find answers to those deep and longing questions. Art therapists are trained to hold a safe space with appropriate art materials and processes to help you heal your emotional pains and challenge those negative beliefs. You may have tried to manage your problems in the past. Art therapy can help you find new creative solutions to better cope with life’s challenges.

Building Connection through Making

How do art therapists help others? Like any person, art therapists do the same deep work of reflecting on their emotions and thoughts. Art therapists connect deeply with the challenges of life… managing family and friend relationships, social injustices, (dis)connection to nature, effects of technology and social media and more. The art therapy process is not about creating beautiful art to hang on the wall. The goal is to use the healing properties of art materials and processes to self-soothe, gain insight and connect to our meaning and purpose. Art therapists do their own work so they can better empathize with their clients by experiencing the same challenges and successes in doing introspective work.

Seeing is Believing

“To see it, is to believe it” and said another way… both you and art therapists make images to help and heal themselves. View examples of art therapist images from the 55th Annual American Art Therapy Conference in October 2024 focusing on “Building Bridges. I am happy to share my work alongside other art therapy professionals as a healthy way to explore parts of the self. Click here to view the exhibition.

Ready to start therapy and experience a creative way to heal your anxiety and sadness? I’m here to help guide you through art therapy and trauma-informed practices. Feel free to reach out for a free consult.

You can also learn more about the work I do on the Meet Andrea page.

Looking forward to meeting you,

Andrea Sutrick, ATR-BC, LMHC