Mission and Philosophy

Chicago Art Therapy Collective seeks to strengthen each client’s visual and symbolic expression to give voice to their experiences and empower individual, communal, and societal transformation. Using integrative therapeutic modalities that engage the mind, body, and spirit, we collaborate with clients to activate their creative capacities to help them beyond the limits of verbal language into a deepened capacity for receptive and expressive communication that promotes healing, increases self-awareness, and advances societal and ecological change. We believe that all people are creative, and that within a safe, supportive, therapeutic relationship we can activate our innate artistic capacities to improve emotional resilience, reduce and resolve conflict and distress, and cultivate meaningful self-integration and insight to change both ourselves and our wider world.

One of the most vital ways we sustain ourselves is by building communities of resistance, places where we know we are not alone.

—bell hooks

How Can We Help?

Mood Disorder Treatment

One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.

—Carl Jung

We specialize in the treatment of mood disorders including major depression, bipolar disorder, post-partum depression, and gender-related dysphoria. We recognize that human life is often difficult, and find that engaging the creative brain helps people move past feelings of being stuck, hopeless, or unable to visualize a way beyond current emotional pain. We partner with clients to form a trusting interpersonal bridge that safely builds contextual understanding, improves self-acceptance, fosters the practice of new coping skills, enhances mindfulness strategies, and helps individuals to find pleasure and purpose in their active engagement within the therapeutic relationship and in the larger context of their lives. We value multi-modal therapeutic work, and recognize that shifting perspectives and therapeutic approaches can help us integrate our bodies and our minds to become healthier, more resilient, and whole.

Anxiety Disorder Treatment

Artists are people driven by the tension between the desire to communicate and the desire to hide.  

—D. W. Winnicott

Facing an anxiety disorder is a common struggle that can manifest in many forms including generalized anxiety, social anxiety, panic attacks, specific phobias, and obsessive thoughts combined with compulsive behaviors. ADHD also often presents with other forms of anxiety, which together can contribute to challenges regulating behaviors as well as emotions. When we feel anxious, we often seek to withdraw or over-function in order to protect ourselves and avoid confronting the fears we face—which can make it even more difficult to find solace. Chicago Art Therapy Collective recognizes that as sensitive individuals, we benefit when we can incorporate the healing use of personal imagery, metaphor, and other forms of expressive communication in order to safely examine our anxiety triggers, reduce the over-activation of our limbic systems, externalize and transform our internal experiences, and feel seen and valued in a grounding transformative relationship.

Trauma and Complex PTSD Treatment

Art is not always about pretty things. It’s about who we are, what happened to us, and how our lives are affected.

—Elizabeth Broun

A psychological trauma is one in which environmental stress overwhelms the brain’s ability to cope and process what is happening in an adaptive way. As a result of trauma, the brain’s prefrontal cortex (where we think logically and process language) and the hippocampus (where our narrative memories are stored) are impaired, leading to ongoing difficulties with overall functioning and self-confidence. As a result of this disconnect within our memory networks, as well as the increased sensitization of our amygdala (where we detect and process threats and fears) our bodies often retain the trauma in ways that are disjointed, frequently reactivated by even benign stimuli, and difficult to access with words. Art therapy provides clients a safe and gentle space for painful, fragmented, or confusing memories to be externalized, visualized, and processed without overwhelming or flooding, helping clients to regain a sense of self that is whole, comfortable, and integrated both individually and within trusting relationships.

Adjustment Challenges and Identity Exploration

The worst walls are never the ones you find in your way. The worst walls are the ones you put there.

—Ursula K. Le Guin

The work of knowing ourselves and understanding how we best fit and function in the world, as well as how our work and our personal lives intersect, is a rich and ongoing challenge. In this process, we often find that we are fixated on external barriers or limitations, and in doing so we overlook our own vast potential to transform our lives and shift our perceptions. Living in today’s fast-paced world where we are constantly adjusting to the changes brought about by COVID-19, as well as ecological and political stressors, can also create uncertainty and stress that at times diminishes our capacity to feel the full range of human emotions, including joy and healthy connection with ourselves and others. Art therapy creates a space where our creative agency is made central, and we are provided with the tools to re-engage our imaginations in finding solutions to shift our internal realities and shape our lives into authentic, fully-lived, and rewarding human experiences.