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Expressive Arts Florida provides counseling services both in-person and via telehealth.
Expressive arts therapy is a multimodal approach to counseling that is holistic and acknowledges the complexity of being human. Grounded in humanistic principles, it is assumed that each person has what they need to heal and grow into the best version of themselves. Using different art forms, clients discover inner resources, build new coping strategies, develop their strengths, and come to know themselves more fully. The therapist serves as a guide and a companion on the client’s healing journey by providing invitations to express feelings and thoughts through creative exploration. This type of counseling considers the whole person, which includes the imagination and new possibilities while honoring the present or current issues that the client is struggling with. Expressive arts therapy incorporates mindfulness skills, somatic awareness, and is trauma sensitive as it enables clients to express what is held in their bodies through more than just words. It is a gentle and supportive process that is guided by the therapist but led by the client.
Expressive Arts Florida provides counseling services both in-person and via telehealth.
Tamara Teeter Knapp, MA, NCC, REACE®, and Registered Mental Health Counselor Intern is one of our co-founders and core faculty. She is currently offering expressive arts therapy and accepting new clients. In her approach, she builds on thirty years’ experience in expressive arts and education, bringing her clients into a close relationship with their own innate healing capacities using the imagination and various arts modalities.
Expressive arts therapy is a multimodal approach to counseling that is holistic and acknowledges the complexity of human experience by facilitating the client in exploring all aspects of the self, by inquiring through the imagination and the body about subjective experience, and expanding the play space to allow for new possibilities and shifts in consciousness that lead to desired changes in one’s life.
Tamara Teeter Knapp, MA, NCC, REACE®, and Registered Mental Health Counselor Intern is one of our co-founders and core faculty. In her approach, she builds on thirty years’ experience in expressive arts and education, bringing her clients into a close relationship with their own innate healing capacities using the imagination and various arts modalities. This can be as simple as a doodle and a word, or more involved and spread out over several sessions.
To create change in one’s life, one must be able to imagine something different. With the belief that everyone is born with the capacity to be creative, expressive arts in therapy utilizes the imagination through many arts modalities including visual art, sound, movement, writing, drama, and meditation. Clients are invited to explore their own images in all expressive forms through the therapeutic relationship. The therapist facilitates the relationship between the client and their own expressions, which provides for a shift within and deeper insight. In session, clients may be invited to engage with different art forms.
You may email Tamara at tknappcounseling@gmail.com or call 941-444-9585 to inquire about setting up an appointment or ask questions regarding services. Tamara offers a complementary 20 -minute video consultation prior to scheduling as needed. Clients are welcome to make in person or telehealth appointments at this time.
Expressive arts therapy does not require any art experience. In session, it is common for the therapist to provide invitations to create an image in a variety of ways - visual, sound, movement. The client is always welcome to accept or decline the invitation.
As a person-centered therapist, Tamara will follow her client's lead and provide opportunities in a variety of ways that are supportive to the goals of the client. Additional therapeutic modalities used in session might include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or Solution-Focused Therapy. All of the interventions used are strength-based and intended to empower the client to grow and make desired changes in their lives.