Emily Lichtenberg

I believe in the transformative power of the creative process and healing is relational. What I love about art therapy is that creative expression can look and feel different for each person and is highly customizable based on the needs and interests of every individual. While creativity is an inherent part of every human being, we can find ourselves disconnected from this part of our humanity because of the values and expectations of our larger society. As a practitioner certified in Ecotherapy, I use eco-art therapy approaches to build a container for you to explore your relationships with the more-than-human world. I believe in a client-led approach to therapy, where we co-create the therapeutic journey together, inviting the art and natural worlds to join us as co-therapists. I embody this in a trauma-informed clinical style that blends gentle structure with open-endedness to allow for insight to reveal itself in the ‘here-and-now.’ My professional philosophies have grown out of my foundation as an Intentional Peer Support specialist, which holds value in the belief that every person is the expert of their own story. 

My goal as a professional is to come alongside my clients on their journey, rather than to choose their paths for them. I believe that everyone is the expert of their own story, and healing is an experiential process. In my experience, healing comes from finding personal meaning in our life story and through supportive relationships. This may be the relationship with the self, interpersonal relationships, relationship to the creative process, or relationships with the more-than-human world (plants, animals, the breeze, the ocean, etc.!). I am a White, trans/non-binary, ‘neurospicy,’ person who identifies as both ‘queer’ and non-monogamous. I have spent a lot of my adult life working to de-colonize my sense of self to expand my identity to include my relationships with the more-than-human world. Most of my identities live in the ‘in between’ spaces. I became a therapist to provide a space for those underserved in these communities to feel comfortable exploring their identities and relationships without needing to educate their therapist on the basics of their lifestyles.

I blend existential-humanism, relational-cultural, and narrative therapy approaches to create an art therapy practice that explores what is alive in the here-and-now, how the stories we tell ourselves inform our reality, and the journey of finding personal meaning in one’s life experiences. I approach each session with open-mindedness and curiosity. I lean into a process-oriented approach with art therapy, where the act of creating is more central to therapy than the end product. By opening our definition of relationship to include the more-than-human world, we create infinite opportunities to explore story and metaphor to create a sense of personal meaning for ourselves and our lives. 

I am an art therapy student intern from Lewis & Clark’s Graduate School of Education & Counseling.

My clinical focuses involve trauma, neurodivergence, 2SLGBTQIA+ experiences, kink, and polyamory/non-monogamy.