Ali Haeffner
Pre-Licensed Professional - MA, LPCA, ATR-P
Making art offers a chance to see who you truly are, underneath the mask of “try harder.” As someone in the helping and healing professions, mom or mom-to-be, you are probably a highly attuned, sensitive, and caring person who is very good at putting other people first. What makes you so good at what you do is also what is most challenging to sustain.
As a helper, you might get hooked on the feeling of being needed and being the “only one” who can help. As the keeper of these stories, pain, and trauma, it’s essential to take an honest look at what it means for you to be a helper, how your sense of self-worth is tied to how much you help, and distinguish what’s yours and what’s not.
The process of self-reflection that comes with the art therapy territory means you gain awareness so you can make informed decisions about what is best for you and how you can sustainably give to others. A secondary benefit is that you will be an embodiment of skills and awareness for your clients and children, modeling for them how to take care of themselves. They will feel your presence and be comforted by your stability, clarity, and availability to truly hold space.
Unlike talking, art therapy bypasses a lot of the defenses you might normally put up and cuts through to something that’s closer to the truth. You might make yourself dizzy with the circles you talk in and then a simple image might reveal what you knew all along. When you don’t have words for your pain, art therapy speaks in metaphor so you have a new and perhaps gentler perspective on your experience. It’s this process of courting your internal landscape that makes art therapy valuable, emotional, and life-changing.
Skills and Expertise
Adjusting to Change / Life Transitions
Adult
Art
birth
Body Image
Caregiver Issues or Stress
Coping Mechanisms
Creative Blocks
Depression
Fertility Issues
Highly Sensitive Persons
Infertility
Loss or Grief
Meditation
Mindfulness based therapy
Perfectionism
Postpartum Depression
pregnancy
Self Esteem
Spirituality
Stress
Teens
Trauma
Trauma and PTSD
Women's issue
Treatment Orientation
Contemplative
Health/Wellness-based
Meditation
Mindfulness
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Expressive Arts Therapy
Transpersonal
Trauma Focused Therapy
Self-Compassion
Modality