As you may have seen elsewhere on this site, I am a licensed mental health counselor in private practice for over 22 years. I've been an artist for even longer and being psychologically minded (enough to drive myself crazy) I've been fascinated by the process of painting and by the maze of mental and emotional challenges a painter experiences. Painting is both a right brain (gestalt, unity, feeling sense, ego-less, receptive, in the moment...) experience, and a left brain (skills, technique, order, planning, intention, ego-driven, etc.) effort. Painters need to be able to harness and integrate these separate and often confounding hemispheres! To further complicate things, we often have to hurdle such things as intrusive thoughts and feelings, personal and projected expectations, fears of success and failure, and, the obligations of daily living. No doubt there are artists who enter the studio each day and paint freely with none of the above angst. For those less fortunate, I'd like to offer my ear, eye, experience and support.
Although we may talk about anything from critiquing your work, to exploring roadblocks in your process, I do make a clear distinction between the mentoring I offer here and the psychotherapy I practice in my office. If you are in distress and experiencing symptoms that are interfering with your ability to function, I recommend you seek a counselor or psychotherapist in your area.
I provide mentoring in person, by phone and/or via Skype. If you are interested in finding out more about my mentoring services, please contact me through this website for more information. Or, you may call me at 509-664-3023.
