Black Canvas Wholistic Therapy
As a Black art therapist, I hold deep awareness of how the color black has been used to symbolize pain, trauma, and everything deemed “bad”- particularly in the United States. My work is a conscious act of resistance, reclaiming black as a space of safety, magic, mystery, and creative possibility- to slow down, listen inward, and discover the wisdom that lives beneath the surface.
In my own healing journey, I began working exclusively on black canvases. That choice invited me into the darkness of my own life, where I confronted the grief of becoming the last surviving member of my immediate family by the age of forty. In the depths of that grief, I began the sacred work of reparenting the little girl within me—the one who did not receive what she needed from the adults in her life. It was also in the darkness that I came to peace with my sexuality, at a time when the world was telling me I could not be both a lesbian and spiritual. Embracing my darkness became a place of authenticity and self-acceptance.
What I discovered is this: the darkness is not empty; it is fertile. Seeds are planted in darkness. Life is conceived there. The moon and stars reveal their brilliance there.
When we surrender to and embrace our darkness, we discover our light, our gifts, and purpose.
Black Canvas was born from this knowing- honoring the sacred relationship between the darkness and the light, and the healing that becomes possible when both are welcomed and celebrated.
What I discovered is this: the darkness is not empty; it is fertile. Seeds are planted in darkness. Life is conceived there. The moon and stars reveal their brilliance there.
When we surrender to and embrace our darkness, we discover our light, our gifts, and purpose.
Black Canvas was born from this knowing- honoring the sacred relationship between the darkness and the light, and the healing that becomes possible when both are welcomed and celebrated.
My Education and Training
BS in Chemistry -The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
MA in Art Therapy & Counseling- Southwestern College
Spiritual Life Coaching Certification- Inner Visions Institute for Spiritual Development
Sand Tray Training- The Sand Tray Training Institute of New Mexico
Check folder for the images to for this block in About Me
About Me
♓Sun, ♋Rising, ♍Moon
am a Licensed Professional Art Therapist (LPAT) and Professional Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LPCC), with board certification as a Registered Art Therapist (ATR-BC). I am also a National Certified Counselor (NCC) a Registered Sand Therapist (RST) and Spiritual Life Coach (SLC).
Central to my practice is the belief that art making is a powerful and accessible pathway to healing. I view the creative process as an incubator for unconscious material, meaning making, and insight, whether through intentional art directives or something as simple as scribbling. By compassionately turning toward the darker or hidden aspects of life, I support you in identifying where you may be out of alignment with your soul. This awareness becomes a gateway to integration, self-acceptance, and living more authentically.
I hold the belief that we are all spiritual beings having a human experience, and that many people simply need support remembering who they truly are and who they were created to be. As a Black, queer, cisgender woman, I bring an intersectional and lived-experience-informed lens to my work as an Art Therapist, Counselor, and Spiritual Life Coach.
I am recently married to my wife, Jada, and together we share our home with our mini Goldendoodle, Yemi, who is currently training to become a therapy and service dog. Yemi often joins me in the office, offering her own gentle and grounding presence to sessions. Outside of my clinical and coaching work, I find joy in scrapbooking, baking, and cooking. I am also a Harry Potter fan (a proud Hufflepuff—though not a fan of J.K. Rowling).
am a Licensed Professional Art Therapist (LPAT) and Professional Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LPCC), with board certification as a Registered Art Therapist (ATR-BC). I am also a National Certified Counselor (NCC) a Registered Sand Therapist (RST) and Spiritual Life Coach (SLC).
Central to my practice is the belief that art making is a powerful and accessible pathway to healing. I view the creative process as an incubator for unconscious material, meaning making, and insight, whether through intentional art directives or something as simple as scribbling. By compassionately turning toward the darker or hidden aspects of life, I support you in identifying where you may be out of alignment with your soul. This awareness becomes a gateway to integration, self-acceptance, and living more authentically.
I hold the belief that we are all spiritual beings having a human experience, and that many people simply need support remembering who they truly are and who they were created to be. As a Black, queer, cisgender woman, I bring an intersectional and lived-experience-informed lens to my work as an Art Therapist, Counselor, and Spiritual Life Coach.
I am recently married to my wife, Jada, and together we share our home with our mini Goldendoodle, Yemi, who is currently training to become a therapy and service dog. Yemi often joins me in the office, offering her own gentle and grounding presence to sessions. Outside of my clinical and coaching work, I find joy in scrapbooking, baking, and cooking. I am also a Harry Potter fan (a proud Hufflepuff—though not a fan of J.K. Rowling).
My Approach to Art Therapy
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My Approach to Sand Tray Therapy
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What You Should Expect Spiritual Counseling To Address
Art therapy counseling combines guided creative expression with therapeutic dialogue to support emotional healing and self-discovery. No artistic experience is required—art is used as a tool for reflection, not performance
My Approach to Art Therapy
Together, we honor your lived experience, cultural context, and the wisdom held in your body. In this space, art is not about performance, talent, or producing something “beautiful.” It is about presence, following the nudges of your spirit and expressing your truth through symbol, metaphor, color, shape, and texture.
Process Over Product
The focus is always on the process, not the final product. What matters most is what happens while you are creating- the sensations, memories, emotions, and insights that emerge. The artwork becomes a witness, a container, and a revelation.
Art as Communication
Art therapy offers a nonverbal, non-threatening way to externalize what lives inside. For many people, especially those whose stories have been minimized or misunderstood, images can say what words cannot. We honor this by allowing the artwork to speak first. I support clients in understanding, regulating, and processing emotions, trauma, and internal conflict through image-making and reflection. I hold space for the complexity of the human experience.
How Our Work Will Unfold
Art making naturally engages multiple senses, which can support nervous system regulation, grounding, and emotional insight. In sessions, I may invite reflection on symbols, metaphors, and themes that appear in your artwork, always guided by your meaning. I do not impose my interpretation. This is intentional work; work that trusts creativity as a pathway to healing
Together, we honor your lived experience, cultural context, and the wisdom held in your body. In this space, art is not about performance, talent, or producing something “beautiful.” It is about presence, following the nudges of your spirit and expressing your truth through symbol, metaphor, color, shape, and texture.
Process Over Product
The focus is always on the process, not the final product. What matters most is what happens while you are creating- the sensations, memories, emotions, and insights that emerge. The artwork becomes a witness, a container, and a revelation.
Art as Communication
Art therapy offers a nonverbal, non-threatening way to externalize what lives inside. For many people, especially those whose stories have been minimized or misunderstood, images can say what words cannot. We honor this by allowing the artwork to speak first. I support clients in understanding, regulating, and processing emotions, trauma, and internal conflict through image-making and reflection. I hold space for the complexity of the human experience.
How Our Work Will Unfold
Art making naturally engages multiple senses, which can support nervous system regulation, grounding, and emotional insight. In sessions, I may invite reflection on symbols, metaphors, and themes that appear in your artwork, always guided by your meaning. I do not impose my interpretation. This is intentional work; work that trusts creativity as a pathway to healing
My Approach to Sand Tray Therapy
The sand tray is a sacred, symbolic space where stories are revealed rather than spoken. Through this expressive, non-verbal modality, sand and miniature figures become the language of the soul, allowing you to shape a world that mirrors your inner landscape and brings form to what lives beneath words.
The Process
You are invited to create a scene, a world, within the tray that reflects something from your inner or outer life. We honor whatever emerges, offering your psyche permission to speak in the language it knows best: symbol and metaphor. Often, the tray mirrors truths that live beyond words, revealing what cannot yet be accessed through talk therapy alone, and illuminating what you are being asked to see, know, and grow through.
The Tray and the Sand
I primarily invite clients to work in a round tray filled with riverbed sand, rather than the traditional rectangular tray with white sand. The circular form encourages introspection and mirrors my therapeutic philosophy of turning inward and courageously engaging the depths. The tactile texture of the riverbed sand supports somatic awareness, while its darker tone offers the unconscious permission to move beyond the surface and into deeper emotional terrain.
The sand tray is a sacred, symbolic space where stories are revealed rather than spoken. Through this expressive, non-verbal modality, sand and miniature figures become the language of the soul, allowing you to shape a world that mirrors your inner landscape and brings form to what lives beneath words.
The Process
You are invited to create a scene, a world, within the tray that reflects something from your inner or outer life. We honor whatever emerges, offering your psyche permission to speak in the language it knows best: symbol and metaphor. Often, the tray mirrors truths that live beyond words, revealing what cannot yet be accessed through talk therapy alone, and illuminating what you are being asked to see, know, and grow through.
The Tray and the Sand
I primarily invite clients to work in a round tray filled with riverbed sand, rather than the traditional rectangular tray with white sand. The circular form encourages introspection and mirrors my therapeutic philosophy of turning inward and courageously engaging the depths. The tactile texture of the riverbed sand supports somatic awareness, while its darker tone offers the unconscious permission to move beyond the surface and into deeper emotional terrain.
Psycho-Spiritual Therapeutic Approach
My work is grounded in a psycho-spiritual approach that holds the soul as the starting point for balance. I consider the whole of who you are—physical, emotional, spiritual, mental, and cultural- and how your unique lived experiences shape your mental health and inner world.
Drawing from metaphysical principles, I understand symptoms not as problems to eliminate, but as messages from the psyche- signals inviting awareness, curiosity, and deeper listening. Through art and/or sand tray work, we slow down and tune in to what your psyche is asking you to notice, remember, or tend to within yourself.
This modality honors creativity as a pathway to insight and healing, allowing meaning to emerge organically and in alignment with your inner rhythm. The work supports integration, self-acceptance, and authentic expression by meeting you at the intersection of mind, body, and spirit.
Drawing from metaphysical principles, I understand symptoms not as problems to eliminate, but as messages from the psyche- signals inviting awareness, curiosity, and deeper listening. Through art and/or sand tray work, we slow down and tune in to what your psyche is asking you to notice, remember, or tend to within yourself.
This modality honors creativity as a pathway to insight and healing, allowing meaning to emerge organically and in alignment with your inner rhythm. The work supports integration, self-acceptance, and authentic expression by meeting you at the intersection of mind, body, and spirit.
Themes We Can Explore through The Art and The Sand
- Trauma & PTSD
- Grief & Loss
- Complex Trauma
- Anxiety & Emotional Regulation
- Identity and Sexuality
- Inner Child & Developmental Wounds
- Depression
Psycho-Spiritual Tools
I integrate a range of psycho-spiritual tools to deepen and support the therapeutic process. These practices are woven intentionally and ethically, always in service of your healing, agency, and inner wisdom
Ideal for individuals seeking
- Ancestral veneration
- Astrology
- Chakra balancing and energy awareness
- Crystal healing
- Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT/tapping)
- Inner child work
- Light and subtle energy practices
- Music as a tool for regulation
- Quantum Dynamic Transformational Breath (QD Breath)
- Tarot and oracle cards for reflection and insight
Who I Work With
I work primarily with adults, ages 22 and older, with a focus on supporting current art therapy students committed to doing their personal work, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and People of the Global Majority. My work is rooted in lived experience and honors the intersections of identity, spirituality, sexuality, and mental health.
Insurance
I take insurance from the following MCO’s:
- BCBS- Medicaid ONLY
- Presbyterian- ALL Plans
- If you have insurance outside of these plans, I may be able to see you under the group practice, HEARTSWAYNM. Please contact them to schedule a consultation with me.
How Insurance works:
- When using insurance, I am required to assign a mental health diagnosis, and you must meet medical-necessity criteria for coverage. This generally means experiencing meaningful challenges that impact your work, career, and/or relationships.
- If you are seeking support focused more on personal growth, self-development, or life transitions, coaching may be a better option.
Art Therapy Supervision
Individual Supervision
- I am a New Mexico Counseling Board Approved supervisor
- I am available to support current art therapy students in internship and new professionals working toward their ATR or ATR-BC.
- Coming Soon
~Self-Pay~
I am committed to decolonizing the monetary value placed on healing, coaching, and mental health services, while also honoring the depth, training, and experience that inform this work. To support access and equity, pricing is offered on a three-tiered model, allowing you to choose the rate that best aligns with your current financial reality. If none of the options below feel accessible, you are invited to reach out so we can explore alternatives together.
Equity Rate
$
per session 60 Minute session
99
- For those who would experience financial hardship paying the standard rate.
Standard Rate
$
per session 60 Minute session
153
- Reflects the depth of experience, training, and specialization that inform this work.
Standard Plus Rate
$
per session 60 Minute session
207
- For those who are able and willing to contribute above the standard rate to support equity and access for others