Holistic

Our minds, bodies and environments are not separate; they are woven together in subtle and profound ways. Our sense of wellbeing is shaped by family, culture, community, history, and the world around us.

In today’s fragmenting world, meeting our core needs for love, security, belonging, autonomy, ritual, and connection with nature is extremely challenging. For those of us from marginalized and oppressed communities, these challenges are often intensified.

A holistic approach resists the narrow disease framework of mainstream psychiatry. You are not “disordered.” Depression, anxiety, and other forms of distress are the body’s natural attempts to adapt, protect, and survive in systems that too often treat us like machines valued only for endless production.

At Greenhouse, art and conversation become tools to explore patterns in your life, uncover strengths and resources, and make choices about what to accept, adapt to, transform, or grieve.

Eco-centric

Imagine a world without gardens, trees, or open skies — no beaches, mountains, or rivers to retreat to. Most of us intuitively know we would become sick, anxious, or depleted. Research confirms what we feel: simply being near nature restores health and balance.

An eco-centric approach honors our deep relationship with the Earth. It invites us to see ourselves not as separate from nature, but as nature. Through gentle attention, we reawaken the senses, learning to experience the more-than-human world as ally and teacher. In branches, rivers, and cycles of growth and decay, we find metaphors for our own healing.

Eco-art therapy may take place outdoors, drawing inspiration from natural spaces, or indoors using natural materials and imagery. It is always flexible and responsive to what you need.

Trauma-informed

Trauma arises when experiences overwhelm our capacity to cope. These experiences can be catastrophic or quiet, sudden or chronic; they can come from war or disaster, but also from overwork, neglect, bullying, loss, or betrayal. Because trauma is shaped by culture and perception, what wounds one person may be dismissed in another, though both carry its imprint.

As Gabor Maté writes, we are all somewhere on the trauma spectrum, living in worlds fractured in many ways. Trauma can reshape both brain and body, altering how we see ourselves, our relationships, and our future.

Art therapy can be uniquely effective in this space: when words are unavailable or shut down by the brain’s survival response, images, color, and movement offer another language. To be trauma-informed means I hold your story with care — creating a safe space where you are gently listened to, witnessed, and supported.