Debra Gottschalk (she/her)

I have specialized training and use evidence-based trauma treatment models: TF-CBT Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Complicated and Traumatic Grief Therapy, and Trauma-Informed Art Therapy. Treatment often includes understanding how what happened to us impacts the brain, developing relaxation techniques, connecting with and managing emotions, re-framing unhelpful thought patterns, processing our story, and enhancing future safety through talk therapy, nature therapy, and art therapy.

Art Therapy helps us express and manage emotions, connect with our thoughts and feelings, and transform them into art, which safely contains them. Art Therapy is a process oriented type of art making, which basically means it’s not about making a beautiful painting, collage, or sculpture, which is great because you don’t have to be an artist or creative to benefit. As a Trauma-Informed Art Therapist I help you process your experience, heal and transform through your creative expression.

Grief can be exhausting and lonely. Even with a community of family and friends, grief is often isolating and painful. Having professional support can help you feel understood, cope better and find new ways to continue the connection to your person. Through grief therapy I’ll help you engage in self-care, honor your loved one, and navigate your altered life. I’m a certified provider of Compassionate Bereavement Care and also use my own lived experiences with grief to inform my work.

I offer a combination of Trauma-Informed traditional talk therapy, art therapy, and nature-based therapy. Engaging our bodies and brains in different ways helps process and manage stress, and provides different forms of emotional connection and expression. Sometimes words alone aren’t enough or aren’t available to us. Talking primarily relies on the executive functioning part of our brain (focus, logic, planning, directions, managing emotions and impulses) - which can be altered by trauma