Kelley Linhardt (she/her)

I spent four years in post-graduate training at the Ackerman Institute for the Family in New York City and in that training, I learned to attend to the complexity and depth of seemingly small conflicts in the family that often, when investigated, pointed to larger, deeper issues. My training as a creative arts therapist allows me to use art, movement, play, etc. to engage simultaneously with family members of different ages and ability levels identifying places of strength and resilience.

I went through extensive training in couples therapy at the Ackerman Institute for the Family in New York City. In my work there I learned to pay attention to how seemingly small conflicts in marriage point to larger, deeper issues and to be mindful of the complexities of each human in a relationship. My goal is to slow down the pace of conflicts to uncover and alter negative cycles of interaction that leave members of a couple feeling lonely and unseen.

My three points of expertise: family therapy, trauma treatment and creative arts therapy make me uniquely able to uncover, understand and treat intergenerational and historical trauma. Because trauma is often encoded in imagery and felt body sensations more than words, the creative arts therapies are able to access and transform trauma memories into artworks that can be spoken of and reflected upon. While family therapy requires a long view that spans generations and welcomes complexity.

I am certified in culturally-competent trauma intervention by the International Trauma Studies Program at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University after undergoing an intensive year long training program. I have worked with trauma-- simple, complex and intergenerational-- in private practice, in acute psychiatric hospitals and in school settings. I understand deeply that trauma is encoded in the body and in imagery and is often wordless, so we start in those places in therapy

I have been a licensed creative arts therapist and a registered and board-certified art therapist for more than a decade after receiving my Masters Degree in Art Therapy at NYU. I've worked with all ages from infants to elders-- individually, in couples, families, and groups in a wide variety of settings and am able to use art making to open up hidden sources of strength, resilience and creativity in places of pain and suffering.

I spent four years training in couples and family therapy at the Ackerman Institute for the Family in New York City. A preeminent training center for post-graduate licensed therapists to become masterful clinicians in systemic, attachment-based and transgenerational family therapy. My background as a creative arts therapist allows me to work with families non-verbally and to work with family members of diverse ages and ability levels simultaneously.