Ciera Shimkus, LCPC

It’s okay to not understand yourself or know why things feel the way they do. Knowing how to respond to your own emotions and function in this world can be hard when you have been flying under the radar without being given tools or had your needs addressed. So, it’s okay if you don’t know where to start.
You can start here, wherever you are, in all of your worth and strength that already exists within you. Your experiences have gotten you this far already.

As a person of color, I understand that the BIPOC community can be underserved in many aspects including mental health. It is important to be given tools to learn how to deal with emotions from an early age but not everybody has that privilege. The problem with this is that not having tools to learn about and deal with emotions at an early age can cause problems down the road like relationship conflicts, communication issues, unhealthy responses to stress and sadness. Whether you are a non-typical learning pre-teen struggling to focus in school or a young adult learning how to “adult,” I want to be able to help fill that gap and encourage the development of tools you need to thrive.

My approach in doing this starts with bringing my genuine personality and self to the therapeutic relationship in order to aid the trust building process. As an Expressive Arts Therapist you or your child is able to use one or all of the creative modalities (visual art, music, dance-movement, drama, and creative writing) within a session in addition to talking. Having creative skills is not a requirement. Expressive arts help children and adolescents learn and process emotions in a digestible manner while helping adults dig deeper into their therapeutic process. I can’t wait to be a part of your next steps in your journey.