Therapy for Artists & Creatives in Los Angeles
Therapy for artists and those with deep imaginations navigating stress, burnout, and creative identity.
Being a highly creative person often comes with feeling different—or feeling isolated.
Maybe you were the “talented one” within your family or friends. The golden child. The one everyone expected great things from. Or maybe you were the black sheep, the one who didn’t fit in. You silently carried your family’s emotions and unmet needs, and survived by carving out your own world in images, music, or fantasy.
Still, creativity isn’t just the result of childhood experiences. It draws from something deeper, often becoming the way you make meaning and purpose in life.
Many artists identify with:
- Feeling deeply, and also feeling misunderstood.
- Thinking in ways that go over people’s heads.
- Saying things at the wrong place and time.
- Having trouble organizing thoughts or a creative workspace.
Artists live in a constant dialogue with meaning, identity, and perception.
Artists also juggle relationships, thinking patterns, finances, and mental health. You might struggle with rigid systems, feel torn between your creative identity and work-life balance, experience intense anxiety in relationships, carry inherited messages about success or worth, or struggle with writer’s block, motivation, and feeling stuck in the past.
Artistry can start to feel like a burden when it doesn’t align with the shape of your life.
Therapy for Artists and Creative Professionals
For OCD and the obsessional doubt behind perfectionism, second-guessing, and projects that never feel finished.
Process fears of being seen or not being good enough, so you can carry your creative vision through to completion.
Work with distractibility, creative overwhelm, burnout, and time blindness.
Explore relationship patterns, images, and symbols that shape your process.
As a trauma-informed therapist trained in EMDR and I-CBT, I offer approaches designed to help you get grounded in your artistry. EMDR helps your brain process unresolved memories, beliefs, emotions, and physical sensations that may be fueling anxiety, perfectionism, or creative blocks.
How Therapy Supports Your Creative Life
Therapy for creatives is not about changing who you are. It’s about helping your creative identity thrive without constant stress or self-criticism. In our work together, we may:
- Clarify your vision of success—not your family’s version.
- Strengthen boundaries so your creative energy is protected.
- Understand how relationships impact your creative work.
- Regulate your nervous system so creativity isn’t fueled only by pressure.
- Process experiences that shaped your creative identity.
- Address anxiety, trauma, ADHD, or OCD patterns affecting your work.
Being creative may require risk and intensity. It does not require ongoing suffering.
Therapy for Artists and Creatives in Los Angeles and California
I provide trauma therapy and EMDR therapy for creatives in Culver City and throughout California via telehealth. Whether you’re navigating anxiety, trauma, identity questions, relationship challenges, or creative burnout, therapy can help you reconnect with your work—and with yourself—in a more grounded way.
Resources
Cost shouldn’t keep artists out of therapy. See my list of mental health grants and financial resources for artists.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to be a professional artist to work with you?
No. I work with working artists, hobbyists, people returning to a creative practice, and anyone who experiences the world with depth and intensity.
What kinds of artists do you work with?
I work with musicians, composers, producers, songwriters, writers, poets, filmmakers, actors, comedians, dancers, visual artists, illustrators, animators, photographers, designers, and game developers.
How can EMDR help me as an artist?
EMDR helps your nervous system process memories that still charge the present, freeing energy for creative work. Read more about the science behind EMDR →
Is EMDR only for major trauma?
No. EMDR can also help with chronic criticism, emotional neglect, and growing up feeling misunderstood.
How can I-CBT help with my creativity?
I-CBT helps you recognize when obsessional doubt has pulled imagination away from present reality, so your imagination can go back into your work.
Will therapy make me less creative?
Therapy doesn’t remove depth or intensity. It helps you access them without being overwhelmed.
Do you offer therapy outside Los Angeles?
Yes. I see clients throughout California via telehealth, and in person in Culver City and Mid-City.
Ready to talk?
I offer a free 15-minute consultation.