We recently connected with Emily Winesberry and have shared our conversation below.

Emily , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I have taken a lot of risks in my life, but I believe the risk of leaving my therapy job in the Bay Area to move from Oakland, Ca. back home to Wichita, Ks. to become a professional artist and private practice mental health therapist was the scariest. I had been working in San Francisco at Conard House, Inc., a community mental health agency providing mental health therapy, case management, money management, and health navigation to our clients. As the years passed, and I made less and less artwork I began to feel a need to create more space and opportunity to work artistically. I found myself wanting to spend more time painting but with the commute into and out of SF for work, and the mental and emotional energy it takes to hold clients full time, I felt that I did not have the reserves to create art. I got the opportunity to move back to Wichita in 2022 and decided to take it. I would be leaving behind a city and region of the world I loved and a job I never dreaded going to in service of my creative spirit. It was a risk to leave my economic stability and begin two new businesses from scratch without solid community and professional support established, but it felt like a risk I needed to take, and I trusted that I would be Ok in the long run. Once I was ready to begin the work of starting my business and working again, I found that I had so much more support that I could have ever imagined. Community and support bloomed around me, and I found what I needed was here and all I had to do was be ready to accept their support and presence.

Emily , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I began creating art when I was young. I was fortunate enough to have been able to participate in music/ band class when I was in middle school and take dance classes outside of school. Visual arts were included in my public elementary and middle school education, and I graduated from a magnet high school that focused on sciences and the visual arts. I attended Wichita State University and received a bachelor’s in fine arts focusing on my artistic and creative voice. As I got older, I began to feel a pull to support others emotionally and enrolled in a master’s program in clinical psychology at California Institute of Integral Studies with a focus in Expressive Arts Therapy (EXA). As an EXA therapist I support clients in processing their feelings in traditional talk therapy, but also through the use of the client’s creative expression. By utilizing various artistic modes, from visual art, movement, narrative therapy, music therapy and sound it creates a space to process the client’s feelings, emotions, and trauma experiences that might be hard to address directly. Part of the healing process is validating the pain your clients are in. Systemic and social injustice and racism are real issues that affect all aspects of life. Along with my use of talk therapy, multi-cultural and trauma informed therapy Expressive Arts provides alternative tools that help access my client’s own personal strengths in support of healing.

For most of my work as a therapist I have gained clinical experience working in a variety of settings including community mental health, primary and secondary school-based counseling, skilled nursing rehabilitation and Alzheimer’s facilities, and residential facility care for transitional aged youth.
In 2022 I moved into a private practice model of providing mental health therapy. This new experience of working in private practice has given me the opportunity to create a working environment for myself that nurtures my own creative process and gives me time to go back to making art regularly. I have begun to exhibit my artwork in local spaces and galleries and in online exhibitions.

There are similar threads in the focus of how I hold therapy and the themes in the artwork I create. In my artwork and in providing therapy what inspires me is the healing powers of art and how the individual’s personal connection and relationship with their own creativity can bring about profound healing. I am fascinated by relationships and my artwork strives to highlight the relationships created between the subjects in the picture and how these interactions create a peaceful space to nurture calm and healing. I work in many media, depending on the overall emotional and pictorial effect of the piece I am striving for.

For those who are interested in working with me therapeutically or collecting my artwork the most important thing to know about me is I believe that creativity is a powerful tool that can support healing and wellbeing. I am here to support and walk with clients as they travel towards becoming their authentic self. I have been most proud of creating spaces that support work and life balance that nurture and fulfill my life’s purpose.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The main lesson I have had to unlearn is allowing myself to rest and seeing this as an essential part of the creative and therapeutic process. I believe we in the helping fields are pushed to work until we are burned out providing the care and support that is so needed by our clients/ patients; whether it is an overfull caseload of clients or working extended hours at a time.
I believe our society expects this of all workers regardless of what we do for work. We are told to work hard, but in the hours to get ahead, and define success by the profit margins of your business. It has taken me lots of years to unlearn that you are not able to support others the way they deserve and need if you yourself are too tired to be fully present and attuned to them. You cannot give to others from an “empty cup”.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

I believe what is most helpful for success in my fields of visual arts and mental health therapy is to maintain your authenticity and ability to share yourself with your clients and patrons. They want and need you and your unique voice, and this is what they are seeking from you. It can be challenging to feel you are enough or that you need to be more and do more to set yourself apart, but I believe your clients and patrons are looking for you. Shine your authentic light out into the world they will find you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.creativehealingcounseling.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-winesberry-lcmft
• Other: https://linkpop.com/vitisviniferastudio

Image Credits

1. Professional photo of Emily Winesberry by Cynthia Dalene Photos Facebook@cynthiadalenephoto

2. Red Ginger Lily
Oil on Canvas
2023

3. Yellow Rose
Oil on Canvas
2022

4. Succulent #3
Digital Photography
2016

5. Red Tulip
Oil on Canvas
2024

6. Yellow Tulip
Oil on Board
2023

7. Rose
Pastel on Rag Paper
2000

8. Strength Tarot Card
Colored Pencil on Bristol
2024