We recently connected with Kat Dison Nechlebova and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kat thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.

I studied sculpture at Kansas City Art Institute and after that, I earned master’s degrees in both counseling and art therapy with emphasis in transpersonal psychology at Southwestern College in Santa Fe. While accumulating these degrees and the necessary hours of practice experience, I had to sit back and really think about how I could combine my interests into a brand that would not just be appealing to me as an individual, but something that others could latch onto as a form of wellness.

Art and psychology are concepts that organically fit together, but to offer them as a service was something that I had to figure out on my own. In school, I was taught that I might have to build my own position in the workforce because finding an art therapy career could be a challenge on its own. I knew that in order to figure out what I wanted to build, I needed to work with a variety of populations to explore my style of psychotherapy and what fit best to avoid burnout. Over time I was able to put all of the pieces together and understood what I wanted to build in my practice. After that, it was just a matter of obtaining proper licensure and completing paperwork to get the ball rolling. I don’t think there will ever be an exact end point to evolving my practice. I continue to take courses in art and psychology, and even recently I added becoming a successful graduate of the Applied Existential Coaching program at Boulder Psychotherapy Institute. I also meet with peers in related fields to learn how I can continue to grow the practice. I would only be offering my clients a disservice if I ever stopped learning, which would also be extremely boring, and who wants that?

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

As an art therapist and integrative counselor, I offer unique ways for people to process their experiences. Oftentimes I find that people worry where or how therapeutic perspectives will emerge and where it may lead them; anxiety can be paralyzing and make verbal communication difficult, which is an inherent limitation to traditional methods of psychotherapy. Through a combination of making art and talking, sometimes new perspectives emerge more easily. I aim to enhance individuals’ perception of the entirety of their surroundings, attend more carefully to what’s taking place, and appreciate our roles in the grand experience of life.

Being a multidisciplinary artist lets me deeply study and explore these ideas through combining elements of sculpture, installation, audiovisual art, and sound. I love conceptualizing psychological theories in my art to simultaneously underline the competing ideas of individual psychological destruction and nurturing the dynamic aspects of human experience. I find that visually linking theories complement both the process of my work as a therapist and creative application in my art, which enables me to further explore the pervasive and unperceived psychological patterns that govern our lives.

I operate my private practice, Art Therapy & Integrative Counseling, with offices in Denver and Kansas City providing services as an art therapist, psychotherapist, and existential phenomenologist. As an art therapist and integrative counselor, I offer unique ways for people to process their experiences. Oftentimes I find that people worry where or how therapeutic perspectives will emerge and where it may lead them; anxiety can be paralyzing and make verbal communication difficult, which is an inherent limitation to traditional methods of psychotherapy. Through a combination of making art and talking, however, sometimes new perspectives emerge more easily. I aim to enhance individuals’ perception of the entirety of their surroundings, attend more carefully to what’s taking place, and appreciate our roles in the grand experience of life.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

Absolutely not, in fact, I feel like my direction was less of a choice and more of a need. I get to use my experiences as both a therapist and artist to portray human behavioral patterns visually and experientially, providing tangible models to understand otherwise unconscious behavior. I enjoy exploring the perpetual evolution of arts’ ever persistent challenge to collective ecological, cultural, and political social paradigms. Overall it’s a win-win situation.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

Understanding that journeying toward change is at times, very hard. However, choosing to embark on that path can be full of joy as one learns about themselves, develop connections, and experiences life more fully and authentically. Everyone has a unique journey, and it’s my privilege to witness and offer support.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.KatNechlebova.com
• Instagram: kat.dison.nechlebova
• Linkedin: Kat Dison Nechlebová, M.A., NLC, ATR

Image Credits
Jeff Everett Cara Lefebvera