Heart Light Healing Arts

IN THE STORY OF A LIFE

Therapy is like making art; it is an invitation to the untamed self to speak, and hopefully this time, to be understood. It can provide a safe haven; it can unmask; sometimes it hurts to need another’s
advice; sometimes it’s a joyful meeting of two minds. But it is always creative.

It happens in a sacred space; a place in between, where you take the time you need to make meaning out of experience, where you find the thread you lost, or make a new beginning.

People have always had therapists. They have been called by other names: mentors, elders, aunts, uncles, priests, ministers, artists, healers, the people you can talk to that aren’t your friends, or spouse, the people who aren’t uncomfortable when you surprise them.

My specialty is in looking for and using the images, patterns, and symbols that emerge naturally from the person. I work with dreams, myth, and story when it makes sense to. I have meditation exercises,
use sand tray, provide writing assignments, and art projects whenever they seem helpful.

But mostly, with adults, I listen, and ask a lot of questions. It is in the particular way a person has come to be where she or he is; in the images, themes, characters, and twists of plot that we hear the
language of the untamed self. The goal of therapy, as with all creative processes, is to make the dark visible, and the silence speak.

Cynthia Matsakis, MFA, LCSW-C is an expressive arts therapist. She is currently working with individual children and adults as well as families. She runs social skills groups for children as well as adult groups. She will be coaching parents with challenging children.

Cynthia’s work has always been focused upon the integration of cognitive and creative processes to reach therapeutic and educational goals. She has a background in the arts, including creative writing, drama, and visual art. She is a published poet and received an Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) in creative writing from the University of Maryland where she taught creative writing. She was a Master Artist at the Wolf Trap Foundation for Early Education through the Performing Arts, where she taught artists and developed curricula for Head Start programs nationwide.

Therapeutic work with children: After becoming a clinical social worker, Cynthia supervised a program at Rock Terrace, a public school for children with learning disabilities, where she developed creative interventions for students with Nonverbal Learning Disability, Asperger’s Syndrome and Autism. She later worked with Linkages to Learning, a school based therapy program, where she provided individual and group therapy for students during the school year. She also developed the curriculum for and directed a therapeutic summer camp for oppositional students using visual art, drama, and story.

Therapeutic work with adults Before joining the staff at HeartLight, she had a private practice in Silver Spring, MD. She used expressive therapy techniques including sand tray, symbol, and ritual as well as talk therapy with adults.