Missy Scherr-Phillips (she/her), ATR-BC, LCPAT
Missy is a compassionate, understanding, and creative practitioner who will help you understand yourself more fully through art. With thirty years of Art Therapy experience, Missy works with children, teens and adults, and has extensive experience providing art therapy for folks with a variety of challenges. She has developed therapeutic art programs a residential treatment center in Frederick, facilitated family therapy sessions, and introduced Art Therapy to Frederick County Public Schools.
Missy also works as an Adjunct professor at The George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy program, where she supports the growth of a new generation of art therapists.
At Mind Body Wellness, Missy provides Art Therapy to help you understand yourself and to reopen spaces within you in a gentle manner. Missy uses a variety of art materials and offers you the opportunity to choose the materials that resonate, feel safe and are expressive. At different times in our lives we find ourselves feeling lost, isolated, disconnected, and fragmented. During art therapy sessions, Missy works with you to untangle those stuck and at times inaccurate thoughts and feelings. The thread that carries throughout all of Missy’s experiences as an Art Therapist is compassion for the thoughts and feelings initially created to keep you safe, and an unwinding of what no longer serves you.
Work with MissyWhat is Art Therapy?
If you are new to Art Therapy, welcome!! Art therapy is a process that works in conjunction with verbal therapy. Art therapy is a process of art making, not a product or completed work of art. The images you create are messages from within, usually from internal spaces where words don’t reach. These messages all serve to support your growth and return to a healthier and more expansive you, in alignment with your genuine self.
Art therapy provides a triangular container and dialogue for all to be heard: the client, the art therapist and the artwork. The artwork provides another voice in the session, often speaking in metaphor, communicating directly with you and making you the interpreter of your creations. When you are ready to explore your internal world from the outside, art therapy can provide a creative, safe and supportive approach for reaching your goals.
Art Therapy and Psychedelic integration
Art therapy can be beneficial when traditional verbal therapy leaves you feeling distant and disappointed in your process of healing. It can provide a unique therapeutic experience for expressing your thoughts and emotions when words alone are vague and hard to access. Using art to process a psychedelic experience can take the pressure off of having to make logical sense of it, and can allow you a space to process your journey nonverbally. Missy has completed the level 1 & level 2 Certificate in Psychedelics and Art Therapy from the Kutenai Art Therapy Institute, and can offer a safe space for you to process and integrate your insights in a way that is supportive and makes sense to you.
