Alison Wood

MA, LMFT, MPS, ATR-BC 

Board Certified & Registered Art Therapist

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist #122281

I began my career in New York City as a psychotherapist in 2007 with a master's degree in Creative Arts Therapy.  I relocated to the South Bay of Los Angeles in 2013 and obtained another master's degree in couples and family therapy and am licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist by the state of California. 

Specializing in trauma, depression, anxiety and relationship issues, I also have broad knowledge and experience with youth and the LGBTQ+ community.  In addition to my expertise working with gender & sexuality, I have years of work experience focused on Millennial and young men's mental health.  

My psychodynamic and expressive arts training in NYC taught me that genuine expression and connection can bring positive change to our lives.  It is a nurturing, real relationship that can repair us.  In therapy with me, you can expect to be met with authenticity, empathy, humor, insight and creativity.  Together we will build on the strengths you already have to improve your relationships and solve the challenges that have brought you to therapy.  We will also have the added benefit of using art materials along with traditional talk therapy to assist with tending to the issues that bring you to therapy.  To learn more about how art therapy works, see below.

For years I have assisted people of all ages and experiences to manage life's stresses and challenges in hospitals, community health and private practice settings.  My approach is empathic, affirming, culturally humble, LGBTQIA+ celebrating, radically accepting, and direct. I look forward to learning more about you.

Whatever the issue, problem, challenge or life stage, we are here to help.  

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” - Rumi

Diversity Affirmative Art Psychotherapy

Diversity affirmative

Diversity affirmative therapy practice means everyone should have access to therapy without fear of being judged or stigmatized.  It is a therapist holding in mind systemic factors that impact individual experience. It is an effort to reduce barriers to health and wellness with a therapeutic practice that recognizes privilege and intersectionality with regard to a person’s sexuality, race, ethnicity, culture, religion, and gender.

A Place To Sit

Don’t go outside your house to see flowers.
My friend, don’t bother with that excursion.
Inside your body there are flowers.
One flower has a thousand petals.
That will do for a place to sit.
Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty
inside the body and out of it, before gardens and after gardens.

-Kabir translated by Robert Bly

image credit Ben Wiseman

art Therapy

Art Therapy is a specialized form of psychotherapy that uses art materials to assist in meaningful personal expression and understanding with a clinically trained therapist.  We are all born with a human instinct for symbolic and artistic expression (think of 14,000 year old cave paintings!).  When used in a therapeutic setting, this capacity for creativity can be an effective and holistic tool for improving mental health and wellness.  It connects our bodies and minds while allowing us the freedom to say more than one idea or feeling at a time.  This reflects a more accurate and authentic communication of our unique inner experience.  It also helps make connections within yourself and with another person (your therapist) that can heal your brain and your relationships.  Art therapy is for all ages, requires no artistic skill, and can be part of an individual, couples, family or a group therapy process.   

You must give birth to your images. They are the future waiting to be born. Fear not the strangeness you feel. The future must enter you long before it happens. Just wait for the birth, for the hour of the new clarity.

– Rilke

image credit Screwy Lightbulb

Relational approach

A relational approach to therapy acknowledges the specific healing benefits to the unique relationship you have with your therapist.  When there is authentic connection within the therapy, patterns and styles of relating that both interfere and enhance our lives emerge.  Exploring these patterns within the safety of the therapeutic relationship can offer impactful and positive changes to important relationships in our lives.

Oceans 

I have a feeling that my  boat
has struck, down there in the depths,
against a great thing.
                    And nothing
happens! Nothing...Silence...Waves...
    --Nothing happens? Or has everything happened,
and are we standing now, quietly, in the new life?

-Juan Ramon Jimenez translated by Robert Bly

image credit TED Conferences LLC

Workshops & Consultations

As part of my passion for Maternal mental health, LGBTQ mental health, and Millennial mental health, I team up with other talented therapists in the South Bay to bring you art therapy inspired workshops that address the unique needs of specific life experiences, stresses and stages.  

For other mental health professionals wanting to expand their clinical work with creative interventions, I offer individual consultation for incorporating the expressive arts into psychotherapy with all ages and issues. 

Mommy Fatigue Restoration Workshop Series

For the woman who DOES IT ALL….DO SOMETHING FOR YOURSELF!  There are so many pressures on mothers and women- working in and out of the home 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Come together with a small group of women to relax, connect, create and rejuvenate!  Take a break from the needs and noise of others as you are guided in using mindfulness practice, self-reflection, authentic communication and art experiences to gain a much deserved moment for yourself.  

This three part series includes the following themes: "The Mindful Mother," "The Good Enough Mother,"  and "The Mother Collective."   

be Your selfie: reflections of acceptance Workshop 

"If you knew me you would know..." How would you fill in that blank?  What are the parts of ourselves that people don't see?  What do we stand to gain by sharing those unseen parts with others?  This workshop is all about exploring and sharing our inner worlds by using art materials to transform what we allow people to see in us and how we see ourselves.  

Get Real: Millennial Mental Health

Millennials are experiencing increased rates of mental health issues due to high academic and career expectations, peer competitiveness, and intensity of social pressures from the internet and social media.  Fortunately, Millennials also attach less stigma to mental health and may be more open and willing to talk about their stresses and struggles.  This workshop provides a space for Millennials to use the ability to share their thoughts and experiences IRL to decrease stress and anxiety while creating real connections with others that support overall mental health and wellness.