Gette Levy uses  cultural, relational, constructivist, and systematic lenses to form strong, supportive connections with art therapy and counseling participants and artists looking to development their skillsets. They focus their art therapy practice around cross-cultural experiences, trauma, social isolation, housing insecurity, and the impacts of oppression and socialization. Gette works predominantly with individuals experiencing domestic violence, family separation, trauma, and severe and persistent mental illness; however, they take the position that wellness and health do not have to come to a point of crisis for participants to seek or take advantage of assistance. Gette also works as an affirmation art therapist and counselor for those experiencing differing abilities, gender transition, kink, and non-monogamous experiences in their life. Humans are inter-dependent creatures, and building professional support systems as well as personal community support systems is a large part of sustaining wellness over long periods of time. Progress is not linear, health is not linear. If you are questioning if you need assistance, please seek it out.

What art do you enjoy? What do you spend your time viewing? What do you like or want for yourself? Gette works with participants to redefine how art participation is considered. There is an artistic practice to any passion or interest, Gette will work with you to name it.

Incorporating Womanist theory, Minuchin structural family therapy theory, and constructivist theories, Gette works with participants in a variety of mediums including fiber arts, paper arts, graphic art, paint, sculpture, installation art, and performance art using art as language to communicate. Gette’s work focuses on using artistic languages as acts of sublimation, wellness tracking/awareness through art processes and products, and to draw metaphorical and symbolic connections to resiliency building, functional flexibility mindsets, tolerance re-acclimation, wellness building and positional awareness within micro, meso, and macrocosms of social and marketplace participation.

Art is an embodied experience and language, for Gette, and they seek to highlight the strengths and value of artistic participation by creating art therapy and counseling spaces in which experimentation becomes less of a risk, self-efficacy is raised, and community is built. Gette works with participants and institutions to bring participant goals and objectives into reasonable and flexible alignment through personalization of art practices and processes and institutional advocacy for participants. It is Gette’s professional opinion that inter-connected services that bring down barriers to wellness and stability have the most impact on individuals navigating complex situations.

You can find Art Therapy related posts and work here.