East Bay Art Therapy, 55 Santa Clara Avenue Suite 220, Oakland, CA (2025)

10/23/2025

At East Bay Art Therapy, we support clients in exploring a wide range of challenges from anxiety and trauma to self-esteem, relationships, and identity.

🍭We’re highlighting one area of our work: helping clients heal their relationship with their bodies and with food.

Our work is rooted in the principles of Health at Every Size and body neutrality, helping clients reject diet culture, unlearn harmful narratives about thinness, and quiet the inner food police that labels foods as “good” or “bad.”

🎨 Through art therapy, we create space to be messy, expressive, and free.

Here, you can take up the space you deserve, release perfectionism, and begin to relate to your body with compassion instead of criticism.

Healing through creativity allows you to reconnect with your inner wisdom, the part of you that already knows you are worthy, whole, and enough exactly as you are.

If you’re seeking liberation from society’s oppressive body ideals and want to find peace through the creative process, we’d love to support you.

🩷 Book your free consultation (Link in Bio) with a registered art therapist to get started today towards body peace and self-liberation.

We offer in-person sessions in Oakland & San Jose California + virtual sessions.

10/21/2025

Watercolor Flow: An Art Therapy Exploration

This watercolor piece emerged through a free-flow process, inviting the body, not the mind, to lead. The act of using watercolor became a somatic release, allowing flow to guide rather than control.

Once dry, the artwork became a mirror for reflection, an exploration of inner balance, structure, & the natural cycles of growth.

The artwork represents navigating professional responsibilities, daily demands, & the delicate balance between chaos & flow.

Watercolor, as a medium, offers a powerful metaphor for life. Whether you use liquid watercolors or with a brush.

You can guide it, but you can’t control where it flows on the paper. The watercolor moves on its own, inviting you to let go, to give in to the process, & to allow what unfolds.

Colors merge and move unpredictably, reminding us to trust the process, build resilience, and find beauty in imperfection.
Through this practice, we learn to surrender, to let go of rigid control, & to strengthen self-trust as life unfolds in its own rhythm.

Have you ever played with watercolor? Drop a 🎨!

Try it out & notice what happens when you let go of control and simply let the colors move.

🩷 If you’d like to explore how art can support your emotional well-being and personal growth, reach out for a free consultation with a Registered Art Therapist at East Bay Art Therapy.

We offer in-person + virtual sessions in Oakland & San Jose, California.

📸 Sophia Stutes, EBAT Art Therapist

10/09/2025

🎨 What Does an Art Therapy Session Actually Look Like?

Art therapy is a mental health profession that blends psychology and creative expression to help people process emotions, release stress to cope in new ways, and heal to live higher-functioning lives.

Your art therapist isn’t just someone who loves art, they are a trained clinician who understands human psychology, trauma, development, and more!

At East Bay Art Therapy, we work with all populations:

💚Kids & teens learning to regulate emotions

💜Adults moving through burnout, loss, or big transitions

💚Couples wanting a deeper connection

💜Families working to strengthen communication and harmony

💚Individuals seeking purpose & ready for real change

No art skills needed — just curiosity and openness.

💚💜East Bay Art Therapy — where creativity meets real talk.

📍 Serving the Bay Area, In-person (Oakland, San Jose) + virtual sessions available.

👉 Learn more or book through the link in bio.

10/07/2025

Missed our Sold Out Therapeutic Art Making Training for Non-Art Therapists? 😢

We got you!

Our next workshop is scheduled for early 2026! Join our waitlist now!

Here is a recap of what Tonia, founder of EBAT, taught in this fun & informative Workshop for Mental Health clinicians.

In this training, participants gained the following:

🖌️An understanding of the history of art therapy & the psychology behind the creative process

🖌️Explored case examples that show how art can deepen therapeutic client work

🖌️Got hands-on experience with art-making directives (yes, and created their own)!

The mental health clinicians who attended didn’t leave the training becoming an Art Therapist (That is a long process!). 😅

However, they did learn practical skills and activities to incorporate in their practice, to support building rapport and enriching their therapeutic relationships. 🙌

We are excited to continue to offer this training, as we know that, as Art Therapists, expressing yourself in words can be difficult, and art making can become a more accessible and safer way to express for clients.

So, if you are a mental health clinician, curious about how to bring art into your sessions ethically and effectively… then this is for you!

Leave the guesswork and discomfort on what to do behind!

👉Join our waitlist for your next workshop, before this one sells out too!

📍Attend in person (Oakland, CA) with all materials provided OR join virtually (Zoom) with a supply list sent in advance.

🎨Visit eastbayarttherapy.com/training to read the full training description and view pricing.

👉Email Tonia (Tonia@eastbayarttherapy.com) to get signed up to expand your therapeutic toolbox!

10/02/2025

✨Ready to release your heavy burdens and nourish yourself?

Art Therapy Group for Women+ Therapists 🎒What We Carry

Join a nourishing and restorative 8-week virtual art therapy group created especially for women+ therapists.

In this sacred space, we explore what we carry—the visible and invisible weights of caregiving, clinical work, and lived experience.

Together, we’ll gently examine the layers we hold as helpers: the tenderness, the exhaustion, the wisdom, and the resilience.

🎨 Through guided art-making, reflective prompts, and mindful dialogue, this group offers a space to honor where you’ve been, release what no longer serves, and reconnect with the parts of you that need care and creativity.

🫶🏼You do so much for others—this is your time to receive.

Themes we’ll explore:

🖌️The emotional and energetic “backpack” we carry as caregivers
🖌️The art of self-tending and sustainable care
🖌️Honoring personal and professional lineage

Reimagining who we’re becoming, both in and beyond our roles
No art experience necessary—just bring your heart, your hands, and the art materials you are drawn to.

Come to exhale. Come to remember yourself.

Non-binary, trans, and gender-expansive therapists who would feel comfortable in a women-identified space are welcome.

Therapists-in-training are welcome in this group.

Facilitated by Angelina Nader, MA, AMFT, ATR (she/her)

✨Wednesdays 10:00-11:30am
Group is 8 weeks
Now Enrolling! Limited spaces available!
Maximum Capacity: 8

This group takes place virtually using the Zoom platform.

Open to residents of California as well as: AL, AK, AR, AZ, CO, FL, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NC, ND, OK, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, WA, WV, & WY.

09/30/2025

New Staff Alert 🚨 Linas Phillips, MA (he/him)
Drama Therapist

Ever since studying drama at NYU, Linas has been fascinated by the healing power of acting. After a career in filmmaking, Linas was inspired to get his masters in Drama Therapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, CA, to help people express themselves both creatively and therapeutically.

As a therapist, Linas has a client-centered approach and believes in providing empathetic listening to understand where people are coming from, first and foremost. Equally influenced by Narrative therapy and Buddhist psychology, Linas tries to help people see the exceptions to their problem stories, make meaning out of their struggles, and move towards a more preferred future.

His own healing journey has benefited from spiritual teachers such as Thich Nhat Hanh, Pema Chödrön and especially Ram Dass. He is currently enrolled in Jack Kornfield’s Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program.

He hopes mindfulness practices can reduce his client’s shame and reconnect them to their highest selves. His years as an artist and teacher inform the supportive and authentic presence he brings to his clients.

Linas works off-site for EBAT providing drama therapy groups at Sutter Health Mills Peninsula Medical Center (Adult & Adolescent Psychiatric Units) in San Mateo, CA.

09/23/2025

🎨 Therapeutic Art Making in Clinical Practice for Non-Art Therapists

Are you a mental health clinician curious about how to bring art into your sessions ethically and effectively?

What may be difficult for your clients to express in words can become more accessible when they are given the opportunity to express themselves through a creative art form.

Art making can serve as a bottom-up, somatic process that can help your clients communicate in a way that may feel safer for them.

In this training, you’ll:
🖌 Learn the history of art therapy and the psychology behind the creative process
🖌 Explore case examples that show how art can deepen therapeutic work
🖌 Get hands-on experience with art-making directives (yes, you’ll create your own!)

This training will not make you an Art Therapist, but it will equip you with practical skills and activities to incorporate into your practice, helping you build rapport and enrich the therapeutic relationship.

📍 Attend in person (Oakland, Ca) with all materials provided OR join virtually (zoom) with a supply list sent in advance.

➡️ LAST CALL! 2 Spots Left! Sign up today (link in bio) or email Tonia (Tonia@eastbayarttherapy.com) to reserve your place and expand your therapeutic toolbox!

09/21/2025

Sara Umbro (she/her) is an Expressive Arts Therapy and Counseling student intern here at EBAT offering low fee therapy!

Read her full bio at eastbayarttherapy.com/team

09/18/2025

New Staff Alert 🚨 Sophia Stutes, MA, ATR, AMFT (she/her)

Registered Art Therapist & Associate Marriage and Family Therapist
Social Media Manager

Sophia Stutes (she/her) is an Art Therapist who grew up with a passion for visual arts, earning her BFA in Drawing and Painting before completing her MA in Art Therapy and Marriage and Family Therapy at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, CA. She is a Registered Art Therapist and an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist.

Sophia has worked with diverse populations, including adults in outpatient settings navigating mental health challenges and individuals navigating bereavement and life transitions.

Sophia believes in the transformative power of art to connect with the subconscious and open pathways for healing and growth. Her therapeutic approach is eclectic and integrative, drawing from evidence-based practices. She also incorporates mindfulness practices, such as guided meditation, active imagination alongside creative expression to help clients explore meaning, symbolism, and personal narratives.

In addition to her clinical practice, Sophia also serves as EBAT’s Social Media Manager. She brings her background in entrepreneurship, marketing, and messaging strategy from mastermind groups to support the organization’s mission and share the value of creative arts therapy with the community.

In her free time, Sophia nurtures her well-being through regular meditation and self-reflection through art and journaling in nature. She often pairs this with a cold plunge in the Pacific Ocean. This balance inspires the integrative and grounding energy that inform her creative spirit and therapeutic work.

Sophia works off-site for EBAT facilitating art therapy groups at Sutter Health Mills Health Center (Adult & Adolescent Psychiatric Units) in San Mateo, CA and with adults with developmental disabilities at LeapCA in San Bruno, CA.

ATR #18-300 (National)

09/16/2025

“Have no fear of perfection you’ll never reach it” -Salvador Dali

Art Therapy is a great way to face our fears of messing up, making mistakes, or not being “perfect”. Perfectionism is often driven by fear of failure or not being accepted by others, and perfectionism can drive anxiety. Art therapy is focused on the process and not the product, where there is no such thing as good or bad, right or wrong, or making mistakes in our art. Art Therapists can also tailor directives in session to help clients work on their perfectionism. If you are looking for help with your perfectionism, reach out at eastbayarttherapy.com today to get scheduled with a professional art therapist!

Now available in Oakland and San Jose area!

East Bay Art Therapy

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