Eren Santana-Bykofsky, MA

I do not separate the work from who you are. The clients I see are often carrying experiences that have shaped how they relate to their own bodies, to language, to other people, and to the question of whether they get to want what they want. For many of them, sitting in an office with a therapist and talking about feelings is not the most natural starting place.

I work primarily through art-making. Not because I think every client needs to make art, but because for many of the clients I see, having another channel for what they are working with opens something that talking alone does not. A neurodivergent client who has been masking for years can drop the mask in a different way when their hands are busy. A queer or trans client who has spent significant energy explaining themselves to others can use the visual to show what the verbal exhausts.

I integrate CBT and DBT into the work when skills-building is what is needed: emotion regulation, distress tolerance, navigating intense relationships, working with anxious or depressive patterns. The art-making and the skills work are not in conflict; they move together.

I am LGBTQIA2S+ affirming as a starting condition, not as a special service. The same is true for neurodivergence-affirming work: it shapes how I think about every client, not just the ones with formal diagnoses.