Bridging Therapy and Art A Deep Dive into Expressive Arts with Theresa Soltzberg Ep.83

Episode Overview

• Episode Topic:
  In this episode of Mastering Counseling host Becky Coplen interviews Theresa Soltzberg. Theresa is an expressive arts therapist and owner of https://courses.theresasoltzberg.com/. In the interview, she talks about the transformative power of integrating art into therapy. She also shares her journey from a corporate career to becoming a licensed marriage and family therapist, and how she found her passion for art therapy during the pandemic. This episode dives into how Theresa’s practice incorporates expressive arts, internal family systems (IFS), and art journaling to help clients process trauma, grief, and emotional challenges. Learn how creativity can be a vital tool for therapists, not just for clients but for personal expression and healing. Theresa also discusses the shift to virtual therapy and how she adapted her expressive arts practice to an online setting, maintaining the deep connections and therapeutic benefits. From working with minimal supplies to creating powerful, transformative experiences through art journaling, Theresa highlights the flexibility and accessibility of expressive arts therapy in a modern context.
• Lessons You’ll Learn:
  Listeners will discover the benefits of combining art therapy with traditional therapeutic approaches such as internal family systems (IFS) to deepen emotional healing. Theresa explains how expressive arts therapy helps clients process complex emotions, trauma, and grief by allowing them to express themselves in non-verbal ways. Learn about the importance of prompts and structure in art therapy to guide clients through their healing journey, and why even minimal art supplies can create profound insights and breakthroughs. Theresa also emphasizes the power of community in therapy, particularly in online settings where clients can connect, share, and support each other through creative expression. Learn how to foster a safe, non-judgmental environment that encourages personal growth and emotional expression in both one-on-one and group therapy settings.
  About Our Guest:
  Theresa Soltzberg is a holistic and expressive arts therapist and the founder of Theresa Soltzberg Healing Art and Taproot Therapy, based in California. With a background in corporate learning and development, Theresa made a career change later in life to pursue her passion for therapy. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT) and has specialized in using art journaling, expressive arts, and internal family systems (IFS) therapy to help clients process complex trauma, grief, and emotional challenges. Theresa also leads expressive arts therapy groups, helping other therapists incorporate art into their own practices. She offers virtual therapy and group sessions that focus on creating community and fostering deep connections through creative expression. Her unique approach combines the therapeutic power of art with evidence-based practices to provide a holistic path to emotional healing.
• Topics Covered:
  Theresa’s Journey From a career in corporate learning and development to becoming a licensed therapist and expressive arts practitioner. Art Therapy Integration: How Theresa reintroduced art into her life and therapy practice through art journaling, expressive arts, and IFS therapy. Virtual Art Therapy: Adapting expressive arts therapy to a virtual platform during COVID-19, including how clients can participate with minimal art supplies. Community and Healing: The importance of community in therapy, both in group settings and online, to support and enhance the healing process. Complex Trauma and Grief: How Theresa’s therapy groups help clients process trauma, grief, and loss through structured prompts and creative expression. and fulfillment, offering practical tips for anyone looking to integrate these methods into their life.

Episode Transcript

Becky Coplen: Back on mastering counseling today, and we’re so glad for everyone who’s joined us. We are very privileged today to have Theresa Saltzberg with us. Welcome, Theresa.

Theresa Soltzberg: Hi. Thank you Becky, it’s so great to be here.

Becky Coplen: We look forward to talking to you. And Theresa has a whole lot going on and some areas that we haven’t gotten to explore on here in a long time. She is a holistic and expressive arts therapist and the owner of Theresa Soltzberg Healing Art and Taproot Therapy out in California. And after doing that as well, she’s starting to work with other therapists on expressive parts work Healing Circle, which she wants to incorporate a lot of internal family systems. Just to help other therapists share and grow in this area. So I hope that I covered all of the main bases. Was that a good starting point, Teresa?

Theresa Soltzberg: Yeah, perfect. Thank you.

Becky Coplen: Okay, well, we have a lot to talk about in the work that you’re doing, so let’s get right into it.  why don’t we first just talk about connection to art and your passion for that, and how that became such a moving part of your life that you pulled it into therapy.

Theresa Soltzberg: Yeah. Wonderful. Thank you. So I’ve. I’ve loved art since I was really young. I mean, I remember coloring, asking for the new box of crayons all the time. And, you know, I studied it off and on through school. I never I minored in it. I didn’t I didn’t major in it. I think I was kind of intimidated by the academic aspect of of pursuing an art career full on. I was actually an English major, and then later I changed careers later in life I ended up going into learning and development and had a corporate career for a long time. Since I’m in Northern California. I was in, you know, I’m near Silicon Valley. So I was doing. I did organization development, learning and development. So training basically, and leadership development, that kind of thing for we say I drove over the hill for the Silicon Valley companies and did that for, you know, a good 20 some years and then ended up in becoming a therapist, you know, in my later life and then became an lmft. So, interestingly, when, you know, I kind of like, you know, kept taking classes and things like that, but then sort of let art go, which is a lot of people’s stories, sadly, that we let the creative part, you know, go to do having to do especially work a lot of hours as you can a lot of people can relate to when we’re in the corporate world. Right. And missed it. You know, I missed a lot of things about having to put so much time into my work. And then when Covid hit, I was like, you know, I have some time. I want to really take an online class. And then I did a holistic program at JFK University, and we were doing, you know, we had our therapy as one of the elements of that program, too. So it brought me back to my creative kind of side of things. And it was an art journaling class. The course that I did. So I just really started to get back into it and it reignited that love of art. So I really. Yeah.

Becky Coplen: That’s awesome. So you became a marriage and family therapist and then started to weave the art back in. You would say.

Theresa Soltzberg: Yes. And I really think it helped. Like I said, having, you know, not just the couple of classes I took at JFK with that element, but the instructors there would bring in and especially the collage work. Interestingly, we would all we would have that element even in I remember ethics and law class. She’s like, let’s make a collage about how we feel about doing ethics in law, you know? Yeah. And I and we would always have those kinds of projects to have that side of things, you know, to bring that in. And so I just sort of had that part of me awakened. And then I ended up later on, and I kept pursuing those courses, especially our journaling courses on my own and developing that and really pursuing. I never really had found the art I wanted to do. And I loved the art journaling piece, and I kept an art therapist there. I kept pursuing that piece of what I loved doing. So I was I was finding my I found expressive art with kind of those two threads that were happening. And then I ended up doing a at the Northwest Creative Expressive Arts Institute. I ended up doing a program after I graduated in, um It’s their professional training program and it’s it’s to pursue expressive arts training. So I did a nine month program, and then it kind of wove together where I was like, I really want to offer this. Yeah, as part of what I offer.

Becky Coplen: Yeah, that’s such a cool journey. And as I’m listening to you talk, it’s we talk very often here about people beginning their roles as counselors and therapists and then finding the group or the type of therapy that they want to niche down and use. And now you are going almost a step further because you finally found in art journaling the part of art that really felt you could express yourself the most. So,  yeah, that’s such a cool story when one thing I would love to know about is art therapy. Because sometimes we like to talk about the spaces counselors or therapists have in their offices, or even up online, and or people have certain forms they use. What would you say would be a little different with you specifically doing art therapy as far as supplies and things that maybe people need when they work with you to get the full experience.

Theresa Soltzberg: You know, what’s interesting is so I did my training right on that cusp when Covid hit. So I had some in-person classes set up where I was doing my practicum. You know, we had this big space and we could do, you know, I had like 12 people signed up. And then literally after class two Covid hit and everything had to go online. Yeah. So I had to adapt really quickly. And art journaling, you know, to become a mentor. And then even the whole program at Northwest had to be all online. So I’m all online now, you know, I’m a fully online therapist and all of my courses are online to all my art journaling courses, as well as the training I received. So because the person that I learned from is in another country. So everything I do is online now. So all of my, you know, all of the, you know, the I do I do art therapy groups. Now I have a couple that I’m doing and then this the group that I’m offering is actually for other therapists and I include internal family systems, as you mentioned as well. And I did that training as I was in school. I’m level two trained. So all the paperwork, everything I send, you know, virtually I do the documentation as we would for regular group.

Theresa Soltzberg: We ask people to go ahead and get their own supplies and they’re virtual. We’re on zoom. And you know what I what we do and it’s expressive arts, which is a little bit different than art therapy and we call it multimodal in that we do writing, we do guided visualization. We look at it as multisensory in that there’s layers and people don’t have to have any art background. They don’t have to have any. You know, it’s not about the result. It’s about making marks. It’s about expressing themselves. You know, you could do that with very little supplies. You know, we don’t want people to feel like they have to go spend a ton on going out and buying a ton of things. You know, we don’t want it to be prohibitive without having, you know, funds to go do that. Right. So we could work with someone who has just simple, you know, set of even like, kids watercolors or a set of pencils. I have a client who uses crayons and a pen and she’s perfectly happy. And then a lot of collage work. So magazine, a couple of magazines.

Theresa Soltzberg: Oh, okay. And people can. People can express a lot. Yeah, yeah, a lot of it’s based on collage work. Okay. And so and then we do writing, we do the guided visualization, do some writing, do some images over that, and then they make marks to connect all that and bring a sense of who they are to that work. And when you add the parts work in there, you know that the imagery is really representing the expression of that personal, you know, what parts are coming up and we’re learning the parts work as we do that and we express. So it’s really, really deep and amazing work. And it can be with little supplies. Yeah. So, so yeah. And really so that really connects with any group we would run or any, you know, or if it’s a one on one engagement that they would fill out the same, you know, privacy or group contract. But then they’re providing their own supplies and the private space and all that. So yeah. To really yeah to really be connecting virtually. That’s the way that I do it. Yeah. In person it would be different where I might be bringing the supplies and providing that and charging an extra fee. Yeah. Okay.

Becky Coplen: Yeah. And I think that’s, you know, just like we have unique ways of helping all our clients. They have their own unique needs of as far as the supplies and how specific, simple or whatever it has to be. So. Yeah. Thank you for explaining that. Yeah. Let’s just kind of understand a little bit better because you have so many different things going on, how your week looks, and you’re definitely running some expressive art groups and then you’re starting this other program that is, I think I understand correctly more in therapist learning together. Yes.  and then I feel like you are doing some work, art therapy with some clients. So just clarify for us all of those paths and how they’re all woven together or separate.

Theresa Soltzberg: Yeah. Yes, definitely. I actually have my one on one clients who I see like any other, you know, practice and their clients majority, some of them choose to do some of the art, some of the art therapy work with me and they do a little bit in session and they work on their own in between. So it’s almost like I have just kind of some different threads going on. I have a couple of art therapy groups that I run, and I do those a couple times a week. I actually do those every other week. So I see those two groups every other week. And then this new program, it’s a community actually, and we’re just launching it and it’s through a platform called Kajabi. There’s different platforms like this. You may have heard of them. One’s called Thinkific. There’s different ones that you can use. So I’ve been working with a marketing partner for a couple of years now. She’s been working with me just to kind of get more comfortable, because maybe some other therapists can kind of relate. It’s not really my forte, you know, to really do that back end piece for sure. And she’s helped me launch that. And so she helped me with, like the advertising, getting, getting the word out there and all that. And so that it’s literally a community platform online. And then I’ll do like a, like a course within that, and then they’ll pay a monthly fee to be in that community.

Theresa Soltzberg: And then I’ll, I’ll be the, there’s kind of some threads to it of like learning the basics of IFS and then the expressive arts piece along with that,  week by week. And then I’ll have some Q&A in there and then even some challenges to do some. I find what’s really powerful is having some ongoing consistency with like, like ongoing like,  movement and meditation practices and things like that. Because as a community, right. Like to be able to really hold each other accountable, almost like have accountability partners and things like that, and then to be able to share what we’re creating in our art journal, in our in the spreads we’re creating together and learn how to give that feedback Specifically with create with expressive creation that we don’t we don’t like judge it either good or bad. Like, oh, you know, it’s so it’s so automatic to be like, oh that’s really that’s great. But you know what I mean. That can shut down expression. So things like that that we learn you know, that and how to support each other and ask those kind of open ended questions of like, oh, what is that? What did that color evoke in you? You know, things like that. So just to share as a community and support each other.

Becky Coplen: Yeah, it’s like little children and their art when you have no idea what’s happening and you’re like, oh, tell us about that. Instead of, you know, oh, that’s so amazing. And it’s like, uh, yeah, out of paper. So absolutely. Yeah. So, you know, a lot of therapy happens obviously in a session and then there’s work to be done outside of it. One thing I’m thinking that might vary a little bit is that there could be more quiet times during the therapy where you maybe put out a thought or idea, and then people, instead of speaking, are drawing or collaging. Am I accurate in asking that?

Theresa Soltzberg: Yes, definitely. And so in a group situation so I the sessions are definitely longer. The therapy groups I run are two hours, so that I can allow time for them to be able to work. And I actually have an overhead camera. It’s actually a document camera so that they can see. Yeah, they can see what I’m doing on my desktop, on my desk. And much like elementary school or all school.

Becky Coplen: Yeah. Okay. Exactly.

Theresa Soltzberg: And it’s funny, I was getting all complicated with how to do it. And then one of my, the people that I learned with, she’s like, oh, just get one of those little it’s just a document camera. I’m like, oh, it’s easier than I thought. Oh but yeah. And it’s important because they can just see what you’re doing and, you know, be able to look at your as you’re working. And, you know, I was really worried about that when I first started. Exactly what you’re saying of like I don’t want that downtime, but it can it can be really welcoming, especially if you have the longer session. They’re really and again, with the expressive arts where they’re doing some writing and you’ve done that sort of guided meditation or the or the they’re going inside and really focusing on a certain part. They’ve done some parts work that they can really focus in and do these different pieces of it. They’re they’re really connected to this work and that they’re so engaged in it, they’re not really, I think perceiving that as dead time in any way. They’re just that for sure. And then really including definitely including time that they can connect and share. And then I also include some kind of way for them to be able to continue to connect with each other. As I mentioned, some kind of community. Okay. Yeah. For them to keep sharing. Yeah.

Becky Coplen: Well, that is good to note too, the length of time of the sessions, and I’m sure it goes by fast for a lot of people when they’re thinking and doing and then listening to others ideas. Can you share like the scope? Obviously these therapies could be used for any type of issues people may be dealing with, but for your practice and your the work you’re doing, is it a very broad scope or is it more specific issues that you feel like you could help people with?

Theresa Soltzberg: It’s a really good question. My main focus for the clients I see is complex trauma. Okay. And so at JFK they offered an extra year of trauma studies. A trauma certificate. And I had done that. So though my clients are basically that’s the focus of my particular clients. And then I had put a topic for for just these particular groups because I just saw this need. So it is grief and loss. And I actually expanded that to for complex trauma. There’s an element of grief and loss to the trauma we’ve experienced when we’re younger. Pete Walker, if you’re familiar with his work, talks about the grief of complex trauma, of, you know, what we didn’t experience and that kind of thing. So that is the topic that I, I chose for those groups. I actually take insurance for the clients I see. And I really was aware also of insurance really being very wanting to see very specific topics. Not that we shouldn’t have that for our clients anyway, right. But I wanted to really make sure that I was being very specific about what I was offering and the outcomes for my clients. So that’s what I decided to offer. And I really do like to have that structure of having of the stages of grief because we’re we’re working through the stages of grief and those emotions with the art journaling.

Theresa Soltzberg:  if you’re familiar with that kind of approach, there’s there’s,  there’s prompts that we usually give that they can kind of work within instead of it being really open ended. So, you know, to give those prompts and what are we writing about it really, I think is really helpful. And to really, you know, with the parts work too, like, oh, what part is coming up and what expression is here, you know. So I feel like that’s the way that I really tend to work. It’s interesting when I started out with that, when Covid happened, I ended up just having a little almost like mini group of,  2 or 3 people online. And I wasn’t really used to doing the work yet. I hadn’t done my training yet. Yeah. Like, I just, you know, I’ll just work with these and and I thought, oh, I really need I’ll, you know, I’ll, I’ll let it my, my Gemini sun and moon rising. I’ll make it really open. And they were like, can you give us a prompt to work in, like they really wanted the. Yeah.

Theresa Soltzberg: Yeah. Really. You know, it’s like when you have a design challenge it’s easier to work within that even if you.

Becky Coplen: Yeah. All interesting points for sure. I did mean to ask before and you just mentioned now 2 or 3 how big do you allow the groups to be.

Theresa Soltzberg: More of the therapy groups which I consider, you know, a little bit more intensive because they’re really shared, you know, they’re that’s a little different than the community I’m mentioning. I have about six in each. I think I would probably maybe go to maybe about ten. I think after about eight, I might extend the time a little bit because to give them enough time to share.  I think if that makes sense. Like it like the two hour mark, you know I think they might need a little extra time. I might go like 2.5 hours. If I added more than eight. So they have a little bit more time to share.  the community,  when we actually meet, I’m not sure how many people we will have. I think that I would extend that a little bit more because it’s a little bit more of a learning environment. Right? Right. You know, they’re learning more of the skills. Yeah. It’s a little bit more like of course. Okay. So I’d say maybe one ish, you know, and then they’re going to break more into groups and do more of the and.

Becky Coplen: With the therapy groups, you know 6 to 10. Is it like always a start time. Not not time. That’s the wrong thing. But if someone begins in September is it that eight together, let’s say there’s eight that are going to December? Or are people coming in and out of the time each week, or I think they meet every other week? You said, do you know what I mean? Is it always the same eight people, or are people coming in and out based on their needs?

Theresa Soltzberg: You know, I had started out with feeling like they could come in and out, but it’s so interesting. This group has especially bonded so closely. Yeah, and especially with that topic, I feel like I would next time I do it, I would ask them to stay stay together and stay in the same group. Yeah, yeah, I can.

Becky Coplen: See the benefits. Yeah. Adding a new person after trust has been formed. Yeah. Doesn’t always work. So yeah.

Theresa Soltzberg: Yeah I was on the fence about that, about that. And I feel like and it might depend on the topic you choose if it, you know. But I feel like with because of this being about complex trauma and about loss, you know, it’s these very and I just feel like I’ve watched this group bond so well together. And I also wasn’t that sure about having that extra piece about posting their work together. And they’ve just like, come together and are just so enjoying, like they have humor and they’re just yeah, I feel like the art element, You know, trauma work is so heavy as we know it can be. And I feel like adding the expression in just adds a little. Add some lightness to it. Right. Because we’re allowing and if you add the parts piece in, we’re allowing this playful part of us in to be able to play. You know what I’m saying?

Becky Coplen: I’m sure,  for many of the clients, it’s like a highlight of their every couple weeks, you know, for sure. So even though they’re dealing with horrific things, possibly in their past, to share this time with others and then have those creative moments must be really amazing. So yeah, they.

Theresa Soltzberg: Tell me too, that they keep doing it in between, which is so cool. Yeah, they’re like, I find myself doing this, you know? Yeah, it’s really nice. Yeah.

Becky Coplen: Part of their whole lifestyle, which is what we want.

Theresa Soltzberg: So yeah.

Becky Coplen: Yeah. Let’s talk about the holistic practice of taproot therapy, which I am actually not very familiar with at all. So I’d love to get a full explanation and understand how this is part of it as well. Yes.

Theresa Soltzberg: So pepper therapy is really my it was it’s like sort of my original like foundation. Okay. And I kind of expanded from there into, into my more like healing arts practice. And I feel like I’ve kind of run with that a little bit more. Yeah. And so, so pepper therapy, it actually has a little bit more. So when I was a coach originally, I was originally a coach, and I when I was in more of my corporate world and doing more of that work, I became a coach in 2011. So I have that background and one of my passions is and was really helping people find their direction, because it took me a little bit of time to really find my stride. So I don’t know if you had a chance to check out that the material on that website at all, but it’s really about and a lot of my, a lot of my clients are in this situation too, where they’re really searching for like, what is my path? And, you know, is it too late for me to find what I love to do? And it feels like I’m doing all these different things. When will it come together? So that’s really that piece is really like, you know, how can I figure that out and kind of that, that background I have in helping people in the professional world who maybe are also having challenges with the workplace, which I, I actually had some of that as well,  some toxic work, workplace type, type of type of challenges.

Theresa Soltzberg: So I have that in my past too. And I really I help people with that I feel like I can give back in that way. I think that a lot of times the challenges we’ve been through can serve us to really help people that have had those, those challenges. When I was going through that, it was hard for me to find,  therapists that that had walked through the business world in a way that they’d, that they’d really that they knew the culture really well, you know, that didn’t give me advice like, oh, just tell your boss how you feel. You can’t really do that in the corporate world in the same way, because feelings are kind of they’re kind of allergic to that language, if you know what I’m saying. You know what I mean? So. So I feel like I have a lot to offer in that way. And people do find me. People do find me. You know how people kind of find, you know who they need? Reasons. Right? Yeah. So that’s kind of that thread there as well.

Becky Coplen: Yeah. So no, a lot of times we talk to therapists and counselors on here who have no experience in business because they went they started earlier in therapy. And the business part has been a difficulty, and they end up getting help from some of the people we share on here or outside marketing agencies. And that type of thing. Let’s talk a little bit about the business side of your practice. And then the new circle that you’re starting. What did you bring from the corporate world that was helpful for you, or what would be some advice you would share with newer therapists who wouldn’t have had the business background?

Theresa Soltzberg: Yes. So I think that you notice from when I was talking about before of just not being afraid to have different avenues and different like almost like a variety of things that you do. I do have kind of the one thing that I focus on, but there’s a variety of things that I do, and that’s kind of my personality too. But I think that, you know, that’s okay. And you mentioned this earlier as well. You know, that our field has it has such an opportunity to explore. And I got this advice when I was first kind of coming into my practicum at the site that I was at that, that my supervisor, who you know, is in charge of that site. He’s like, this is your opportunity to explore the paths that you want to go down. The clients you want to work with that you feel passionate about. And so I think that is a great opportunity to and to really you know, when I first came in, I was like I had a I had a hard time in the business, in the business world for a variety of reasons. I’m not competitive in that kind of like a cutthroat way is how it felt to me. And I let that go. But then I found out, hey, there’s a really big need for this in a different way. And I brought it back in in a way that I felt like I could offer it for people that wanted that support in a way that I had needed it. So we can kind of like bring back in almost like the threads of our the past things that we did in ways that are really beneficial. So you know what I’m saying. So we can kind of just keep re reinventing our own story in ways that can really help people. Yeah As we grow and move forward. You know, I think it’s interesting anytime we find ourselves saying like, oh, that was such a waste of time. Well maybe not. Maybe there’s a lot there that we can keep reshaping.

Becky Coplen: Yes, absolutely. Always. The trial sometimes we learn the most from for sure. So. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. In talking about your practice now, how much are you handling on the behind the scenes, or do you have people that are hired to handle billing or help with the insurance scheduling, phone calls and marketing?

Theresa Soltzberg: Well, this might be an interesting way that I ended up doing this. I work for a few agencies and kind of purposefully the I mentioned that I work for that I have insurance covering my clients. And so currently I work for some agencies that do all the back end billing and all that, it’s not really my forte. Yeah. So a couple of different agencies such as headway is the main one. Okay. And grow is another one. So I just decided I wanted kind of a foundation. Are you familiar with those?

Becky Coplen: I definitely heard them mention. I don’t know a ton about it, but yeah, they have talked about it before. Yeah.

Theresa Soltzberg: And it does remind me of. So I actually have back in my earlier life, it feels like a different life. I have an MBA focused more on organization development and it was all women. So it’s interesting. Yeah. But I remember we would talk about like, I think it was a marketing paradigm of having like different products with different incomes. And that’s what it kind of reminds me of, of sort of what I’m doing. It’s like I didn’t want to spend a lot of my time investing in that part of what I’m doing, and especially as a new therapist when I graduated in, it was right after the pandemic. I graduated in 2020. Okay. And so I don’t know if and some other people had said this to me, my profile on Psychology Today and I just I wasn’t really finding that I had a lot of private clients coming in right away and maybe other, you know, I think I knew I needed to invest a ton, you know, probably a ton of energy and time in my private client side of things, which I want to do eventually. But I also had this expressive arts side of things, too. And I’m working with a marketing person on that side and investing there. So I thought, oh, maybe I want just sort of some clients coming in right away. And so with places like, like, like headway, what they do is they do all the back end. They send you clients. You can put your profile on Psychology Today and then list the they set you up with all the insurance they do all the back end. And then you just fill out your notes and then they just send you, they send you and you’re a 1099 and they send you your fee. So you make you make less than you would if you had. But then you if you had the private pay just coming directly. But you get to fill your schedule, right? Choose the times you want. It’s actually really great for especially for new therapists.

Becky Coplen: No, that’s good to know about. Yeah. And I love that you have your hands in so many different things.  to pull everything together.

Theresa Soltzberg: Yes, exactly. And then I could grow this with that. You know what I’m saying? Like this community. And because that takes a lot of time and energy and marketing, too. And I knew I kind of couldn’t do both at the same time. Yeah.

Becky Coplen: Yeah, yeah.  yeah. We only have so many hours in the day. The last thing I wanted to ask you about is the beautiful art on your wall behind you. Are those special? They may literally only be decor. I don’t know. Or do they have any type of meaning for your work? Would you say about those?

Theresa Soltzberg: Thank you for Okay, so during that time when I was I. I did some painting called soul painting with a wonderful artist called Alaina Hennessy. And those are paintings I did during her course. Yeah. So thank you so much for asking.

Becky Coplen: I can definitely see three. I don’t know if there’s a fourth and one other. Oh, there is three. Okay. Yeah, that’s a really cool I love them. Thank you. Yeah. That’s so fun to have that as a main part of your work and then to have it as your backdrop. Very cool.

Theresa Soltzberg: Thank you. Yes. And my wonderful marketing partner. She’s like. She’s like, put some of your work on the wall behind you so that when you’re talking, you can have it there. So it’s just it is wonderful if you can work with somebody who can help you, especially if you want to kind of get yourself out there. You know, I couldn’t have done what I’m doing without her. You know, to be able to launch this community and everything that we’re doing, everything that she’s helped me be able to create. And then, you know, I wanted to really hone my skills as an expressive therapist and IFS therapist. And that’s just been wonderful to be able to do that.

Becky Coplen: So yeah, it’s yeah.

Theresa Soltzberg: It’s been a great journey. Like all the pieces just kind of coming together. Yeah. So I just say, you know, for people starting out to just trust yourself and, and, you know, get yourself out there and just be in motion and do what you, you feel compelled and passionate about doing, you know?

Becky Coplen: Yeah, yeah. No, all of that is great advice and wisdom. And I love that you have years of experience in kind of other facets. And then it all came together right in the beginning of the pandemic. So that had a whole piece of where you are today too. So yeah. Is there anything else that we didn’t get to talk about that you feel like you would want our listeners to hear, or do you feel like we covered everything?

Theresa Soltzberg:  I think so. I really appreciate all your wonderful questions. And,  yeah, if I think that’s all that I can think about that I can think of.

Becky Coplen: Yeah, it was a lot of great things. So yeah, we really appreciate you sharing your time with us because you have many things going on that you’re running and, uh, the work that you’re doing and longer sessions than others. So we appreciate being able to talk to you today. Theresa, thank you so much.

Theresa Soltzberg: Thank you so much, Becky, for having me. It’s been wonderful to meet you and be here. Thank you.

Becky Coplen: Yes, wonderful to meet you. To our listeners, we hope you enjoyed this program. Please,  look up Theresa and her work if you’re interested, especially in art and expressive therapy. We will have future episodes. So share on social media, ask us more questions, leave reviews and I will sign off for today.