Portland Therapy Center
Zoe Schlanger

Zoe Schlanger (she/her/hers)

Licensed Art Therapist

MA, ATR, LAT

I work with clients who long to recover their true nature, heal their hearts, or are experiencing a challenging loss or transition.

Client Status

accepting clients

Contact

503-360-2506

Email Website

At a Glance

Me

Rate: $75-$125

Provides free initial consultation

Practicing Since: 2022

Languages: English

Services

  • Individual

Insurances Accepted

  • Out of Pocket

My Ideal Client

I work with adult women and LGBTQIA+ identified individuals. Through a combination of talk therapy, artmaking, and writing, we will listen for your inner images and approach them with curiosity. No previous art experience is necessary—we will always move at your pace and follow your unique artistic expression.

My Approach to Helping

Art therapy is a method of embodied healing. Research on trauma shows that the body, not just the mind, holds our lived experience. Somatic approaches aim to repair trauma physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually: The body knows the truth. Similarly, your art knows the truth. Through creative play, we can externalize the invisible states and unconscious patterns of our inner landscape. As we do this, we reclaim the ability to listen to physical impulses and trust our intuition. Healing occurs when the unspoken stories held in the body meet the intuitive, symbolic language of images. In art therapy, we learn how to speak this symbolic language. By building our capacity to engage with their messages through curiosity and play, the images begin to guide the way toward healing from within.

My Values as a Therapist

I integrate deep listening and questioning, transformational art processes, somatic awareness, and mindfulness-based psychotherapy to help my clients move from stuckness toward a greater sense of aliveness. I received my master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a concentration in Transpersonal Art Therapy from Naropa University in 2022. My clinical experience includes hospice and private practice, where I have worked with clients experiencing grief, trauma, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and severe mental illness. My professional interests and continued education are in Sensorimotor Art Therapy, Somatic Experiencing®, El Duende Process Painting, and Jungian psychology. I named my practice Elemental Art Therapy because I believe in the transformative power of the elements—earth, fire, water, and air—and their ability to mirror the cycles of healing and creation. Elemental cycles govern the changing seasons and rhythms of our creative nature.

Techniques I Use

Specialties

  • Art Therapy External link

    I received my master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a concentration in Transpersonal Art Therapy from Naropa University in 2022. Since graduating I have worked as an art therapist in day-treatment and private practice settings. I am a fully licensed art therapist.

  • Transpersonal External link

    My masters degree concentration was in Transpersonal Art Therapy from Naropa University in 2022. I understand transpersonal to mean "beyond the personal". In my work as a therapist, I aim to listen for the openings that bring a greater sense of perspective than individual experience alone.

  • Mindfulness-based External link

    One of my greatest skills as a counselor is bringing a mindfulness-based approach to sessions. My training as a clinician started at a Buddhist institution founded on the healing potential of mindfulness practices.

Issues I Treat

Specialties

  • Loss or Grief External link

    With experience in both hospice and private practice settings, I have knowledge of death, dying, and grieving processes. I am sensitive to the immensity of grief in its many forms, whether from a sudden loss, transition, end of relationship, death of a love one, or death of a pet.

  • Spirituality External link

    I have experience working with clients on spiritual issues related to death and dying, grief, and dark nights of the soul. I am comfortable with clients of all faiths, belief systems, and backgrounds.

Contact Zoe

Optional note (300 character limit). Please do not include sensitive medical information.