Home | Psychotherapy, Therapy+Creativity, New York

Therapy+Creativity

About

About Me

My name is Betsy Lazarus and I am an artist and board certified New York State licensed Creative Arts Therapist with over 25 years experience providing psychotherapy services to children, adolescents, and adults of all ages and abilities. But you don't need art experience to benefit from art therapy.

My passion for creating images evolved into exploring, understanding, and healing the inner life. I bring this guiding principle to every client centered therapeutic encounter.

Perhaps you've found yourself talking in circles in traditional talk therapy and not getting where you want to go. Creative expression plus talk psychotherapy together in an inclusive, gentle and supportive environment are a potent treatment for individuals of all ages seeking emotional stability.

I hold a B.F.A. in painting from C.W. Post and M.A. in Creative Art Therapy from Hofstra University. I served as president of the New York Art Therapy Association and my writing and art work have been published in Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association.

As a Reiki practitioner, I incorporate this energy healing practice into trauma work. If you find that generational trauma, adverse childhood experience, covid-19 trauma, distress over the your relationships or even the current state of national and world events is overwhelming and disruptive to your daily functioning, integrating Reiki with your psychotherapy may be right for you.

Contact me for a complementary First Expressions telephone consultation.

Let's talk about how Therapy+Creativity can bring more color into your life.

CONTACT ME

Creativity has the extraordinary potential to transform health and well-being

"Art therapy uses art media, the creative process, and the resulting artwork as a therapeutic and healing process. Clients – young, old, and in-between – are able to explore their feelings, reconcile emotional conflicts, foster self-awareness, manage behavior, develop social skills, improve reality orientation, reduce anxiety and increase self-esteem. It is an effective treatment grounded in the knowledge of human development, psychological theories, and counseling techniques."

~Art Therapy Credentials Board

Neurological Issues

ADHD
OCD
Alzheimers
Dementia
Brain Injury
Stroke
Depression
Stress

Life Transitions

Childhood and Adolescent adjustment issues
Retirement
Grandparenthood
Grief & Loss
Elder care
Disability

Caregiver Support

Spouses
Families
Partners

Covid -19

In-person sessions with Covid-19 precautions
Virtual appointments
Home appointments for eligible clients

Emotional Health

Anxiety
Depression
Isolation
Stress
Loss and Bereavement
Complicated Grief
Life Review
Conflict Resolution
Trauma and PTSD

Finance

In Network Cigna with Headway https://headway.co/providers/betsy-lazarus-rouse
Refer to your policy for out of network benefits
Payment by credit/debit card, check and cash.
Sliding scale fee available for qualified clients.

Treatment

My Approach

“People who need help sometimes look a lot like people who don’t need help.” ~Glennon Doyle

Making your emotional wellness a priority works hand-in-hand with optimizing your physical health. The pandemic era brings to light the urgent need for attending to our mental health needs.

When you just don't feel like yourself... it could be stress, anxiety or depression... or grieving lost loved ones... or yearning for the life you thought you would be living today...psychotherapy helps your ability to cope with today's unprecedented and ongoing stressors in a continually changing landscape.

Art therapy specifically improves cognitive functions, fosters self-esteem and self-awareness, cultivates emotional resilience, promotes insight, enhances social skills, reduces and resolves conflicts and distress. Using a visual language of color, line, symbols and metaphors in a free and playful environment gives voice to our innate desire for wholeness and stability.

Art therapy requires no art experience. It facilitates relaxation, expression, and aids in communication. Art making and the images produced open the door for exploration of thoughts and feelings, past and present, to contemplate and acknowledge life's achievements and encourage continued psychosocial growth. Viewing and discussing the artwork created in sessions introduces possibilities and insight that talk therapy alone may not have as immediate access to.

I strive to create an experience that is safe, inclusive and inviting, where creative expression of thoughts, concerns and emotions are made welcome. My approach is holistic and informed by mindfulness, humanistic theory, and above all, the creative process itself within the psychotherapeutic relationship.

Treatment

Children and Adolescents especially benefit from art therapy as it is in many youngsters nature to draw and paint. My work with children develops organically in which the first task in treatment is the establishment of a trusting therapeutic relationship. The child client discovers there is no judgement of their creative expressions; they communicate their interests and preferences which opens a door for individualized art directives specific to their therapeutic goals.

Neuro Art Therapy is a unique and effective art making process in the treatment of attention and focus deficits, stroke, dementia, brain injury, along with the anxiety and depression mood states that frequently accompany these life changing events. Areas of the brain associated with emotions and information processing are stimulated in our sessions. The brain's neuroplasticity enables improvement in quality of life over time. My therapy clients include spouses, partners and families, empowering them to face the challenges of caring for individuals affected by dementia, stroke and brain injury.

Reiki is a form of energy healing that that aims to promote physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. When a person experiences physical pain, our first instinct is to place our hands on the hurt. When a child is feverish, parents instinct is to place their hands on the child's forehead. This is the basis for energy healing. Reiki is therapeutically beneficial in bringing relief from stress by inducing a state of relaxation. In psychotherapy Reiki works with the subconscious and unconscious levels of the mind, memory and experience held in the body, as well as energy that originates or extends beyond the present.