Change begins with the ability to imagine alternatives. “We cannot create what we can't imagine”.
Lucille Clifton
Origin Story
with Co-founders, Lindsay Edwards and Douglas Paulson
Lindsay and Doug at AiC notating the development of their “Art of Connecting” training intensive.
Arts in Counseling was co-founded in 2025 by Douglas Paulson, a Queens-based professional artist whose community work often functions as social care, and Lindsay Edwards, a Licensed Professional Counselor and Dance/Movement Therapist. They came together through a shared recognition that creativity is essential to health, connection, and meaningful change. Drawing on decades of nonprofit and community-based experience, we observed both the powerful ways artists build trust, invite vulnerability, and foster collective meaning—and the limits artists face when mental health needs or crises arise without clinical support. At the same time, we recognized how traditional mental health systems often fail to reach many people due to stigma, cost, cultural mismatch, or rigid models of care. From this tension emerged a different approach: not asking artists to become therapists, but pairing professional artists with licensed creative arts therapists. Our scaffolded model of care integrates clinical treatment with participatory, community-based creative practice, offering multiple entry points to support and allowing people to move fluidly between clinical and non-clinical care. By embedding artists and clinicians within a single ethical framework, Arts in Counseling expands the mental health ecosystem toward care that is relational, preventative, and community-centered—strengthening both individual wellbeing and the collective conditions that sustain it . . .
Testimonials
"I truly appreciate everything you did for me while I was struggling during pregnancy. Our sessions were a true milestone for me that helped pull me out of my little dark hole. My doula even said while I was in labor that the person she met when I was 20 weeks pregnant to the person I was at delivery were two different people."
— Former Perinatal Therapy Client“You sensed something in my body that signaled I didn’t want you there anymore—and you listened. You responded immediately with what I needed. I didn’t even know how to ask. You showed me that someone can respect my body, my voice. Someone can still care when I say ‘no,’ without punishing me for it.”
— Client’s testimony about a
dance/movement therapy session"I continue to implement all the strategies/coping skills learned in therapy when those intrusive thoughts start creeping up. Definitely have learned what my triggers are and have started to make plans in anticipation of these thoughts coming up. You saved my life (seriously), and I always bring your name up to my friends that might need some additional support. I could not thank you enough!"
— Former Client with OCD and Anxiety “[Lindsay] reframes a lot of things that I say into some visionary picture so that I can conceptualize it in a digestible manner because my thoughts are overwhelming. I’ve done a lot of therapy over my life and I couldn’t remember what I talked about. But when I leave therapy with you, it turns into a curiosity discussion point for days. Infectious, in a good way. I left every therapy session with something. This was like real therapy.”
— Client's testimony upon terminating treatment due to meeting goals. Client sorted childhood trauma, anxiety, panic and addiction.“I feel like I’m at home with you during our therapy sessions.”
- Testimony from a client with a history of severe trauma
Creativity in Therapy: Measurable Outcomes
For a deeper dive into creative arts therapies, arts in health and the benefits of creativity, read more.
Main Pillars for AiC:
Healing isn’t just talking—it's doing
We restore creativity muted by stress to move from surviving to thriving.
Talk therapy alone can be less effective for some.
Because of its health benefits, we focus on the creative process.
Engaging experiences invites body, mind, and spirit, making therapy active as well as reflective. Insight grows through embodied practice.
art-making . movement . role play . improv . building. mindfulness . poetry writing . narrative creation
Creativity is an innate capacity used to adapt, transform, and be resilient.
But it can become muted under stress, adversity, and mental health challenges.
And so, the heartbeat of our work is restoring creativity.
Traditional talk therapy alone can unintentionally privilege verbal fluency, cognitive insight, and linear narratives.
Arts-based interventions offer multiple pathways for communication when words are unavailable, unsafe, or insufficient.
Research shows for individuals:
reduced stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms . nervous system stabilization . enhanced cognitive flexibility . increased self-efficacy and self-esteem . trauma recovery.
Relationally:
creativity strengthens connection, communication, meaning-making, and resilience
We believe mental health care should be a place where marginalized identities are respected, protected, and celebrated.
We are an LGBTQIA-affirming, anti-racist therapy practice committed to dignity, safety, and equity in mental health care.
Our clinicians are trained in culturally responsive, identity-affirming and trauma-informed care for people of all backgrounds.
We provide care to individuals, couples, and families across the full spectrum of identities, beliefs, and lived experiences.
We prioritize participation over perfection, collective wellbeing over individual achievement, agency and choice over compliance, and imagination as a catalyst for social repair.
