About Michelle Rhodes and Deep Clay

I am a psychoanalytically trained psychotherapist and artist offering verbal and studio-based psychotherapy, incorporating expressive clay exercises and other nonverbal art experiences to open a path to the psyche for healing work.

I firmly believe that therapy combining creative and playful means with talk can be more effective in bringing about sought after change and growth than talk therapy alone. It's also enlivening and fun and relieves stress. Expressive modalities are not required, though. Sometimes people just want to talk, or write, or even say nothing, and that's fine.


Offerings

- Individual, couple, or family expressive therapy/psychoanalytic psychotherapy
- Play therapy for children
- Support for creative process
- Supervision
- Video sessions online
- Parenting consultation
- Dreamfigures clay art therapy group



Approach

When we engage in therapy, I will support your efforts to gain clarity, let go of dysfunctional patterns of behavior, achieve more satisfying relationships, and contribute meaningfully to the world. My intention is to accompany your journey to becoming your most authentic and joyful self. Sometimes I will lead, sometimes I will follow, but always we will be tuning in to what is needed at the moment.

I harness the power of positive thinking, while acknowledging that we have dark and unknown aspects that cry out for attention. Engaging with the problematic or unfamiliar parts of ourselves can be very difficult. We take our time, building strengths and resources along the way so that distancing and armor are no longer necessary.


Background

I completed my graduate training in Art Therapy/Expressive Therapy at Lesley University in 1987, for which I produced a lengthy thesis titled "Performance Art as Therapy Practice." I received my Master's Degree in Social Work in 1995 from Adelphi University School of Social Work, and completed psychoanalytic training at the Institute for Expressive Analysis in New York City in 2011.

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), a Nationally Certified Psychoanalyst (NCPsyA), and a Board Certified Art Therapist (ATR-BC). In addition to private practice I have worked as a therapist, educator, and artist-in-residence in schools, clinics, psychiatric hospitals, and residential treatment settings, and as a bereavement counselor for Hospice in Ulster and Dutchess counties.

In 2008 I published a chapter "Getting the Inside Out: Speaking with Clay" in Speaking about the Unspeakable: Non-Verbal Methods and Experiences in Therapy with Children, edited by Dennis McCarthy, Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

In 1978-79, after a decade of working in my own studio, I was apprenticed in Japan with the Fujiwara family of Bizen, studying traditional methods of pottery-making. I have also studied Tea Ceremony at Urasenke in Kyoto and New York. I maintain a clay studio with several wheels and kilns to produce my own work, to teach others, and since 1995, for Deep Clay Psychotherapy. My clay work has been exhibited in local galleries and in New York City, and can be seen online at michellerhodespottery.com.


Education and Postgraduate Training
  • 2019 Completed levels I, II, III, IV: Sensorimotor Art Therapy—Work at the Clay Field with Cornelia Elbrecht, Liz Antcliff and Clare Jerdan.
  • 2019 Completed online course in Sensorimotor Art Therapy using Guided Drawing technique, with Cornelia Elbrecht.
  • 2019 Completed online course in Developmental Needs Meeting Strategy with Shirley Jean Schmidt, MA, LPC.
  • 2013 Attended supervision and reading group in trauma and dissociation, with Elizabeth Howell PhD.
  • 2011 Completed training in Psychoanalysis, Institute for Expressive Analysis (IEANYC), Final project describes my psychoanalytic work with a selectively mute patient.
  • 1995 Master of Social Work, MSW Adelphi University
  • 1987 Master of Arts in Expressive Therapy, MA, Lesley University Master's thesis "Performance Art as Therapy Practice."
  • 1966 Bachelor of Arts, Fine Arts and Studio Art, BA Tufts University, Studio classes at Boston Museum School and Cooper Union Publications
  • 2015 "Paper Marbling and the Use of Imagination to Create Meaning." Healing Power of the Imagination Journal, p. 31-32.
  • 2014 "Behold the Treasure and the Swamp! Digging, Delving, Poking, Pounding, and Getting to the Bottom of Things", Chapter 4, in Deep Play: exploring the use of depth inpsychotherapy with children. Dennis McCarthy ed. Jessica Kingsley Publisher. London, UK.
  • 2013 "Many Selves in the Sand." Healing Power of the Imagination Journal, p. 35-40.
  • 2008    "Getting the Inside Out: Speaking with Clay", Chapter 2, in Speaking about the Unspeakable: Non-Verbal Methods and Experiences in Therapy with Children, edited by Dennis McCarthy, Jessica Kingsley Publishers. London, UK.

License and Certifications
  • Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW-R)
  • New York State Nationally Certified Psychoanalyst (NCPsyA)
  • NAAP Board Certified Art Therapist (ATR-BC)
  • Certified therapist, Sensorimotor Art Therapy: Work at the Clay Field Certificate of Completion of course: Healing Trauma with Guided Drawing