About Jeniffer Duncan, LPC, LMHC, LAT, ATR

Before becoming a therapist, I was an artist

Throughout my youth, I was drawn to the way art lets someone express themselves without words, how it becomes its own language for thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that don't fit neatly into sentences.

What I love about making art is that it can be direct and in-your-face, or abstract, like a hidden message held within the paint or clay. There's no right or wrong way to express yourself through art, and that's not up for discussion. The art simply becomes an expression, regardless of whether it's "good" or "bad."

As an art therapist, I've watched the process of art-making become a conduit for my clients to be playful, curious, and spontaneous in ways they never allow themselves to be anywhere else, and to process fear in a way that feels safe rather than overwhelming. When a client lets go of expectations, they often reveal parts of themselves in a drawing, collage, painting, or sculpture that have been wanting to be seen and understood without judgment. That's where the real work begins.

Art as therapy is about focusing on the process rather than the outcome. That gives you freedom to experiment without the pressure of the finished product needing to be perfect, which, for someone who's spent her whole life making sure everything she produces is flawless, is a bigger shift than it sounds. Strong emotions come through the artwork in a safe and contained way, rather than catching you off guard in a meeting or an argument or at 11pm when you're trying to fall asleep.

My role as your art therapist is to support your exploration of thoughts and emotions through art while providing enough structure and direction that the process feels grounded, not aimless.

Somatic Therapy

Somatic therapy focuses on the connection between your mind and your body. It helps you stop dissociating from what you're feeling physically, and it teaches your brain to turn off the automatic emergency response that's been running in the background for years.

When my clients first start therapy, most of them are so caught up in their thinking that they don't realize how disconnected they've become from what's happening in their own body. That disconnection isn't just a gap in awareness, it feeds the cycle. The less you notice what your body is telling you, the more anxious and ungrounded you feel, and the harder it becomes to trust your own instincts.

Somatic therapy helps you pause and notice what you feel, where you feel it, and gives you a way to move through it rather than blocking it out or intellectualizing it away. Over time, my clients learn to recognize how emotions show up in different parts of their body, and they start to trust those signals instead of dismissing them.

Through our work together, I want you to trust yourself and recognize that your instincts have been trying to help you all along. When you learn to listen to them instead of overriding them, you develop a stronger sense of who you are, your anxiety quiets down, you say no when you need to, and you start being present enough to enjoy the life you've worked so hard to build.