About Creative Now Therapy & beyond

Blending clinical experience, somatic practices, and spiritual tools for deep transformation
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Where Your Healing Has Room to Evolve

You’ve done the therapy. You’ve journaled, reflected, talked it through, carried so much. You know what’s underneath—your story, your strategies, your survival patterns. But even with all of that insight, something still feels disconnected.

You’re not broken. You’re not behind. You’re just ready for something deeper. Something that can hold your grief and your growth, your body and your beliefs, your ancestry and your emerging self.

Creative Now Therapy & beyond was created for that space—for the parts of you that haven’t had space to land. Whether you’re looking for therapy, spiritual integration, or a way to feel more like yourself again, this is work that honors your process, your pace, and your wholeness.

A dark image of a single vine with green leaves
A fox laying down in a foggy field

Who This Work Is For

Creative Now Therapy & beyond serves deep-feeling individuals—primarily women, Latinx, queer, and trans clients—who are passionate about healing and their evolution but often unsure how to fully access it for themselves.

Many are therapists, educators, artists, healthcare workers, or spiritual seekers. They’re the ones who hold space for others but struggle to turn that same care inward. Despite years of therapy, journaling, or spiritual practice, they still feel stuck in old patterns of shame, burnout, or disconnection.

They carry the weight of cultural expectations, inner critics, and ancestral stories. They’re not just looking for another modality. They’re looking for a space where they don’t have to shrink or explain who they are.When they feel deeply understood, they move toward transformation with courage and clarity.

Therapy offerings for the Spiritually Curious

Cris blends over 17 years of trauma-informed clinical experience with spiritual and ancestral frameworks to offer an approach that’s both grounded and expansive. This isn’t about fixing. It’s about remembering. It’s about helping you reconnect with your own rhythms, your inner knowing, and the parts of you that have been waiting to be welcomed back in.

The work may include somatic tracking, ritual, energy work, creative process, or quiet presence, depending on what your body and spirit need that day.

Soulful Psychotherapy (for folks in New York)

A virtual space for emotional healing and spiritual integration. Especially supportive for burnout, the mother wound, Latinx and queer identity, and self-reclamation.
Explore Soulful Psychotherapy

Beyond Therapy:The Remembering (available worldwide)

A 13-session coaching + healing container for those ready to move beyond the clinical frame. Rooted in ritual, astrology, somatic presence, and sacred integration.
Explore The Remembering

Mystical, Attuned, and Embodied Therapy

This isn’t just a list of certifications. It’s a way of being with you—shaped by study, devotion, and lived experience. My work lives at the intersection of therapeutic training and spiritual depth

Therapeutic Modalities

Spiritual & Energetic Influences

Philosophical Frameworks

Approaches I Weave

Therapeutic Modalities

  • Gestalt Therapy
  • Experiential Therapy
  • Somatic practices (Hakomi, Developmental Somatic Psychotherapy)
  • Creative Arts Therapy + Eco Art therapy
  • Mindfulness & nervous system tracking

Spiritual & Energetic Influences

  • Astrology, tarot, & energy healing
  • Q’ero mysticism
  • Earth-based ritual + ancestral practices

Philosophical Frameworks

  • Phenomenology, existential thought
  • A touch of ancestral nihilism (thank you, Grandma)

Approaches I Weave

  • Shadow work & self-compassion
  • Archetypal imagery & storytelling
  • Body-based awareness & ritual
  • Gallows humor & deep presence

About Me

Cris Maria Fort Garcés, LCAT, LMSW

‍I’ve spent the past two decades walking between many worlds—clinical, creative, spiritual, ancestral.

I’ve worked in inpatient psychiatry, led group practices, studied ritual and somatic depth work, and supported hundreds of clients—many of them therapists themselves. I hold a Master’s in Art Therapy, with extensive post-graduate training in somatics, experiential therapy, and energy work.

I’m a queer, Latinx practitioner. A first-generation child of immigrants. A mystic with a clinical license. A guide who can hold both shadow and laughter, silence and ceremony.

I’m here for the grief that hasn’t found words. For the longing to feel like you again. For the healing that doesn’t ask you to transcend, but invites you to return.

This practice is more than a service—it’s a space I built because it’s what I needed, too.

If you’re feeling the pull...

Let's Begin With a Discovery Call
Cris, psychotherapist, sitting outside on a rock

‍Training & Certifications, Education, Experience

Cristina Maria Fort Garcés, LCAT, ATR-BC, CPC

Psychotherapy Trainings
  • Hakomi Somatic Practitioner | Hakomi Institute. 2-year Post Graduate Training. North East, US. 2024

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  • Certified Professional Coach (CPC) | Year long Coaching Training, Leadership That Works, NY, NY. 2020

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  • Certified Developmental Somatic Psychotherapist | The Center For Somatic Studies, 4-year Post Graduate Training. NY, NY. 2017-2021

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  • Certified Gestalt Psychotherapist | Gestalt Associates For Psychotherapy, 4-year Clinical Fellowship Post Graduate Training. NY, NY. 2016

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  • Board Certified (ATR-BC) & Licensed Creative Arts Therapist (LCAT), #001500 | The American Art Therapy Association, US. 2011
Additional Therapy & Coaching Trainings
  • Psychotherapy & Spirituality Institute, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Clinicians, MBSR Training, Online. 2022

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  • Tara Mohr, Playing Big for Women, Year-long Coaching Training, Online. 2022

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  • Hearing Voices Network, Group Facilitator Training, supporting people experiencing schizophrenia, Springfield, MA. 2015

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  • Parenting Journey, Group Facilitator Training, supporting parents in crisis, Manhattan, NY. 2011

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  • SVA Studio Art Therapy in Florence: Rejuvenating the creative spirit, Florence, Italy. 2008

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  • Hallmark Institute of Photography, Year Long Certificate Program in Commercial and Studio Photography, Turners Falls, MA. 2005
Education
  • Bachelor's Degree, Tufts University, Medford, MA. 2004

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  • Master's Degree in Creative Arts Therapy, The School of Visual Arts, NY, NY. 2010
Professional Affiliations
  • Member of the New York Art Therapy Association

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  • Member of the American Art Therapy Association

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  • Climate Aware Therapist Member of the Climate Psychology Alliance North America
Professional Experience
  • Creative Now Therapy, Telehealth Private Practice, New York. 2020 - Present. Creator & Psychotherapist, Individual Sessions, Serving Women, Queer, & Trans adults.

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  • Creative Now Therapy, Telehealth Group Practice, New York. 2020 - 2025. Creator & Clinical Supervisor: Psychotherapy with children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families. Clinical Supervision for therapists at the practice

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  • CristinaMaria Psychotherapy, Private Practice, NY, NY. 2013 - 2020.- Psychotherapist and Owner, outpatient setting, individual sessions with adults

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  • Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy Clinic, NY, NY. 2013-2016.- Psychotherapist, outpatient setting, individual sessions with adults

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  • Kings County Hospital Center, Health Plus Hospitals, Brooklyn, NY. 2012 - 2019. Group psychotherapist, inpatient setting, group therapy with adults and adolescents

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  • New York Psychotherapy and Counseling Center, East New York, Brooklyn, NY. 2011 - 2012. Psychotherapist, outpatient setting, individual sessions with children, adolescents, adults, and families

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  • HeartShare Human Services, Coney Island, NY. 2010 - 2012. Case Planner, Family Art Therapist, and Child & Adolescent Art Therapist for Spanish-speaking families at risk of foster care placement. Group Facilitator supporting Parents in the Parenting Journey Group Model

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  • SVA Counseling Team, Creative Arts Therapy Department, NY, NY. 2009-2010. Individual Creative Arts Therapy sessions for undergraduate students at SVA.

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  • St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, The Child and Family Institute, NY, NY. 2009 - 2010. Individual Creative Arts Therapy sessions for Children (4 - 12 yrs) and families.

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  • Interfaith Hospital Continuing Day Treatment Center, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY. 2008 - 2009. Group Co-Leader and individual Creative Arts Therapy, partial hospitalization setting, sessions for Adults with Major Mental Health Experiences
Alternative Healing Practices
  • Ongoing study with Joan Parisi Wilcox in Q'ero/Andean Energy & Earth Based Practices. Online. 2024 - Present

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  • Cyndi Dale, Apprenticeship Program, Chakras, Subtle Body, & Energy Practices Training, Online. 2023

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  • BioField Tuning, Foundations Training in Sound Therapy, Online. 2022

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  • Energy Medicine Coach, The Four Winds Society, 400-hour training in Andean and Q'ero Energy & Earth based practices. Olmue, Chile. 2021

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  • I've completed various trainings in Astrology and the Tarot over the past two decades. My teachers are Steven Forrest, Sarah L'Hrar, Renee Sills, Tylor Penor, Tara Vogel, Debra Silverman, Lindsay Mack, Bess Matassa, Brigit Esselmont, and many more incredible individuals.
Peri & Menopause Training
  • GGS Menopause Coaching Certification 2024, Dr. Wendy MyMenopause Foundation Course 2024, Dr. Stacy Sims Menopause 2.0 Certification.

Get serious about your soul.

Are you ready to take the next step toward clarity, healing, and a life that feels more authentic and aligned?  It’s time to reconnect with yourself and create meaningful change! You’re not alone here. I’m with you, and I’m here to help! 

‍I offer a free 15-20-minute consultation to answer your questions and see if we’re the right fit. Click the button below to book your call (I’ll be in touch within 24 hours).

Ready to explore?

We’ll start with a discovery call to make sure the fit feels mutual, grounded, and supportive.
Get in Touch With Me

Soulful, Somatic Healing for Women, LatinX, Queer, Trans + Allied Humans.
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Creative Now Therapy is dedicated to providing multicultural sensitive services that affirm the dignity, worth, and value of all. I am committed to creating an environment of appreciation and respect for race, ethnicity, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, physical/mental ability, sexual orientation, marital or relationship/s status, care giver/parental status, and socioeconomic status.

Contact details
The Hudson Valley, New York
Phone: 518-291-8750
Email: cris@creativenowtherapy.com
Soma Creative Arts Therapy, PLLC
(Creative Now Therapy)
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