Therapist in Middletown, NY | Somatic, Art & Gestalt Therapy

Creative Now Therapy exists for the people who have built a life that looks exactly right from the outside and cannot find themselves inside it. I offer virtual therapy across New York State for the healers, educators, and soul seekers who are done performing fine and ready to be honest about what they are actually carrying. The work is somatic and sacred and completely outside the box of what ordinary therapy has been able to offer them.
Middletown sits in Orange County at the intersection of the Hudson Valley and the rest of the world, close enough to the city that commuters and transplants arrive regularly, rooted enough that the community carries a particular texture of its own. SUNY Orange and Mount Saint Mary College bring a consistent presence of learning and questioning. The Orange County Arboretum opens into fields and trees that the city exhales into. The old railroad lines that once made this a hub of movement and industry have left behind a particular quality in the built landscape, evidence of a place that has always known how to keep things going no matter what.
It is that particular quality, the keeping-things-going, that I often find in the people who reach out to me from this area. The social worker who has held the community's grief for a decade. The nurse whose empathy is the most expensive thing about her and who has nowhere to spend what she has been given in return. The person who knows every resource available to others and has used none of them for herself. As a therapist in Middletown, NY who works at the crossing of body and sacred, I am most interested in the ones who are last on their own list. It is time to move to the top.
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Here’s what our work might look like:

We Begin in the Real Moment


We don’t have to dig through your entire history to start healing,  we begin with what’s happening right now: your breath, your posture, the tightness in your throat, the image you can’t shake.


We Drop Into the Body (and the Beyond)


Together, we drop in slowly and intentionally, tracking sensation, emotion, and the symbolic language of your body. We name what’s been exiled, what’s been performing, and what’s quietly asking to be witnessed.

We Unwind Shame, Self-Attack, and Old Survival Roles


Your body holds the places where you learned to shrink, overgive, or turn against yourself. We track these patterns with compassion until they soften, loosen, and lose authority.


We Integrate the Work Into How You Live, Love, and Lead


Your insights don’t stay in the room, they become embodied. You speak up without collapsing, rest without guilt, show up without masking, and move through your days with more presence and fewer spirals.

Explore my services and specializations


The body knows exactly how much you have been carrying. It knew before you did. And it has been trying to tell you in the language it has: the tight shoulders that never quite release, the breath that lives in the upper chest, the inability to land in your own body at the end of a day that was entirely spent inside someone else's experience. In somatic therapy, I work with that language directly. I track what is moving in the nervous system while we are together and we learn, over time, what the body has been holding and what it needs in order to begin to let it go. This is not just about relaxation. It is about the genuine reclaiming of the body as a place that belongs to you. I offer this work virtually throughout New York State, which means it travels to wherever you feel most yourself in the Middletown area. What opens over time is not just ease. It is the discovery that the body is not the thing holding you back but the thing that has been waiting to lead you forward.
There are things living inside the body that language was never given access to. They are older than the story you have built, and they will not leave through the front door of conversation no matter how much insight you bring to the table. Art therapy is the side door. I use the creative process in sessions as a way of reaching what talking has been circling. The image, the mark, the unexpected color that appears before the thought does, all of it speaks in a register the mind often cannot access on its own. I follow what comes and we work with it honestly. Nothing artistic is required. I am not interested in skill or aesthetics. I am interested in what the making reveals. What tends to arrive through the creative process is more honest and more precise than anything the analytical mind had prepared, and once it has been given form, it can finally begin to shift.
Most people who come to therapy have an excellent relationship with their own story. They can tell it well. They understand its arc. And the same things keep happening anyway. Gestalt therapy is what I offer when the story is not the problem and the present moment is. I work with what is actually alive in the room between us: the way the body is holding this particular conversation, the quality of the pause before a certain answer, the thing you almost said and then decided against. All of it is information. The pattern is right here, not only in the past, and this is where I work with it. What changes in gestalt therapy is not the narrative. It is the felt relationship between the person and the present moment. The reflexes begin to soften. The body starts to trust what it notices in real time. What remains is a quality of presence that changes everything from the inside.
Underneath the competence, there are parts that do not get to come to work. The exhaustion that has been reframed as dedication. The anger that gets translated into advocacy. The longing for something wild and true that gets set aside in the service of being useful. Shadow work is how I help retrieve what has been quietly working overtime in the dark. This is not about making those parts a problem to solve. It is about recovering the life force that went into suppressing them, the creativity, the desire, the full and honest range of who you are when no one is watching and nothing needs to be held together. For those in Middletown who give their most vital energy to others and have very little left for themselves, this work offers something genuinely different: a space where you are the one being tended, where your complexity is not a burden but the whole point.

Begin Therapy in Middletown and Finally Come First

I offer virtual sessions to clients across New York State and feel a particular connection to the communities of Orange County and the wider Hudson Valley region. If you are in Middletown, Goshen, Warwick, or the surrounding area, I want to hear from you. Sessions meet you wherever you feel most like yourself.

What clients say...

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When I first met Cris, I was at a moment in my life where I was unsure of every possible direction. All of my decisions were based on fear and a recent change in my health had me wondering what kind of life I would have and holy crap I'm going to die. Being in front of Cris's intellect, warmth and grace literally gave me strength I didn't know was there and the assurance of my ability to navigate conflict with grace and evenness. A truly gifted guide and stellar human being.

- Grey
Five black stars aligned in a row on a white background

Cris has been integral to my growth. She is incredibly kind, understanding, and supportive, while also challenging me to face things I may have been ignoring/dismissing. I’m really grateful to have been able to work with her.

- Autumn
Five black stars in a row on a white background

Cris is a wonderful therapist. As a pediatrician, I was prone to over-thinking. She has helped me to work through my thoughts and to be in tune with my body.

- Lisa

hi i'm crisCristina Maria Fort Garcés-Somatic Therapist & Nervous System Healing

I am a licensed psychotherapist and somatic guide offering virtual therapy across New York State, including Middletown and the surrounding Orange County area. My practice holds the somatic and the sacred together in a single space, for the healers and caregivers and deep feelers who are last on their own list and finally ready to change that. Nearly twenty years of clinical experience and a lifetime of sacred inquiry went into building this. Not everything that aches in you needs fixing. Some parts are asking to be seen, remembered, and reclaimed.

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FAQ about my psychotherapy services

  • How does virtual therapy work?

    Sessions are held weekly through a secure, HIPAA-compliant Zoom link. You only need a private space, a stable connection, and a device with a camera and microphone. Each session lasts 45 minutes and is designed to build trust and continuity, allowing the process to unfold with depth and safety.



  • What kind of therapy do you offer?

    I offer somatic therapy, gestalt therapy, shadow work therapy, and eco art therapy. Each modality blends intuitive insight, spiritual reflection, and body awareness to support deep healing and self-understanding.



  • What if I need to cancel or reschedule a session?

    Please give at least 48 hours’ notice if you need to cancel or reschedule. Late cancellations will be charged in full. You may cancel up to four times per year with proper notice at no charge. This structure helps maintain the flow and depth of our work together.



  • What if I’m not sure this is the right fit?

    You can book a free 15-minute consultation to see how it feels to work together. This conversation helps us sense alignment before beginning the process.



  • With whom do you work and where?

    I work with women and gender-expansive adults based in NYC metro area and serving clients across New York. My clients often seek clarity, healing, and energetic balance as they move through transitions or rediscover their purpose.