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

I built Creative Now Therapy for the people who are becoming something they do not yet have words for. The ones standing at the edge of the person they used to be, sensing something new on the other side, and not quite sure how to cross. I offer virtual therapy across New York State rooted in somatic practice, shadow work, and mystical depth, for the healers and soul seekers who need a space that can hold all of what they are carrying, including the parts that are still unnamed.
Newburgh sits on the Hudson River in Orange County with a particular energy that belongs entirely to itself. Washington's Headquarters still stands on Liberty Street, the house where George Washington waited out the end of the Revolutionary War, the place where a nation was in the strange threshold between what it had been and what it was about to become. The waterfront is alive with galleries and restaurants that arrived alongside the artists who came because the light was extraordinary and the bones of something worth saving were everywhere. The older neighborhoods carry decades of immigrant stories layered beneath the new. This is a city that has always been in the middle of a becoming, and something about that energy calls to a very particular kind of person.
I work with the therapist in Newburgh, NY who understands thresholds, who is themselves in one, who has outgrown the container of the person they were and is not yet fully inside the person they are becoming. The grief of that in-between is real and it is often unwitnessed. The body holds it even when the mind has decided to push through. I am here for the push-through people who are finally, quietly, ready to stop.
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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


There is a specific way the body holds a becoming. A tightness that is not quite tension and not quite grief. A readiness that has nowhere to go. A restlessness that no amount of productivity can organize away. I have learned to recognize it, and somatic therapy is how I help the body finally move through it rather than around it. I work with what the body is doing while we speak, not as a diagnostic exercise but as a genuine form of listening. The nervous system has been tracking your life long before you had language for it, and it often knows what the next step is before the mind does. I follow that knowledge with you. Sessions are held virtually throughout New York State. What opens over time is not just physical ease, though that comes too. It is the discovery that the body is not the obstacle to transformation. It is the map.
Newburgh has always attracted people who make things as a way of making sense of their lives. Art therapy in my practice works in that same spirit, using the creative process not as expression but as excavation, a way of reaching what has been living in the body without a form to hold it. In sessions, I guide the creative process as a way of opening what words have not been able to touch. What emerges through image and mark and color tends to be more precise than anything the mind had ready. And once something has a form, it can finally begin to be worked with. No creative background is needed for this. I am not asking for art. I am asking for honesty in a different medium. What arrives through that honesty tends to move things that years of talking had left entirely still.
The people I most often work with in gestalt therapy are the ones who have gotten very good at managing the present by staying in the future or the past. The planning. The processing. The reviewing. Being actually here, in the body, in the moment, without an agenda, turns out to be both the simplest and the most radical thing. I bring the present moment into the foreground of our sessions. What is happening in the body right now. What the posture is doing. What just shifted when that particular subject came up. The pattern is not somewhere else. It is here, and working with it here is how it actually begins to change. What people often discover in gestalt therapy is that the present moment is far richer and more honest than the story they have been telling about it. And once the body starts to trust that richness, the old reflexes begin, slowly and genuinely, to let go.
Every becoming leaves something behind. The version of yourself that got quiet so you could be acceptable. The hunger that felt too inconvenient to name. The grief that never had a proper container. Shadow work is how I help retrieve what was left behind in the process of becoming who you needed to be. I come to this work with a particular kind of reverence for what has been suppressed. Those parts were not wrong. They were brilliant adaptations to rooms that could not hold them. The work is not to judge what went underground but to go there and bring it back into the full picture of who you are. For those in Newburgh who are in the middle of a personal becoming, who are shedding old identities and not yet settled in the new ones, shadow work offers something essential: a witness for the parts that are not yet ready to be named, and a container that will not require them to be anything other than exactly what they are.

Begin Therapy in Newburgh and Cross the Threshold

I hold virtual sessions for clients across New York State and feel a particular connection to the Hudson Valley and Orange County communities. If you are in Newburgh, Cornwall, Marlboro, or the surrounding region, I want to hear from you. The session space meets you wherever you feel most 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, somatic guide, and mystical practitioner offering virtual therapy across New York State, including Newburgh and the wider Hudson Valley. My practice holds the somatic and the sacred in the same room, for the people who are standing at the threshold of who they are becoming and need a guide who will not rush them across it. 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.