Therapist in Suffolk County, NY | Somatic, Art & Gestalt Therapy

Creative Now Therapy is for the people who have access to everything the world says they should need and still feel the ache. I offer virtual therapy across New York State for the healers and soul seekers who are not looking for another framework but for a space that will finally tell the truth about what is actually happening. The work is somatic and mystical and honest, and it does not require you to leave any part of yourself outside.
Suffolk County stretches across the length of Long Island in a landscape of remarkable contrast. The south shore opens into the Atlantic, wide and indifferent and beautiful, with Jones Beach and Fire Island and the barrier islands running east toward Montauk. The north shore faces Long Island Sound and holds the quiet harbors of Cold Spring Harbor and Northport and the gold light of late afternoon in Oyster Bay. Between the shores, Stony Brook University anchors a research and academic community of real depth, while Patchogue and Babylon have developed arts and creative cultures of their own. And to the east, the Hamptons carry a particular weight that is almost entirely its own fiction, a performance of arrival that the whole eastern end of Long Island organizes itself around.
The people I most often find reaching out from Suffolk County are the ones living between those worlds. Not quite the New York they came from, not quite the nature that calls to them, not quite the community they hoped for when they chose where to be. Somewhere in all of that between-ness, the internal life has been getting quieter and quieter. I work with the therapist in Suffolk County, NY who goes beneath the geography, into the body and the sacred, and finds out what has been trying to speak in the silence.
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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 something about living near the ocean that creates a particular kind of longing in the body. The salt air and the light and the particular quality of bigness that the Atlantic offers. And the discovery, over time, that none of that has actually touched what is aching. Somatic therapy is where I help the body find what the ocean has been gesturing toward. I track what is happening in the nervous system while we are together. The held breath. The eyes that shift when something real comes close. The way the body organizes itself around a particular feeling without ever letting that feeling fully arrive. I work with those things with you, gently and honestly, until the body starts to trust the arrival. I offer this work virtually throughout New York State, which means Suffolk County residents can access it from wherever they feel most themselves, close to the water or tucked back from it. What opens over time is a quality of genuine presence in the body that the geography was always inviting and the nervous system was always a little too guarded to accept.
The creative community in places like Patchogue and Port Jefferson and the east end has always understood something that the more corporate parts of Long Island take longer to learn: that making things is not a hobby. It is a form of knowing. Art therapy in my practice draws on that understanding directly. I guide the creative process in sessions as a way of reaching what the body has been holding outside the reach of narrative. What comes through image and color and form tends to be more honest than anything the organized mind had prepared. The surprise of it is real. And once something has been given form, it can finally be worked with. No artistic background is needed and no identity as a maker. I am interested only in what the creative process reveals. And what it reveals, in my experience, tends to be exactly what the healing has been missing.
There is a particular quality of present-moment avoidance in communities that have organized themselves around the weekend, the getaway, the next trip east. The present weekday is something to get through in order to arrive at the real thing. Gestalt therapy asks what happens when the real thing is right here, in this moment, in this body, in this breath. I bring the present moment into the foreground of our sessions. What is alive in the nervous system right now. What the body is doing while this specific conversation is happening. The pattern does not live only in the history. It is operating here, and here is where I work with it, gently and directly. What shifts over time is the felt experience of actually being present in an ordinary moment. Not managing the moment or getting through it but actually inhabiting it. That quality, once the nervous system discovers it, starts to change the quality of everything.
Long Island carries its own mythology of arrival, and along with that mythology comes a particular kind of shadow: the parts of the self that did not make the cut into the version that the external life required. The sensitivity that felt like a liability. The grief that felt inappropriate to the lifestyle. The longing for something real underneath the beautiful surface. Shadow work is where I go with you to find them. Those parts are not evidence of ingratitude or failure. They are the rest of the picture. And without them, the beautiful life will always feel slightly hollow, slightly performed, slightly like something happening to someone else. Shadow work is the work of reclaiming the person inside the life. For those in Suffolk County who have a life that photographs beautifully and still feel the hollow place where something genuine used to be, I want to offer this: that hollow place is not emptiness. It is the exact shape of what wants to come home.

Begin Therapy in Suffolk County and Let Yourself Arrive

I hold virtual sessions for clients across New York State and feel a particular connection to the Long Island communities of Suffolk County. Whether you are in Babylon, Patchogue, Stony Brook, Huntington, or the East End, I want to hear from you. Sessions travel to 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
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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 Suffolk County and the broader Long Island community. My practice holds the somatic and the sacred in a single room, for the healers and deep feelers and soul seekers who have access to everything and are still aching for something they cannot name. Nearly twenty years of clinical and sacred experience went into building this space. 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.