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

I built Creative Now Therapy for the ones who have been doing the work and still feel the distance between who they are healing and who they actually are inside their own body. I offer virtual therapy across New York State that holds the somatic and the sacred together, for the people who need more than a treatment plan and more than a spiritual practice and are finally ready for something that brings both.
Troy sits across the Hudson from Albany and holds an entirely different quality of light. It is a city that has reinvented itself more than once, from industrial powerhouse to post-industrial quiet to a creative resurgence that is still very much underway. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute occupies the hill above the city, and Russell Sage College and Hudson Valley Community College bring a persistent energy of becoming. River Street has been reclaimed into a genuine arts corridor. The Victorian brownstones that line the residential blocks carry the bones of another era and have been finding new lives inside them. The Troy Waterfront Farmers Market is, on any given Saturday, one of the most genuinely alive spaces in the Capital Region.
The people I often find reaching out from Troy tend to be the ones who chose this city deliberately, who were drawn to its texture and its potential and its refusal to be finished becoming. And who are themselves in a similar kind of becoming that has not yet found its footing. As a therapist in Troy, NY bringing somatic and shadow work and creative inquiry into the same space, I am interested in exactly that: the person who is in the middle of their own reinvention and needs a witness who will not try to hurry them through it.
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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


Reinvention has a particular quality in the body. A kind of held-breath readiness that never quite resolves. An agitation that looks like motivation from the outside but feels more like not-knowing-where-to-land from the inside. Somatic therapy is where I meet that quality and help the nervous system move through it rather than around it. I track what the body is doing while we speak. Not the content of the words but the way the body inhabits them. Where the breath lives. What the posture is communicating. The place where the energy collects and does not move. All of it is information, and we learn to work with it together. I offer this work virtually throughout New York State. What opens over time is a different relationship between the person and the body in the middle of change, the discovery that transformation does not have to feel like turbulence. That the body, listened to carefully, knows exactly which direction is actually forward.
Troy has been finding its voice through creative reclamation for years, and many of the people I work with from this area share that impulse. Art therapy in my practice works with the creative process not as self-expression but as a way of accessing what the body has been holding outside the reach of words. I guide the creative process in sessions as a genuine form of depth work. What emerges through image and mark tends to be more precise than anything the analytical mind had organized in advance. The surprise of it is real. The relief of it is real. And what surfaces can finally begin to be worked with. No artistic skill is needed. I am not interested in what is made. I am interested in what the making reveals. And in my experience, what it reveals through the honest creative process tends to move things that years of conversation had left entirely still.
Troy is a city very much in the present tense of its own story, and the people I work with from here often carry that same quality. They are in it. They just need someone to be present in it with them, rather than processing it from a distance. That is what gestalt therapy offers. I bring the present moment into the center of our sessions. What is alive in the body right now. What the quality of this conversation is revealing. The pattern that is operating in real time, in how you are inhabiting this particular exchange. Not analyzing it. Being with it. Over time, that quality of genuine presence, practiced in session and carried into life, starts to change the texture of everything. The reflexes that have been running on automatic begin to come into contact with actual choice. That is where real change lives.
Every reinvention leaves a residue. The person you were before you became the person who was appropriate for this chapter. The parts of yourself you set aside in order to move forward. The desires that felt too complicated to carry into the new version of the life. Shadow work is how I help retrieve them. Those parts are not mistakes. They are not evidence of how far you still have to go. They are the rest of the picture, and without them, the reinvented version is always going to feel slightly incomplete. I come to this work as someone who believes the shadow is not the enemy of healing. It is the doorway. For those in Troy who are in the middle of building something new and still feel the pull of what they had to let go of in order to get here, this work offers exactly what that pull is asking for: not to go back, but to bring what was left behind forward into who you are becoming.

Begin Therapy in Troy and Give Yourself What You Give Everyone Else

I hold virtual sessions for clients across New York State and feel a particular connection to the Capital Region communities on both sides of the river. If you are in Troy, Watervliet, Cohoes, or the surrounding area, I want to hear from you. Sessions meet 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
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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 Troy and the Capital Region. I have spent nearly twenty years working at the intersection of clinical expertise and sacred practice, holding the body and the spirit in the same room for people who refuse to choose between them. My work draws from somatic therapy, gestalt practice, art therapy, and shadow work. 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.