Clara Barber, LPC, ATR
LICENSED PROFESSIONAL COUNSELOR
Clara believes therapy should be tailored to each individual's needs and goals. Her approach focuses on building a strong therapeutic relationship and providing a supportive environment where clients can explore challenges, gain insight, and work toward meaningful change. She utilizes evidence-based practices, traditional talk therapy, and art therapy when appropriate, always considering each client's comfort level and preferences.
Clara works with children, adolescents, young adults, and adults experiencing concerns such as trauma, anxiety, depression, grief and loss, substance use, eating disorders, personality disorders, parenting challenges, and childhood behavioral concerns. She has a particular interest in supporting children and families as they strengthen relationships, improve communication, and develop healthy coping skills.
As a Registered Art Therapist, Clara offers art therapy as an option within the counseling process. Art therapy can be used as a primary approach, alongside talk therapy, or not at all, depending on the client's needs and interests.
Her professional experience includes working in residential and outpatient settings in Indiana and Mississippi with clients ranging in age from 3 to 70, with a primary focus on children, adolescents, and young adults.
Clara earned her Master’s Degree in Art Therapy from the University of Louisville in 2017. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and Registered Art Therapist (ATR), with certifications in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). She is also trained in Trust-Based Relational Intervention® (TBRI®), which provides practical tools to help caregivers foster connection, regulation, and healthy development in children.
Art Therapy
Have you or your child ever found it hard to find the exact words to express what you are feeling, experiencing, or lived through? Does talking feel overwhelming or scary? Do you have so many thoughts going through your mind it is hard to slow them down and organize them? Perhaps, you just need a new way to learn to cope and relax or just have a love for art.
Art therapy is the use of creative expression and art-making to connect to and explore a different part of your brain than we do with traditional talk therapy. In art therapy sessions, the therapist guides you through art interventions by utilizing a variety of art media such as painting, clay work, collage, coloring, drawing, mask making, crocheting, etc. The use of these different media allow you to process complex emotions, memories, and thoughts through creativity, self-expression, and exploration. Art therapy is beneficial not only as a way to guide treatment, relax, and increase self-awareness but can also be used to assist in making diagnostic impressions through art assessments. Art therapy is beneficial no matter your age or claimed artistic ability, as long as you are willing to try.
AREAS I CAN HELP
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Children 3+
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Adolescent
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Young Adult
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Trauma
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Anxiety + Depression
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Grief + loss
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Substance use
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Eating disorders
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Personality disorders
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Parenting challenges
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Childhood behavioral concerns
EDUCATION
Master’s Degree in Art Therapy from the University of Louisville