Stacy Donn Cristo, LMHC

(W)holistic Psychotherapy  +             Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS)

As a holistic psychotherapist, I am most interested in embodiment. Our body is a fascinating landscape filled with information, wisdom, and truth which leads to liberation from suffering. When we build a relationship with this inner landscape and familiarize ourselves with our body we build a profound and often surprising relationship with our Self. My intention is to hold space for and foster care, trust and curiosity to emerge. Curiosity, interestingly, is the first ingredient to opening the door for healing.

If you are interested in personal growth or deep healing, whether it is inner inquiry arising, unresolved trauma, or phase-of-life challenges and questions, together we work to find meaning, purpose, and reconciliation with a practice of mindful curiosity, compassion and the wisdom of your body and the parts that make up your inner landscape using the model and the tool of Internal Family Systems.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a healing modality in growing demand as we are learning that healing is indeed possible. It is a tool that releases the concept of managing symptoms and behaviors and instead puts faith in knowing that these symptoms and behaviors are the trailheads to healing what remains stuck in the past and since unattended.

Pain and suffering is our inner system's way of reminding us that growth is possible and in order to grow healing is necessary. It is not easy and it often requires guidance and it is an investment in a rich and fertile life!

(W)holistic Psychotherapy and the practice of IFS is taking our history, namely our childhood history, that of our parents and ancestors and all that trickled down to us, to better inform us about how we are showing up to our life, our relationship to our self and to others and combines it with the practice of integrating the mind, the body, the spirit and all that makes us who we are.

I practice a mindful and embodied psychotherapy that will allow you to come to know yourself deeply and to heal, locate agency in your life, and gain access to a sense of liberation and self-leadership.

The Artist + the Empath + the Highly Sensitive Person + the Neurodivergent + Queerness + the Rebel

When I was young I identified as a person who loved to make art yet I somehow struggled with the label Artist.  It seemed to suggest to me something that came with an occupation, one I wasn't sure I wanted.  And yet, I've always been a maker of things, a creator of ideas.  As a therapist I've had the great pleasure of working with many artists, somehow we have been drawn to one another over the years.  Through my own experience and the work I've done over the years with clients I have come to understand and to celebrate that being an artist is more of an orientation than anything else, much like gender identity and sexuality. It's not something we choose as a vocation but rather how we've come into this world.

Not all artist's, it is my experience, make art.  Artist's are the people who invent, create, and question the world around them.  My experience of the artist is that we live in and see this world very differently than most humans and it can leave us feeling isolated, misunderstood and due to the sensitivities that come with being an artist an increased likely hood of feeling depressed and/or anxious.  

Over the years I’ve come to understand that the artist increasingly takes on many forms. This understanding has grown to include those who identify and live as neurodivergent and also queer. I have come to understand that these identities often overlap, co-mingle, and weave together what I livingly refer to as the Rebel: the non-conformist. Anyone non-comforting in a conformist’s world needs some special care and attention. It is important to me to welcome the artists, the empaths and the sensitive, the neurodivergent, the queer and the rebel into my practice. There is a place for you here.