Heart Space Art Studio
Process > Product
Heart Space is a process forward art studio that focuses on creating opportunities for mind-body connection and healing through art and movement.
Providing you with a safe space to spark your creativity and follow your curiosity. At Heart Space, we believe the art process is a wonderful way to better understand yourself and the world around you. Our goal is to offer access to the art making experience and build community. With collaborators with various backgrounds, each class and workshop is meant to serve the community and create opportunities for connection, creativity and open minded art making.
How did Heart Space start?
Heart Space has always been an idea for Maddie, until 2023, when it became a reality. It grew from Heart Space Therapy which Maddie established in 2020 after working in various settings including hospitals, clinics and outpatient settings. Maddie wanted to decrease the stigma of therapy by creating a therapeutic space that is inviting, warm, creative and inspiring. Heart Space is located in a storefront near the intersection of 54th and Penn. Its has big windows, high ceilings and open space. As a registered art therapist, being able to have the arts easily accessible in the therapeutic setting was a challenge but not at Heart Space. Supplies and a creative space are right next to the comfortable and cozy sitting area. Heart Space is dedicated to creating a community space for people where you can show up just as they are and engage with arts. Maddie believes in the impact that art can have in our overall health and wellness as well as the impact it can have to strengthening relationships. Our hope is to offer a variety of workshops, classes and open studio times to connect individuals to the creative parts of themselves in order to ignite or re-ignite a passion for the arts.
Who started Heart Space?
Meet Maddie Johnson, LMFT, ATR (She/Her/Hers)
Hello! I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist as well as a Registered Art Therapist. Having worked with clients in their home, along side them in partial hospitalization programming as well as in outpatient clinical settings, I know first hand how important it is to connect to your therapist. I believe for therapy to be successful there must be a positive and mutually respectful relationship between client and therapist. Therefore I focus on helping individuals feel comfortable as they engage in the process of understanding themselves and the world around them.
As a relational therapist I work from a systems perspective believing relationships are essential to our healing journey. Sometimes that means exploring our attachment styles and seeing how that affects our current relationships - healthy and unhealthy and then working towards gaining and maintaining relationships that feel supportive and safe. I identify myself as a mind-body therapist, meaning that I like to support clients as they become attune to their inner experiences. I also utilize cognitive behavioral therapy as well as psychodynamic approaches where applicable. I am also trained in Accelerated Resolution Therapy allowing me to support clients with reprocessing traumatic experiences.
I also believe therapy does not have to be all talk. As a Registered Art Therapist, I make art materials available to all clients who are interested. Art can be powerful within the therapeutic setting and is a helpful tool to create movement and growth. If my clients are open to it, we can explore making art together or we can take a directive approach and work on focused goals using art media.
What is art therapy?
"Art therapy is a mental health profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship.
Art therapy, facilitated by a professional art therapist, effectively supports personal and relational treatment goals as well as community concerns. Art therapy is used to improve cognitive and sensorimotor functions, foster self-esteem and self-awareness, cultivate emotional resilience, promote insight, enhance social skills, reduce and resolve conflicts and distress, and advance societal and ecological change” -American Art Therapy Association
If I attend a group, workshop or class am I doing art therapy?
While working with a trained professional is the truest form of art therapy, at Heart Space we also believe that art, in and of itself, is therapeutic. So if you attend a workshop, class, group or open studio, you will likely feel the benefits of engaging with the arts and we believe that is therapeutic, however, unless it is otherwise noted with consent forms, the offerings are not therapy nor a replacement for therapy.
Heart Space Therapy
Individual - Family - Couples
Therapy Services with Maddie Johnson, LMFT, ATR
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