Angela Luna Art Therapy

06/16/2026

I'm starting a series answering the questions I get asked most as an expressive arts trauma therapist. This one came up recently.

Why can't I relax even when nothing is wrong?

If you've found yourself asking this, or you've heard it from the people you work with, I wrote this for you.

https://angelalunatherapy.com/25958924-2/

Link in comments 🌿

05/14/2026

So something kinda exciting happened!

A journalist from the LA Times reached out to interview me about the healing properties of poetry.

She was writing a piece about a young Latina woman who discovered poetry through therapy and started sharing her poems on social media. She now has over five million followers!
(I'll link the article below in the comments)

I got to be one of the experts she talked to about how poetry supports healing.

I was so excited to talk to her. I use creative poetry approaches in my therapy work to get underneath the surface and help clients express what's hard to say out loud.

I just used one of them this morning in an Expressive Arts Therapy training I gave, and the participants had so much fun!

The approach is called "Found Poetry." It's a practice where you cut words from magazines and let them arrange themselves into something meaningful. It is great because it's accessible, but can also go really deep and be surprising.

This also inspired me to write a blog sharing one of these tools/interventions I use.

I'm linking the blog here so you can check it out if you want to try it for yourself or your clients. (photo below is from today's training ;)

https://angelalunatherapy.com/how-poetry-heals-trauma/

04/11/2026

In Creating Parts Work Art Cards: Exploring Inner Wisdom Through Mindful Expressive Arts with Angela Luna, MA, JD, LMFT, you’ll learn how to transform abstract inner experiences into tangible, therapeutic tools. This interactive workshop guides you in creating personalized parts work art cards through collage and mindful creative process—externalizing inner conflicts, strengths, and hidden aspects in ways that feel safe and accessible.

Hands-on, experiential interventions will offer powerful pathways for clients navigating trauma, anxiety, depression, and internal conflict—bridging imagination and embodied awareness. You’ll leave with a clear framework for integrating parts work art cards into individual or group therapy, adding a dynamic, engaging resource to your clinical toolkit.

Join us at the Spring Virtual Summit to expand the ways your clients can see, meet, and understand themselves.

03/27/2026

Hey friends 👋

Grateful to share that I've been invited back to the Expressive Arts Therapy Summit.

Last time, 100 people joined my workshop, and the feedback was really beautiful, so this time we're going deeper. I'm returning with an extended 3-hour workshop on creating Parts Work Art Cards, and I'm excited to have more space to really do this work justice.

It's deep, it's fun, and it's genuinely powerful whether you're coming at it from a personal or professional place. Sometimes both at the same time.

I would love to see you there!

The Summit also has a wonderful lineup of other workshops, so worth exploring even beyond mine. Here's the link:

https://www.expressivetherapiessummit.com/spring-virtual-summit

02/17/2026

In over 15 years of doing trauma work, I've watched so many people struggle with advice to "just breathe" or "tune into your body." When your body doesn't feel safe, that can feel impossible.

I use my expressive arts therapy tools to support breathwork in a way that's more accessible. The Breath, Body, and Art Practice is something I use with my clients, teach in trainings. I have gotten a lot of feedback from participants that it’s a helpful tool that they can incorporate into their work with clients.

So I wanted to share it with you in case you can use it personally or professionally.

The art helps with breathwork because it’s like a buffer. When you're drawing, you have something to do with your hands. You're still breathing, still in your body, but you're not white-knuckling it alone. It's easier.

I wrote up the complete practice in my latest blog post, including why it works and how to do it. You don't need to be good at art or have any particular art supplies. Marker and copy paper work.

Link is in comments.
https://angelalunatherapy.com/minful-art-therapy-breath-body-practice/

01/19/2026

We all know it's been a lot lately. There's collective grief and anger showing up everywhere right now. Real, justified anger about injustice and harm. About systems that fail to protect people. And underneath that anger, grief for the people being hurt and harmed, for the safety that feels out of reach, for the world we wish we lived in.

I've been using expressive arts therapy practices with clients and personally that have been helping.
I know an art practice can feel small compared to the scale of what's happening. But I also know that practices like this accumulate. Art has impact. And we need tools to help us metabolize what we're experiencing so we don't burn out.

There is one practice I call the Empty Vessel Ritual that has been helpful as of late.
Here's how it works in brief:

You sit quietly and reflect on a loss, a person, a sense of safety, and hope for how things could have been.

You write what you're carrying about that loss. You tear or cut the words out.

Then you shape a vessel with your hands using clay, papier-mache, fabric, or whatever materials you have.
You place the torn words into the vessel.

You witness what you've created, this vessel that now holds your grief, your anger, your losses. The vessel gives your grief and anger somewhere to rest, something outside yourself to hold what feels unbearable.

Then you decide what happens next: keep it, bury it, add to it over time, or destroy it as a release.

You can do this alone or gather people together to create a collective ritual. Both can be powerful in my experience.

If you're a therapist or facilitator, feel free to use this with your clients.

This is just one of many things that can support us right now. I'm happy to offer this one thing.
Full practice with all the steps and variations here: https://angelalunatherapy.com/art-therapy-exercise-grief-anger/

01/19/2026

Hey community,

We all know it's been a lot lately. There's collective grief and anger showing up everywhere right now. Real, justified anger about injustice and harm. About systems that fail to protect people. And underneath that anger, grief for the people being hurt and harmed, for the safety that feels out of reach, for the world we wish we lived in.

I've been using expressive arts therapy practices with clients and personally that have been helping.

I know an art practice can feel small compared to the scale of what's happening. But I also know that practices like this accumulate. Art has impact. And we need tools to help us metabolize what we're experiencing so we don't burn out.
There is one practice I call the Empty Vessel Ritual that has been helpful as of late.

Here's how it works in brief:

* You sit quietly and reflect on a loss, a person, a sense of safety, and hope for how things could have been.

* You write what you're carrying about that loss. You tear or cut the words out.

* Then you shape a vessel with your hands using clay, papier-mache, fabric, or whatever materials you have.

* You place the torn words into the vessel.

* You witness what you've created, this vessel that now holds your grief, your anger, your losses. The vessel gives your grief and anger somewhere to rest, something outside yourself to hold what feels unbearable.

* Then you decide what happens next: keep it, bury it, add to it over time, or destroy it as a release.

You can do this alone or gather people together to create a collective ritual. Both can be powerful in my experience.

If you're a therapist or facilitator, feel free to use this with your clients.

This is just one of many things that can support us right now. I'm happy to offer this one thing.

Full practice with all the steps and variations here:

Learn how an expressive art therapy exercise can help to heal collective grief and anger. The Empty Vessel Ritual helps you process emotions and take grounded action.

01/19/2026

We all know it's been a lot lately. There's collective grief and anger showing up everywhere right now. Real, justified anger about injustice and harm. About systems that fail to protect people. And underneath that anger, grief for the people being hurt and harmed, for the safety that feels out of reach, for the world we wish we lived in.

I've been using expressive arts therapy practices with clients and personally that have been helping.
I know an art practice can feel small compared to the scale of what's happening. But I also know that practices like this accumulate. Art has impact. And we need tools to help us metabolize what we're experiencing so we don't burn out.

There is one practice I call the Empty Vessel Ritual that has been helpful as of late.

Here's how it works in brief:

You sit quietly and reflect on a loss, a person, a sense of safety, and hope for how things could have been.
You write what you're carrying about that loss. You tear or cut the words out.

Then you shape a vessel with your hands using clay, papier-mache, fabric, or whatever materials you have.
You place the torn words into the vessel.

You witness what you've created, this vessel that now holds your grief, your anger, your losses. The vessel gives your grief and anger somewhere to rest, something outside yourself to hold what feels unbearable.

Then you decide what happens next: keep it, bury it, add to it over time, or destroy it as a release.
You can do this alone or gather people together to create a collective ritual. Both can be powerful in my experience.

If you're a therapist or facilitator, feel free to use this with your clients.
This is just one of many things that can support us right now. I'm happy to offer this one thing.

Full practice with all the steps and variations here: https://angelalunatherapy.com/art-therapy-exercise-grief-anger/

11/24/2025

When I first stepped into CIIS in San Francisco over 18 years ago, I had no idea how my life was about to shift. I was planning to commute from Sacramento and join the weekend program… and then I met the expressive arts therapy cohort. Something about their energy and light hit me hard. I literally heard a voice inside me say, "I'm home!" So I decided to pack things up in Sac-o-tomatoes (affectionately called, because Sac has the best tomatoes!) and move to the Bay to get my Master's in Expressive Arts Therapy.

That moment set the trajectory for everything I do now. This field has been one of the biggest blessings of my life. It's my calling. I'm grateful I get to do this work and keep growing deeper into it every day.

Recently, I posted a casual offer to answer questions about becoming an expressive arts therapist. Over 100 people responded, and I got a ton of emails asking me to share my experience. I was so surprised and also juiced up by the idea that I could help folks follow this path, so I ended up creating a full 45-minute presentation, a downloadable resource, and a blog post (I'm genuinely proud of these!)

If you're curious about entering this field or know someone who is, I'm sharing all of it here.

Video: https://youtu.be/OH67rSZN4qg?si=zW819PfG0WHP0Gi7
Blog: Link in comments
Downloadable Houndout: Link in comments

I'm also now offering one-on-one creative career coaching for those seriously exploring this profession.

This field keeps deepening for me, and it's a perfect match with my specialization in complex trauma work. If you're feeling that pull toward this work, DM me or send a message through my contact. I LOVE working with anyone drawn to do creative healing work.

►💥 Learn more about the Holistic Trauma Healing Card Deck here:https://angelalunatherapy.com/the-holistic-trauma-healing-card-deck/▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬...