Jessica Barks

Jessica is an EMDR-trained, trauma-centered art therapist and Certified Adolescent Specialist who specializes in working with adolescents, young adults, and families navigating life-transitions, trauma, anxiety, eating disorders, body image concerns, and self-esteem. She is committed to creating a safe, affirming, and collaborative therapeutic relationship where clients feel empowered to heal, grow, and reconnect with themselves.

Jessica believes that many emotional and behavioral challenges—including anxiety, panic attacks, depression, addiction, OCD, and eating disorders—can be rooted in unresolved or developmental trauma. Because trauma is stored not only in our memories but also within the nervous system and body, she recognizes that talk therapy alone is not always enough. By integrating EMDR with trauma-informed art therapy and expressive interventions, Jessica helps clients safely access, process, and integrate experiences that may be difficult to express with words alone. Through creativity, clients can build emotional awareness, strengthen self-compassion, develop effective coping skills, and move toward lasting healing.

Her therapeutic approach is strengths-based, client-centered, and grounded in evidence-based practice. Jessica thoughtfully integrates EMDR, Art Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and mindfulness-based interventions to meet each client's unique needs and developmental stage. She believes healing happens through authentic connection, curiosity, creativity, and honoring each person's inherent resilience.

Jessica has experience working with adolescents and families in schools, residential eating disorder treatment, community-based mental health and empowerment programs. During her work in residential treatment, she received training in Emotion-Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) and values the important role families can play in supporting recovery. She believes that empowering caregivers with practical tools and emotional understanding can strengthen relationships, foster resilience, and create meaningful, lasting change within the family system.

Jessica is dedicated to providing an inclusive, culturally responsive, and socially conscious therapeutic space. She practices from a social justice-informed perspective and is an LGBTQIA+ affirming, BIPOC affirming, and Health at Every Size (HAES)-aligned clinician. She believes every client deserves compassionate, respectful care that honors their identity, lived experiences, and unique story.

Jessica considers it a privilege to walk alongside young people and their families during some of life's most challenging and transformative moments. She strives to create a space where clients feel genuinely seen, accepted, and supported as they build confidence, deepen self-understanding, and discover their own capacity for healing. Outside of the therapy room, she enjoys spending time with her family and cat, reading, creating art, backpacking, snowboarding, and traveling.

Jessica has worked with adolescents in schools, residential treatment for eating disorders, as well as community-based empowerment programs. She approaches therapy from a strengths-based, client-centered, expressive lens, empowering clients to discover their own insights around their artistic process. She is also experienced in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), as well as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and attempt to weave these into the art-making process.

Working in residential treatment, Jessica has gained training in Emotion-Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) and believes strongly in the connection between family involvement and therapeutic success. EFFT believes that empowering parents to help their children can be the most therapeutically worthwhile approach to reducing symptoms, processing emotions, and repairing relationships within the family system.

Jessica feels honored to connect with young people and their families in authenticity and creativity every day and says truly, this is her dream job! When she is not working, She enjoys spending time with her family and cat, reading, making art, backpacking, snowboarding, and traveling.