Meet Cynthia Wild, MA
Hi there, I’m Cynthia, a Creative Arts Therapist, Counselor, and Behaviorial Health Coach living in Santa Fe, NM.
For more than forty years, I've provided compassionate, integrative, creative care for individuals, families, and groups with a wide range of diagnoses. I've worked independently and as a member of an interdisciplinary team to develop and implement community-based expressive therapy and behavioral health services.
My Background
My passion for the arts and healing began at age seventeen while working at a summer camp with differently abled adolescents. There I witnessed the profound impact of music and dance on the campers' well-being. Seeing the joy and capacity to learn new skills significantly increase with these modalities, I fell in love with a field unbeknownst to me at the time–Creative Arts Therapies.
Prior to this, I was a disengaged, difficult student, having survived complex trauma. I believe this background is what drew me to be of service to others, but what impacted me so deeply about Creative Arts Therapies in particular was the emphasis on strength-based approaches, rather than pathology. This combination of experiences and inspirations propelled me to put myself through undergraduate and graduate school while working full-time in human services.
In college, my interests expanded to include integrative health and counseling. Continuing my education, I went on to become a Kripalu yoga and meditation teacher in 1989, a licensed counselor in 1993, and a registered dance therapist in 1996.
After having worked in a variety of community-based programs as well as in a world-renowned health resort, I developed my own style of creative, integrative, compassionate therapy and opened a private practice in Lenox, Massachusetts in 2003.
During this time, I also fostered children, and produced a local TV show called Mind Matters, which sought to decrease the stigma associated with seeking mental health care through interviews with local professionals on various mental health topics.
What is a Creative Arts Therapist?
A creative arts therapist is one clinically trained to use the structure and expressive qualities inherent in the creative process to assess and treat a variety of populations and levels of dis-ease.
Modalities may include; music, movement, art, theatre, writing and more.
Dreaming of the openness and scenic beauty of the Southwest since learning of its geography and cultures in grade school, I left my beloved “Berkshires” in 2016 and since have made Santa Fe my home.
Using this transition as an opportunity to get back to my roots as a dance/creative arts therapist, I took over a local dance studio that was closing in the hopes of returning it to its roots as a community dance hall. Just as I was beginning this adventure, COVID-19 hit. People gathering was not in the foreseeable future, so I closed the studio and accepted a position as the director of a new Montessori based memory care facility. Here I helped to develop a thriving community in which the arts played a pivotal role.
Though enjoying this work immensely, I could not shake this persistent voice telling me the most meaningful work I could be doing was to focus on the current climate crisis. Wanting to honor this voice, I moved on. Currently, I continue my part-time private work with individuals, while also working with local climate action groups in pursuit of community and planetary transformation.