About Hayley

My Journey

20 years ago, I started my work in the mental health field at a local community mental health agency.

I provided court-ordered, in-home therapy to families involved in larger systems. This was tough work but I learned a lot about how to engage clients in treatment, especially when they felt forced to do it.

Years of Agency Work

A couple years later, I moved into Family Based Mental Health at the same agency, where I provided team-delivered, in-home family therapy to families in crisis. I did this for several years, and learned lots about systems theory, crisis prevention, family conflict, relationship work, parenting, trauma, and countless mental health diagnoses.

Family Art Therapy

During this time, I also earned a masters degree in art therapy and counseling.

As a trained art therapist, I loved folding art therapy activities into my work with families. I marveled at the way the art not only enhanced treatment, but increased safety, encouraged family bonding, and supported trauma work.

I was completely sold on family art therapy and it quickly became my favorite approach.

Vicarious Trauma

During my time in family-based, I truly enjoyed the work. But it was hard.

I was burning out.

Planning treatment and coming up with creative session activities started to become a challenge.

Family work is tough under the best of circumstances, and the families I worked with were under immense amounts of stress. They dealt with things like poverty, food insecurity, school problems, discrimination, parent mental health issues, domestic violence, abuse, trauma…the list goes on.

Managing family crises, pushing for systemic change, working in homes all over the county, and absorbing countless stories of trauma and loss was taking a serious toll. Vicarious trauma and burnout were becoming the norm.

Becoming a Clinical Supervisor

I was eventually promoted to supervisor and it was a needed change. Under the guidance of a few amazing mentors, I discovered what good supervision looked like.

I grew to love clinical supervision just as much as therapy, making it my goal to provide supportive supervision and training to my supervisees. Helping them prevent and manage vicarious trauma and burnout through planful, creative therapy and self-care became my mission.

Building My Own Practice

Although I loved supervising therapists, I eventually realized that I wanted to expand my reach. I decided to build a my own private practice. A place where I could do the things I love and have the time to do them.

Before I moved on from community mental health, I spent my mornings and evenings building my solo practice with planful intention and excitement. After several months, I was able to go full time.

My practice, the Center for Creative Counseling, is based in Pittsburgh, PA and I can see clients anywhere in the state. I provide individual therapy, art therapy, family therapy, and grief counseling. I specialize in therapy for moms, childhood trauma, grief, and pregnancy loss.

I’m so proud of what I’ve built and love that I now have a devoted space to continue my work with clients and provide clinical training to clinicians.

The Creative Therapy Ideas Blog

In the same way I knew I wanted to expand my practice, I also knew I needed a separate space to be able to share therapy ideas, worksheets, and tools with therapists around the world. This community allows me to share these resources in more than just my local clinical circles.

And all of the steps in my journey have led me to create this space – a community where I could share what I’ve learned, both as a therapist and as a clinical supervisor.

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A post shared by Hayley Gallagher, MA, AT, LPC (@creativetherapyideas)

The Creative Therapy Ideas Community

Throughout my career, I have experienced therapist burnout firsthand.

And I’ve seen it in the therapists I’ve supervised.

Therapist Burnout

I realized that therapist burnout was a fairly common experience, especially in agency work. Things like vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and other forms of professional stuckness were everywhere.

After seeing the ways therapist burnout impacted the clinical work, I realized there was a major need for more support for the helpers. 

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A post shared by Hayley Gallagher, MA, AT, LPC (@creativetherapyideas)

Session Planning Stuckness

I also realized that once a therapist felt stuck in a rut, session planning became a major task. Coming up with creative and effective session activities was nearly impossible once they hit burnout.

And the sad irony was that often what they really needed was a set of fresh, clinically-appropriate therapy activities to connect them back to the work.

That’s what led me to establish the Creative Therapy Ideas blog.

The Remedy

I wanted to create a place where therapists could come to get ideas, inspiration, and information to support their clinical practice.

All of the blog’s resources, articles, and freebies are not only here to support burnout prevention, but to help you design thoughtful, clinically-appropriate session activities for your clients.

Drawing upon years of experience working with kids, parents, and families, as well as over a decade of supervising clinicians, I share my expertise on the Creative Therapy Ideas blog in order to support you in doing the good work. 

Ready to explore the Creative Therapy Ideas database?

Get started with some amazing free downloads from our Freebies page!

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