Irene Maropakis, LCAT, EMDR, CSTIP, CCATP, Somatic Parts Work IFS

My Approach to Helping

More Info About My Practice

I’m an Art Therapist, and you’re probably wondering what that is. Well, I promise you that we will go a bit deeper than your average “art therapy coloring book” (Although I do think coloring in a kitty wearing a fireman outfit has been very understudied for its therapeutic benefits). I could rant on about technical differences and modalities, but the gist of it is that I am a trained psychotherapist who utilizes the arts.

Break it down even further?

I am a therapist where you can scribble outside the lines, smear paint across a canvas, meditate in stillness, or hum mantras louder than maybe your roommate or family would prefer. (Om Mani Padme Hum, anyone?) I invite you to perform and design your healing rituals of creation that evolve from you, and for you. I invite you to create for yourself, without judgment, and maybe a dash of fearlessness too. Or none of that. We can just talk.

I will push you to push yourself to heal.

I will get in there with you and call you out on your stuff. I am not afraid to talk about anything you need to talk about. I’ll lend a listening ear and some gentle (but firm) nudges to explore whatever it is you’re going through, all at your pace, with the respect and sensitivity you deserve.


Who do I work with?

I enjoy working with people who struggle with identity and gender issues, depression, anxiety, and are highly sensitive. I enjoy working with people in their twenties and thirties, because establishing healthy communication and appreciation of self early allows people to enjoy their lives much more.

I work best with people who are tired of being unhappy, indecisive, and stuck, who are willing to put in the work to change. They tell themselves, “I can’t keep moving through life this way if I want to do the things I want to do, and be who I know I am.”

Whether you’re at a place where the anxiety has gnawed away at your sense of self and you feel lost, or struggling to take the next steps in life. This doesn’t have to be the only line in your story.

Let’s find your way to you.

My Role as a Therapist

Therapy, in my opinion, is the great task of seeing. We often turn a blind eye to our own suffering, but most of all, the importance of our own stories.

As an art therapist, I feel a fierce dedication and commitment to care for my clients and their stories. I have seen the power of someone unfolding the story within themselves in lines of poetry, trembling hands, and paint splatters on their faces. I work as witness to my clients? storytelling, as confusion and grief turn into self-understanding and compassion.

As our world becomes smaller in a time of fear and uncertainty, limited connection, and safety of self now threatened, I feel that it is our time as mental health professionals to provide a safe space for our communities in any way that we can.

How My Own Struggles Made Me a Better Therapist

The Quick Bit: I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. I am a Greek-American child of first-generation immigrants from Crete, Greece. I identify as a Bisexual woman. I have a lived experience of being a Highly Sensitive Person struggling with Depression and Anxiety. I am LGBTQ+ affirming, sex positive, and work from a trauma-informed, anti-oppressive, multiculturally sensitive, & intersectional approach towards holistic embodied healing and life empowerment. I am the founder of Enodia Therapies.

The Longer Bit: As a teen, I struggled with my mental health through disordered eating, depression, and anxiety. I did not have the support systems in place, knowledge, or access to care available to assist me. I know the importance of finding a therapist who is a good fit. I struggled jumping from therapist to therapist until I found the right one. It was then that I really began to do the healing work to transform my life. As I entered adulthood and began to develop the different aspects of my sense of self, accepting my bisexuality, working through my trauma as a woman navigating the world to reclaim my feminine identity, my main tool of healing has always been the same, art making. Having had first hand experience of being a client, and now a therapist, I get it. Finding a therapist who gets you, and your particular brand of anxious, unhappy and overwhelmed is difficult, but when you find a therapist that you trust, and feel comfortable with, great empowering healing work can be done.

As someone who identifies as a Highly Sensitive Person, or HSP, I feel that we are often misunderstood and expected to change to fit a world that is not in alignment to how we experience it. When the world is sending the message that your experience is invalid, that can place mistrust in your own experience, and wreak havoc on your life. I advocate that it isn?t you who is ?too sensitive? but that the world is not sensitive enough. I use my sensitivity to assist in developing your sensitivity to yourself and validating your inner experience.

When I started Enodia Therapies, my aim was to create an inclusive space where people of all walks of life can feel empowered and heard. To have a safe holding environment to explore parts of themselves in creative expressive ways. The goal most of all, is to provide embodied healing for body, mind, heart, and soul. As the name Enodia suggests, I aim to help you at whatever crossroads of your life you?re currently at and to assist you in making empowered decisions of what paths to take that align with the kind of life you want to lead.