Sonali Solanki - Coral Heart Counseling

Psychotherapist and Art Therapist

I’m a first-generation South Asian-American art therapist & counselor who holds space for creative expression and healing through a collaborative, anti-oppressive, and affirming lens.

I work to provide a safe, nonjudgmental, and comforting space for my clients. In this space, we can explore feelings, tap into curiosities, ask questions, share experiences, laugh, cry, and celebrate successes, big or small. Although therapy is an experience that the client and therapist embark on together, I believe that each client has the ability to harness their strengths to find a path that gives them meaning and purpose. You are the expert of your story; I am simply a pillar of encouragement and support.

I’m intent on fostering cultural competency, equity, and inclusion for my clients. In my approach, I utilize various modalities such as solution-focused, narrative, ACT (Acceptance Commitment Therapy), somatic (mind-body connection) and creative interventions along with warmth and empathy to nurture the therapeutic relationship and generate self-awareness and self-compassion. I believe the counseling process can be enriched with the inherent healing power of creative self-expression. Art offers a safe arena to explore difficult emotions while simultaneously acting as a tool for self-regulation. Art therapy focuses on the process, not the product, that said you don’t have to be an artist to participate!

I have experience working with clients across the age spectrum and those who come from diverse cultural backgrounds. However, I am focused on working with adolescents and young adults adjusting to life challenges and transitions and those who wish to explore racial and cultural identity. I am also interested in helping those with low self-esteem and self-worth, anxiety, depression, and trauma express their emotions and reclaim their power and narrative.

In my spare time, you can find me painting, baking, re-watching my favorite TV shows, and spending time with my dogs—Fievel and Luna.

Contract and Consultant Work

My passion is being a healer to those who have found themselves feeling emotionally injured, stuck, unheard, and undeserving. As a licensed psychotherapist and mental health professional, I utilize my knowledge of mental wellness, clinical therapeutic techniques, antiracism, and social justice to empower and assist in the growth of individuals, groups, communities, schools, and workspaces. I do this by providing therapy, workshops, healing circles, and consulting services. Because much of my work has been with people who have been impacted by historical, generational, and/or systemic trauma, my framework and clinical therapeutic techniques are culturally, developmentally, systemically, and trauma informed.

While I earned my Master’s Degree in Social Work at Erikson Institute, I was able to gain extensive knowledge about working with many age groups and communities. Hence, I started my career as a therapist by providing psychotherapy to children and adolescents, and by collaborating with their families and school providers to implement mental wellness services, strengthen bonds, and improve school success rates. After some time, I noticed how many of the adolescents I worked with were struggling to smoothly transition into college. I also noticed how children were heavily impacted by biased rules and policies created by the adults in their lives who had their own emotional battles to resolve. As a result, I started to work with young adults and adult mental health. My transition was because I discovered that one factor that influences a young person’s overall health is the mental wellness, perspectives, and intentions of those who are leading them.

When working with others, I provide a warm, caring, non-judgment, and compassionate experience, while centering the voices of those who are most vulnerable and marginalized in society. I see everyone as a human being who is trying to do the best that they can with the knowledge that they currently have. However, I also see each person as being capable of growth and realigning themselves

for the betterment of society. Consequently, my goal is to continue assisting in transforming thought processes and experiences so that our best traits as human beings can show and impact each other in a positive way. I also work to reshape challenges and traumatic moments into learning opportunities and relief. This is so that people can eventually see troubling times as just memories, as opposed to triggering incidents that might influence their decisions and actions. Ultimately, my hope is that the guidance, strategies, and skills I provide, rooted in mental wellness, can aid in healing, growth, true freedom of the mind, and feeling at ease.

Current contract and consultancy offers include:

Providing specialized cultural and trauma-informed care, guidance, and coaching.
Leading teams, groups, and workshops to provide education and information on the various components of mental health and wellness practices.
Assisting in the healing of collective emotional injuries and pain points of small and large groups.
Facilitating healing and restorative justice circles to bring about a sense of peace, belonging, and compassion.
Interceding with crisis intervention to rapidly emotionally stabilize individuals, families, groups, and communities.
Collaborating with entities to carefully analyze existing systems in place in order to truly identify if spaces, policies, and procedures account for inclusivity and mental wellness, as well as support historically devalued, underrepresented, underserved, and vulnerable populations.
Creating thoughtful conversations and workshops amongst individuals, teams, and leaders in order to work toward understanding the self, internal workings, and how one interacts and influences the world around them and people whom they steer.
Providing guidance and strategic plans to incorporate wellness programs and inclusive environments.

Therapeutic Techniques used:

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Acute Stress Syndrome Stabilization Individual and Group (ASSYST-I and ASSYST-G)
EMDR Protocol for Recent Critical Incidents and Ongoing Traumatic Stress (EMDR-PRECI)
EMDR Integrative Group Treatment Protocol for Ongoing Traumatic Stress (EMDR-IGTP-OTS)
Mindfulness and Mind-Body techniques
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Psychodynamic individual and group processing therapy
Psychoeducation on societal systems, mental health, and wellness

Find More Therapists Here:

LCSW, EMDR Certified

Olivia Taylor

(she/her/hers)

Practice Owner, Psychotherapist, and Mental Health Consultant – EMDR Certified

LSW

Ashley Dowdy

(she/her/hers)

Psychotherapist

QMHP

Imani Perkins

(she/her)

Psychotherapist

MA, LPC

Anisa Brazier

(she/her/hers)

Psychotherapist and Community Engagement Specialist