ART AND WRITING
In addition to being a therapist, I am also a committed artist and writer. I have painted murals and exhibited contemporary art installations in small galleries from the East Coast to Tuscany including at the Ospedale Santa Maria Nuova and La Corte Arte Contemporanea in Florence. My current painting practice is a more personal and gentle experience, capturing the soft stillness of the Pacific Northwest as a way to incorporate mindfulness into my everyday life and explore the tranquil beauty of nature.
As a writer, I have a number of magazine article publications and have created original copy for The Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, Grant Halliburton Foundation for Youth Mental Health, and private therapy practices including my own, Coastal Trails Holistic Counseling.
I am currently pursuing my first full-length creative work, an autofiction novel titled The Ghost Ship, that interweaves my lived experiences, clinical knowledge on trauma, and elements of magical realism and ecology.
The Ghost Ship: Project Summary
A woman struggling with infertility and chronic illness moves into a new home on the Northwest coast and starts seeing the ghosts of her dead relatives. Through each visitation, she comes closer and closer to understanding how her present is written by the past and discovering what her ancestral role will be as she watches life unfold on the edge of the continent.
Biographical Statement
Stephanie Avery is a writer, artist, psychotherapist, and public speaker who lives in the Pacific Northwest. Originally from Texas, her work has appeared in Dallas periodicals such as Good Life Family and D Magazine. Drawing from lived experiences with chronic illness and loss, Stephanie interweaves her clinical knowledge of trauma with lyrical prose that explores the healing power of place, interconnectedness, and the human capacity for creation. She is currently working on her first novel, The Ghost Ship, as well as a short story collection.
Paintings
Soft Gaze: A Meditative Series in Oil
