About Brooks Creative Arts Therapy, PLLC

At Brooks Creative Arts Therapy, we believe that incorporating the arts into the therapeutic space can promote deep healing, profound acceptance, and unbound discovery. 

Our Approach: What is Creative Arts Therapy? 

Creative Arts Therapy is an empirically grounded, expressive modality that intentionally uses drama, visual arts, music, movement, drama, poetry, and storytelling techniques as tools to support psychological insight, healing, and growth.

A colorful painting of a girl with long flowing hair, holding a large flower, set against a background with abstract square patterns.

Brooks Creative Arts Therapy is named for our founder, Rachel Brooks—but also evokes the deep wisdom of nature. Like a brook, our work is gentle yet powerful. It flows and adapts, shaped by obstacles without losing its course. We see therapy in much the same way: a space where calm meets current, softness finds strength, and stillness streams into movement.

This is a practice that embraces the imperfect, the evolving, and the in-between — a brook reshaped with every bend. A place where stories heal, where metaphors reveal truths, and where growth springs forth in surprising, beautiful ways. 

Meet Rachel Brooks, MA, LCAT, RDT 

A woman with long brown hair smiling outdoors with trees and buildings in the background. Rachel Brooks, MA, LCAT, RDT

Rachel Brooks is a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist and Registered Drama Therapist based in Brooklyn, New York. She brings deep experience working with populations across the lifespan,  in both individual and group settings, online and in-person. Rachel holds her Bachelors in Fine Arts in Drama from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and her Masters in Drama Therapy at New York University. Her work is guided by a strengths-based, holistic approach that weaves in practical tools from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, mindfulness based practices and creative arts integration.

Why would I seek Creative Arts Therapy over traditional talk therapy?

  • When words fall short

    Sometimes what you're feeling can’t be put into words.

    A yellow leaf with a sad face hanging from a tree branch, with more yellow leaves and a grassy field in the background, near a body of water, depicted in a child's drawing style.

  • Play and imagination as healing tools

    Using metaphor, storytelling, and creativity can help you explore things in a new, less intimidating way.

  • Great for trauma, kids, artists, or the therapy-averse

    It can bypass defenses and go deeper without feeling like it’s “just talking.”

    Child's colorful drawing of a girl with orange hair wearing a pink dress, smiling, with pink hands, blue eyes, and a yellow face, against a white background with pink clouds and a blue sky.

  • Whole-brain healing

    It engages both emotional and cognitive parts of the brain, making therapy feel more integrated and embodied.

  • Process over performance

    You don’t need to be “good” at art or drama! It’s about the process, not the product!

    Colorful child's drawing of eight whimsical creatures holding hands outside under a bright yellow sun, with clouds in the sky and a rainbow in the background.

  • Healing isn't one size fits all 

    It’s a collaborative, flexible, and ever-changing process — one that meets you where you are and moves with you as you grow.