About & History
The Emerald Sketch Art therapy Response Team (ART) helps children, families, and communities globally heal the symptoms of post traumatic stress and complex grief when devastated with unforeseeable tragedy. We do this by providing families and communities with direct access to qualified creative arts therapists and clinical services and by training clinicians in our proprietary creative arts therapy-based trauma response sequence.
The intention of every Emerald Sketch program is to help people heal, build resiliency, regain a sense of balance, and establish emotional self-reliance. Our work is made possible thanks to the generosity of donors and supporters.
The Emerald Sketch was founded in Newtown, CT in 2012, when Founding Director Nicole Porter Davis MA ATR-BC, LCAT was called upon to respond to the tragedy at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. She provided immediate Art therapy trauma response work at the “Sandy Hook Healing Project” four days after the tragedy and eventually became the Director of Child Therapy, sustaining programming in the community for eighteen months. During this time, The Emerald Sketch was born and grew to serve hundreds of families in Newtown and Sandy Hook, CT, USA.
The Emerald Sketch is now based in New York City and Hudson, NY, with over 500 trained clinicians in Newtown, CT, California, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, South Carolina, Florida, Wisconsin, and many more. The organization mobilizes Art therapy trauma response by connecting clinical services and communities post-crisis globally and providing clinical training in trauma response for eligible Creative Arts therapists. The Emerald Sketch has elevated the lives of over 1,500 clients.
Our mission is to help children, families, and communities globally to heal from the symptoms of post traumatic stress and complex grief when devastated with unforeseeable tragedy.
“The Emerald Sketch provides psychological support to children and families following mass terror, and professionals globally working with children in response to mass tragedy.”
— Nicole Porter Willcox, Founding Director
How the Emerald Sketch Works
Train Clinicians
The Emerald Sketch empowers clinicians to help families turn trauma and grief symptoms into resiliency and greater internal balance. We train Creative Arts therapists globally in our proprietary trauma response sequence, at which point they become members of our Art therapy Response Team.
Provide Art Therapy Trauma Response
The Emerald Sketch provides direct clinical services by connecting art therapists to clients and organizations in regions with a recent history of trauma and loss. Our Art therapy Response Team provides communities with therapeutic knowledge and high quality therapeutic services such as community outreach workshops and weekly individual, group, or family art therapy sessions.
Heal Individuals & Communities
As individuals gain relief from the symptoms of post trauma and/or complex grief, it brings awareness for greater health within each individual, thus broadening health within the family and the community. The individual understanding inspires relationship building, creative cooperation, and social connections, which in turn extends the impact of the original healing process.
