Third Object
Therapy for the rest of us.
You don’t need to fit the mold to heal.
You only need to arrive as you are.
At Third Object, I work from the understanding that conventional therapy often ignores the frameworks in which we live. I believe that in a healthy society, life is charged with integration, relational work and personal growth.
I offer talk therapy and art therapy online throughout California, and in-person art therapy in Portland, Oregon. My work is rooted in knowledge that our liberation is bound to the collective, and acknowledges the great struggle of being human in an often dehumanizing world. No matter where you are on your personal journey, I offer space to explore deeply and freely, without limits of judgments. My goal is to help you reconnect with your capacity to create a life you love.
What I Offer
Talk Therapy & Art Therapy
You can choose traditional talk therapy, art therapy, or an integrated approach. Sessions are available online across California, or in-person, for art therapy only, in Portland, Oregon. I can provide superbills in California for talk therapy clients seeking insurance reimbursement.
Creative Cohorts & Group Therapy
I offer online therapeutic cohorts designed to explore shared experiences and collective liberation. I love working in groups, and prioritize this option whenever possible. Group descriptions specify whether they center art therapy or talk therapy. Each cohort centers a theme, such as grief, gender, or religious abuse. Art therapy cohorts invite the creation of bodies of work that transcend, communicate, and integrate fracturing and challenging experiences.
Upcoming groups include:
Trans Youth Art Therapy Cohort – a creative space for trans youth to explore identity, creativity, and connection. (age 13-18)
End of Control– a group therapy space for LGBTQIA2S+ people who are leaving, or who have left, high-control religious environments.
Workshops, Classes & Talks
I collaborate with colleges, community centers, spiritual centers and arts organizations to bring creative mental health programming, education and growth work to both public and private spaces. These offerings range from single-session talks to visiting lecturer positions at universities. Past educational offerings have focused on arts education, patient care, working with neurodivergent clients and students, LGBTQIA2S+ informed care. Past spiritual and creative offerings include engagement around music and silence, grief and comedy, meditation, and live abstract painting. If you’d like me to partner with your organization, please reach out on my contact page.
About My Philosophy
Healing is not about returning to what was, it’s about imagining what could be. My approach blends art, psychology, spirituality, and liberation work to invite and magnify your capacity for a more authentic response to your life. Together, we’ll explore:
• How creativity unlocks authenticity
• How systems of power impact our sense of self
• How to find freedom and meaning in your own language of expression
Meet Essy Hart
I’m Essy Hart (they/she)—a Licenced Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), Registered Art Therapist (ATR), painter, musician, writer, and educator. I hold a Master’s Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy with Specialized Training in Art Therapy from Loyola Marymount University. I also hold two Master’s degrees from Starr King School for the Ministry, where I studied the intersections of spirituality, colonization, and creative resistance.
I approach therapy with the belief that:
Healing happens through relationship, not hierarchy
Art-making can reveal truths that language alone can’t hold
Queerness is inherently creative
Decolonization begins in the body, in the breath, and in the refusal to remain rootless
Each session is an invitation to reclaim your voice, your story, and your creative inheritance.
The Meaning of “Third Object”
In art therapy, the third object is, quite simply, the artwork! There’s me, the therapist, then you, the client, and between us the third object comes into being. I believe that all creation in a healing space, whether it is conversation, writing, movement, or artmaking, holds power as a third object. In co-creation and in your own creative process, the opportunity for growth and reflection arises organically. At Third Object we invite, conjure and honor everything that shows up! Welcome to Third Object, a therapy space for those who that healing is more than symptom management, it’s a creative, political, and spiritual act.
Here, therapy is an unfolding. It is conversation and color, silence and sound, grief and integration. I aim to offer transformative space
For queer people.
For people of diverse ethnic, historic, and religious experience.
For the intellectually exhausted.
For the uninspired, over inspired, shut down, or self limiting artist.
For the careworn.
For the chronically overstimulated.
For the neurodivergent.
For individuals with trauma who are seeking deeper pathways to integrate and heal.
Our work is to co-create new responses to the world at large. Each session is grounded in the goal of collective liberation, awareness of the colonial problems with mental health, and a belief that creative and communicative processes can support restoration of authenticity, community, and connection to the earth.
Healing is the natural state of injury. In our work together, we will invite authenticity, curiosity and acceptance to the center of the room. We will find places where you carry tension, threads of confusion, and hidden pain. We will then work together to allow the kindness of mystery to walk you home.
Let’s Begin Your Creative Healing Journey
If something in this space speaks to you, I invite you to reach out. Whether you’re new to therapy or returning to it in a new way, we’ll begin with a conversation. Let’s create a space to explore what you need and what feels possible.
A Note on the Usage of AI
As we all adapt to the presence of AI and increased uncertainty around data privacy, I believe it is important to offer the option of limited-technology therapy. All clients have the option to opt out of AI-assisted note-taking, and I am open to discussing all needs and concerns around technology.