Sonja Wishard

Sonja Wishard is an Art Therapist and Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist who enjoys supporting clients through a blend of art making, storytelling, and witnessing. Sonja has used art to cope with difficult feelings since childhood (she just didn’t know it was called art therapy!). Sonja received a BFA in Illustration from California College of the Arts in 2011 and pursued an initial career in design and advertising. After losing her mother to cancer in 2015, Sonja returned to school and obtained an MA in Marriage & Family Therapy and Art Therapy from Notre Dame de Namur University in 2021. Sonja is currently a Provisional Art Therapist working towards full professional credentialing in Art Therapy.

Sonja’s style is warm yet direct, incorporating humor, compassion, and curiosity. She works from a Humanistic lens with a background in Cognitive Behavioral and Mindfulness approaches. Sonja’s clinical practice is rooted in trauma-informed, strengths-based care, and shaped by her own lived experience as a parent, artist, and someone who has personally navigated grief and loss. Sonja is committed to creating a space that is inclusive and welcoming for all abilities, identities, and backgrounds.

With clinical training in both inpatient and outpatient settings, Sonja has special focus on medical trauma, chronic pain/illness, grief and loss, caregiver burnout, parenting, pre-and postpartum issues, identity and life transitions, neurodivergence, gender expansive youth and teens, and helping professional creatives reconnect with their inner artist. Sonja works with clients ages 4+, and particularly pre-teens, teens, and adults.

Outside of her clinical work, Sonja enjoys connecting with friends and nature, drinking too much coffee, painting, drawing and collaging, being near or in water, and discovering new playgrounds with her kiddo.

Sonja is available to see clients ages 4+ at EBAT's Oakland Office on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays (or virtually).