Our Story

The Artful Healing Center was created by Emily Skelton, LMFT, Board Certified Art Therapist, and gender affirming therapist.  When Emily first moved to the Santa Clarita area she quickly realized that resources and support for LGBTQ+ folks were very few and far between.  Having grown up in Texas, and after spending many years exploring and accepting her own Pansexual identity (which included, but was not limited to: internalized homophopia, biphobia, coming out to self multiple times, denial, imposters syndrome, coming out to self again, wash, rinse, repeat,) she decided that enough was enough and  that she wanted to start an affirming private practice.  In 2022 Emily expanded her practice and founded The Artful Healing Center, with a mission to supervise and train gender affirming therapists, and to grow LGBTQ+ mental health services in the Santa Clarita and greater LA area.