Cera Pettijohn, BA

Cera is a counseling graduate student specializing in art therapy, practicing at Go Glo under the supervision of Kachina Mooney, MA, LPC, ATR-BC®. Their own journey taught them how art can hold hurt, joy and rage when words aren't enough.

What it means to see an intern. Interns are graduate students completing supervised clinical training. Cera meets regularly with their supervisor, who oversees their work, so you get Cera's full attention along with the guidance of an experienced, board-certified clinician. Sessions with Cera are self-pay on a sliding scale.

My Story

Since childhood, I always found creativity to be my safe space. Very early on, I loved creating things. Writing stories, drawing, reading, arts and crafts, it made me feel free to do as I pleased and be happy doing it. As I got older, it became more than just a fun comfort. Creativity, art specifically, became a lifeline to me. I felt unsafe in my everyday life, so I used art to create a shield around me. At a career fair I attended in middle school, I discovered counseling as a job, and I knew then that I wanted to be involved. It was a job that helped people heal. How could I not?

High school really solidified that I wanted to help others. It became a very turbulent time in my life, but also to my friends around me. I felt something pull in me to want to be there for them. They would come to me for comfort and advice and guidance, and I found that it filled me with a warm feeling, knowing that I could be a pillar of strength to those I cared about.

College had my resolve wavering slightly, as it became a time of questioning, and my own mental health took a hard hit. So, I took the time to really work on myself, because I knew that I would never be able to help others if I didn't help myself first. My mental health, my chronic illness, my identity, all of these were hard to work through, but they also have become a massive driving force to do better and to help the people around me.

I pursued counseling as a career, but it was art therapy that held my attention and what I wanted to focus on. I remembered how much art helped me during my life. How it allowed me to speak without ever using words. How much it really allowed me to be free in how I felt and thought. My hurt, my joys, my rage, art allowed me to get it out of my system.

I want to show people who are hurting that there is a way for them to express themselves, that they can create their own safe space by their own hands just like I did. Being able to guide people to use their imaginations and their hearts to express themselves, I'm exactly where I want to be.