PETER TULANEY, MA, LMFT
I have been practicing psychotherapy since 2007. My earlier clinical experience was heavily focused on child development and the many systems affecting children through the multiple stages of growing up. I developed a sensitivity to the variety of ways children communicated their needs and sought for belonging. I worked in many school settings, as well as early childhood development centers. I worked with growing families, and I worked with grieving families. I even worked conjointly with a brilliant therapist who provided me with the framework to practice, and the passion to deeply love my profession. I had a dreamlike experience studying psychology and applying it to the field of psychotherapy. A capstone to my earlier years as a psychotherapist was founding a therapeutic art school that focused on collaborative art projects to facilitate communication, sharing, caring and healing.
Backyard on the Year we Sold Our House
(Acrylic on Gesso Board, 4’ x 4’)
Collaboration with Juliet Tulaney, my 9 year old daughter
This art piece represents a collaborative work in progress. My daughter and I began this painting in late May 2025, when we discovered the potential need to sell our house. Not only did the project gift us time together to verbally process some of our thoughts and feels about moving, but also a non-verbal way to externalize some of the more complicated cognitive and emotional processes about the passage of time and creating new beginnings.
To me the image represents an emotional landscape, which is inspired by our backyard both physically and metaphysically. We spend a lot of time back there playing, gardening... painting - and the thought of losing it created some psychological discomfort for me. Venerating the experience with our creative expression has brought some relief to my grief, and I'm certain has made the process a bit easier on Juliet as well.