What is Art Therapy? A creative and safe therapeutic intervention for children and adults in Kent.
- sharonrouse0
- Nov 23, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 15, 2023
Art Therapy in Kent
Art Therapy is a person centred, trauma informed psychological intervention which helps with emotional difficulties and challenges. I will support you to explore, and consider aspects of your challenges either existential issues or past experiences that may be affecting your present this will be in a gentle, curious and in a safe way at your pace. This enables you to find meaning and understanding leading to an improvement to your mental health. This is achieved through the creative process together with the therapeutic relationship within a confi dential and non judgemental space.
The therapuetic space can be playful, a place to have fun too, to recognise and celebrate positive aspects of you.
Art therapy is suitable for children, adolescents or adults living with a broad range of difficulties or psychological diagnosis.
What can Art Therapy help with?
Art Therapy can help with:-
Bereavement
Low mood
Depression
Self Harm
Living with chronic illness
Difference
Sexuality
Suicidal ideation
Challenging behaviour
School refusal
Supporting SEN inidivduals
Providing a non verbal support
Sensory integration - development of social and language development
Trauma
Abuse
Learning disabilities
Supporting transitions in life
Provide group art therapy for specific shared experience or well being
Non Verbal communication
Anger management
What if I am not good at art?
You do not have to have artistic skills and it is not an art lesson, it is more about how you use the art materials within the session. It might be useful to consider creativity as being quite broad as it could mean traditional art making or poetry, story telling, puppetry, animation, modelling or even play and being playful. You may already have an interest or materials you have in mind to use in the session and we can discuss this further.
What if do not want to make art?
That is OK it is your choice not to make art and that is important to acknowledge.
Can anyone call themselves an Art Therapist?
An Art Therapist is registered, insured and accredited often with HCPC or UKCP but there may be a few more organisations providing accreditation. This ensures the therapist has trained to MA level, continues to train post qualification and attends regular clinical supervision to ensure they are working within ethical and professional guidelines.
My HCPC registration is AS 16591 and I am a full member of British Art Therapists Association.
What should I expect in a session?
Art Therapy can be one-to-one or in groups. Usually one to one sessions are once a week, they aim to be the same time, place and day for consistency, 45- 50 minutes but depending on inidivdual need this could be altered. The therapist might be quiet to notice what comes up for you during the session or you might want them to participate in your activity or conversation. Towards the end of the session the therapist might encourage you to view your artwork together and notice what came up for you. We may have a routine to mark the ending of the session with a short period of tidying up.
The first few sessions we will complete forms in part of the session. It may take a few sessions to get used to everything and start trusting the therapeutic process. After around six session we can review how things are going and during this period we would have a better understanding of what to focus on in subsequent sessions and form a plan that can be reviewed every six sessions. This sounds quite formal but could be a conversation about what is going well and what needs to continue to be thought about some more.
Sharon Rouse
Art Therapist
Hythe Ashford and Folkestone and surrounding areas Kent
Shepway
More info about Art Theray can be found - baat.org
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