Explore the power of creativity and art-making
“Expressive art therapy integrates all of the arts in a safe, non-judgmental setting to facilitate personal growth and healing. To use the arts expressively means going into our inner realms to discover feelings and express them through visual art, movement, sound, writing, or drama. This process fosters release, self-understanding, insight and awakens creativity." Natalie Rogers
Using creative ways to express ourselves has many benefits
Depending on your mental health goals, creative therapy may help you:
communicate thoughts and feelings that you find difficult to put into words
make sense of things and understand yourself better
give you a safe time and place with someone who won't judge you
find new ways to look at problems or difficult situations
to talk about complicated feelings or difficult experiences
give you a chance to connect with other people (relevant to group work).
A holistic practice framework
My practice framework has been built over several years of experience in acute mental health settings as a practising social worker while working with adults, adolescents, families and older persons. Through this experience, and my training in transpersonal art therapy processes, I have integrated various techniques, models and frameworks into my practice, including acknowledging the social context of wellbeing.
My approach is holistic, person-centred and collaborative. With this in mind, I strive to create a partnership with my client based on trust, empathy, and respect. Depending on my client needs and goals I use many approaches in an integrated way, to support my clients explore themselves, their relationships and heal form past losses and difficult experiences.
Further information on the elements of my approach are provided in links below:
Benefits of image-making
what the experts say….
“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for”
“Art therapy is a visual language that speaks to the subconscious, offering a unique way to explore, understand, and communicate one’s inner world”
“Art therapy is not about the product; it’s about the process. It’s an invitation to engage with the materials, the colors, and the forms to discover the deeper layers of the self”