I work with teenagers, adults, and the elderly. You don’t need to have any skills or previous experience in art, people of any age or ability can do this.
Generally, the aim is to:
- allow you to communicate thoughts and feelings that you find difficult or impossible to find the words for
- help you make sense of things and understand yourself better
- give you a safe time and place with someone who won’t judge you
- help you find new ways to look at problems or difficult situations
- help you to talk about complicated feelings or difficult experiences
Everyone will have had different experiences with the arts and creative therapies. As your therapist, I don’t judge your creation or try to tell you what it means. We will explore what it signifies to you and how you felt about making or creating it. How it feels now you are talking about it.
For example, you may want to talk about why you decided on a particular colour, shape, or material in your work. Why you have selected a particular piece of music, dance, story, or narrative and what they may mean to you.
Not everything you make, create, choose or write will need to have a meaning.
These creative techniques can take many forms – painting, colouring, drawing, doodling, collage, photographs, food, decoupage, writing a journal, free writing, drama therapy, dancing, music, song, gardening, and many others. They make take place in the therapy session or outside of it…the possibilities are limitless!
Creating a picture
Creating a collage
Being creative with food
Being creative with decoupage
Writing a journal
Free writing
This is where you simply write without thinking; there is no structure or punctuation. You just let the words flow!
Other types of creative therapies
Chair Work
Masks
Digital Art
Sandtray and Sand Art
Buttons
Shells
Stones
Crystals
Stones with artwork
Gardening
Dancing
Music
