Art Therapy is for everyone! You do not have to be good at art in fact, often the less experience or formal training you’ve had, the easier the process is to begin with.
Art Therapy builds on counselling by extending the therapeutic encounter to draw on your own natural creativity. In this way, in addition to listening and discussing concerns, we use processes that draw on your creative expression to gently access your deeper self, to locate and express what is going on for you. This is particularly good for people who have difficulty expressing themselves with words, such as small children or anyone that feels blocked or stuck.
"Art Therapy is about utilising the power of creativity to inform and guide us."
Here are some answers to frequently questions about Transpersonal Art Therapy.
What is Art Therapy?
Art Therapy is about truthful expression that comes spontaneously in whatever form from deep within us. It is not thought through, it is not planned or filtered by your ego, or critic (we all carry that voice that judges us telling us if something is good or bad). It might be realistic, it might be abstract but above all it is spontaneous, honest. It does not need to make sense, look good or be tidy.
Why Art Therapy?
We each have inner resources such as an innate wisdom and intuition. If you’re thinking, what do I mean by that, think about when we say ‘ trust your gut’ or you ‘get a gut feeling’ or a ‘6th sense about something’ – ‘ I don’t know how I know, I just know!.’ Art has the ability to tap into this wisdom and communicate to you.
Although we were born with this language, most of us forget to listen to it and after a time, we even forget howto listen to it.
The Language of Art.
Instead of words like the English language, your own creative language is made up of colours, images, symbols, textures. And often it is not delivered in a coherent way ie – think of dreams and how strange they can be. Perfectly ordinary things can be put together in very strange ways. So art can be used to express and relay the images, symbols, colours, textures – moving them from within you, directly onto the page or the canvas in front of you. This process is the beginning – it starts the conversation.
My role as an Art Therapist.
My role in all this is to assist you with remembering how to listen – not to interpret the information for you. That’s your job whenever your ready….. I will join you on your journey, meeting you as an equal. I will hold the space for your own very unique and powerful dialogue to unfold.
What isn’t Art Therapy about?
Art Therapy is not about:-
- being good at drawing or painting
- creating art to impress other people
- just creating things that look beautiful or that we can decorate our homes with (although in the right context this is possible)
