questions?

There are many different reasons for seeing an Art psychotherapist. Art psychotherapy can be useful in helping children and young people make changes they want.

Family art therapy uses ‘creating art together’ as a transformative process. Art therapy allows the family space and time to explore their feelings through the art and gain understanding of these feelings.

See the question on ‘some of the reasons your child may see and Art Psychotherapist’.

To feel more confident about themselves

To support them if they are being bullied

To explore changes in their life including when important people leave or die

To explore bad experiences from the past and put them behind them

If they feel so sad or angry that they feel that they need to hurt themselves or don’t want to live

To help them understand why they do things that they don’t want to do

To help them understand feelings around times of change e.g. “looked after” children and young people

To have a secure and understanding place to go when things in life seem very unsafe or changeable

To explore how it feels when they have to look after an unwell parent or sibling and have no time for themselves or their own feelings

A child’s challenging behaviour is often their way of communicating that they are dealing with powerful feelings that they don’t understand and are unable to put into words. Disruptive behaviour can evoke acute distress for the parent or carer and lead to further conflict in the family, as they all find it difficult to understand each other.

Family art therapy uses ‘creating art together’ as a transformative process. Art therapy allows the child space and time to explore their feelings through the art and gain understanding of these feelings.

With the support of the therapist and the help of the parent/carer, the child can learn to regulate their own emotional responses and to build resilience.

With the right support, parents and carers can become aware of how their children’s behaviours are affecting them and find strategies to respond appropriately and safely.

Art therapy aims to stem ineffective communication and increase relational understanding, leading to a stable routine and home environment.

Art psychotherapy can also be called art therapy. It is about using art materials to show yourself and other people how you are feeling when you find it hard to do so in words.

It takes place in a room with a variety of art materials and a specially trained, qualified art therapist. Your art therapist will help you understand your feelings and assist you to help yourself.

The adults in a child’s life - parents, carers and extended adult family members - represent the major influences on the child, modelling a pattern of behaviour and interaction with others, which the child often imitates. The child learns from this relational experience.

In the art therapy session, parents and carers will have opportunities to reflect on the different roles they inhabit and the way they interact and model to their children.

Through the therapeutic relationship, parent and child together will get to experience different approaches and strategies by which to interact in positive and healthy ways, with understanding and respect.

With increased mindfulness gained through the therapeutic learning, the parent/carer is able to nurture their child’s mental and emotional wellbeing and understanding of their world.

The parent’s role is therefore vital in helping the children express, explore and regulate their feelings, develop resilience and nurture positive relationships.

Using the various art materials to facilitate symbolic expression and storytelling, your child will be given time to create a variety of different images and their sessions could potentially include activities such as working with clay, painting, making a mask, creating a visual journal, assembling a collage or primarily exploring sensory soothing stimuli such as magnetic sand.

All of these can symbolically or metaphorically carry different meanings, in order to explore their experiences, achieve greater self-awareness and work towards change.

You can tell people you are in Art Psychotherapy if you want to. We can help you find ways to say what you want to tell to them.

If your referral is through a professional third party, the professionals involved in your care will be aware. As professionals together, we may all meet to make sure we are all working together to help you and your family.

Your child’s art psychotherapy sessions are private and confidential otherwise, unless you or someone you know is unsafe and have been or are at risk of being hurt. We will talk to you about this when we meet.

When it comes to the artwork, it is yours and your child’s creations and always belongs to you and them.

Some people choose to keep the finished artwork, while others may decide to leave it in the care of the art therapist.

Our code of ethics specifies that an art therapist must safeguard a client’s art creations in the same way we would protect any other privileged information. Therefore, your art therapist will not show the artwork to anyone without your permission.