Thank you for joining me here…
A very warm welcome to The Small Studio. Thank you for taking the time, to visit.
My name is Sarah Edmonds, and I am a qualified Art Psychotherapist.
I strive to provide a safe, gentle and nourishing space for grief, and all of it’s associated losses, to be deeply acknowledged, held and grown around. By working with professionalism, integrity and humility combined a genuine curiosity, I aim to engender both healing and hope.
My therapeutic approach is profoundly relational. No two people are the same so no one way of working will suit everyone. Being mindful and sensitive to this, is very important to me and to my practice.
I believe we are all curated by the environments and experiences that we have been exposed to, and positively or negatively, these factors imprint our life’s ongoing narrative.
At any age, revisiting these experiences can be an enlightening way to facilitate self-reflection and personal awareness. Working psychodynamically, unconscious material can be expressed non-verbally, through the artwork.
This can then be viewed together through the triangular relationship that is Art Therapy – the connection and shared viewing of the art, between the client and their therapist.
Working with art materials is often most useful when words may fail…
- I am registered with the HCPC – (Health and Care Professions Council) hcpc-uk.org/ and abide by their code of ethics
- I am also a full member of BAAT – (British Association of Art Therapists). https://www.baat.org/
- I hold my own professional indemnity insurance, participate in regular supervision and engage with ongoing continuing professional development opportunities
Please read on, for more information about Art Therapy and my therapeutic approach
The British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT) has described Art Therapy as “a form of psychotherapy that uses visual and tactile media as a means of self-expression and communication. Art Therapists aim to support people of all ages and abilities and at all stages of life, to discover an outlet for often complex and confusing feelings, and foster self-awareness and growth.” More information is available from the BAAT website: https://baat.org/art-therapy/
Art Therapy uses both verbal and non-verbal communication, through the creative use of art materials and shared narratives. Creating and using artwork can support the expressions of feelings that may be subconsciously held within the body. Expressing these feelings and reflecting upon them with a therapist, can develop a growing personal awareness, which can enable you to begin to let go of painful, troublesome or ingrained feelings and/or patterns, from the past or from the present.
Art Psychotherapy offers the opportunity to work in a non-judgmental compassionate manner that is both safe and confidential. A sense of safety is achieved through a private consulting studio space and a regularity and reliability to the sessions, space and therapist. Sessions are held weekly and are 50 minutes in duration.
Being ‘good at art’, is in no way a requirement for choosing Art Therapy. A willingness to engage with the materials and an openness and curiosity to witness what unfolds, are important aspects of the therapeutic journey. The process of creating the artworks are often much more insightful than the finished pieces of artwork as they can be used as a window into the client’s subconscious state of being, as a reflection of their inner world.
The practice of creating art, offers a safe outlet to narrate what is often verbally inexpressible.
By allowing clients to view their subconsciously held images from a different perspective, offers up a chance to discuss and reflect upon these with the therapist. The results are often, what may have become conscious in the process of creating. A wondering of what this may reveal, can then ensue.
The two significant parts of Art Therapy is the combination of the art making process along with the therapeutic relationship itself.
I practice from a number of locations; I maintain a private and comfortable art studio in High Barnet, North West London, I offer sessions in Marylebone from a beautiful therapy space and I practice environmental art therapy in a magnificent woodland environment, on the borders of Hertfordshire and London. I can also offer support online, though Zoom. If you are seeking support on behalf of a child or young person, then please note, I will only see them at their school.
The Small Studio, Art Studio in High Barnet, North West London
Queen Anne Street – Marylebone, W1G 9JB
Aldenham Country Park, Hertfordshire, where I offer Environmental Art Therapy
What to expect
I have written and illustrated a guide to the therapeutic journey. You can find more about this here. After the initial contact has been made, we can arrange a mutually convenient time to hold a thirty-minute ‘Discovery Call’ over Zoom. This is free of charge. In this call you can outline the overall reason for seeking therapy, and we can talk through some of the practical considerations to ensure our availabilities align. Once this call has taken place, we can then book the ‘Therapeutic Assessment’ session. This is an opportunity for us to consider in more depth what may have brought you to therapy, what you are hoping to achieve and for us to decide if we can work together. If, after this session it is decided that Art Therapy may not be what you are looking for, I will endeavour to refer you to another suitable professional.
In my experience six weeks is a sufficient amount of time, to decide if we can form a trusted therapeutic relationship together. We can and will, review the work and your progress within this timeframe. It’s important to remember it can take time for an unguarded professional relationship to grow. In order to honour the therapeutic alliance that we will be working towards, it’s of value to acknowledge the time this may take. Allowing yourself adequate space to process the material that is being brought, is another beneficial part of the journey.
Giving yourself a proper opportunity to work with the art materials, is also something else to consider and if at the end of our six weeks together, you don’t feel like working in art therapy is best suited to you, I will endeavour to refer you to a colleague who may work within an alternative discipline of psychotherapy. If this is the case, we will spend some time reflecting on this together before we say goodbye.
What to expect each session:
Once we have completed the ‘Therapeutic Assessment’ session and you have decided that you would like to begin art therapy, we can then share our first session together.
Your first session and subsequent sessions may follow the structure below:
Brief Discussion/Check In – this could include how you are currently feeling or any issues or thoughts that have arisen since your last session or since your ‘Therapeutic Assessment’. This may be verbally narrated or partly shared through a check-in object and/or image.
The Art Making – at this stage of the session, you are invited to spend some time creating a piece of art. The focus at this stage, is more on the creative process rather than on the aesthetics of the finished piece. During this time, I may simply observe the creative activity without interference of judgment, or I may work alongside you, only if you have invited the me to do so.
Post-Art Making and Reflections – after the artwork is finished or a natural resting point arrives, comes the important part of being able to reflect together upon the artwork. My role here is to facilitate the wondering upon what the images may mean or hold for you.
It is important to note that sometimes there is more talking and less art making and sometimes the reverse can be true. Art therapy offers us the opportunities to harness spontaneity and to adapt to changing needs within each session. Sometimes there is a resistance to making art in the beginning, which then often shifts the structure of the sessions, until the materials can be engaged with. Not everyone is ready to use the art materials straight away. Some people prefer to create art in silence and others prefer to reflect and narrate throughout the creative process.
Since artworks do not have fixed meanings, they offer us a chance to see what they may have brought in terms of thoughts or feelings in that moment. With my help and gentle support, I can assist you in noticing what might be relevant in the content of the work and therefore, useful for us to think about, explore and hold together.
At the end of each session, I will encourage you to check-out of the space, this may be a reflection on what we have been working on, an affirmation or a comment of hope as to what the following week may provide for you. The closing and goodbye from each session is a chance to offer a safe transition from the therapeutic space, back into everyday life.
Your Artwork
I will store your artwork securely for you from week to week. This is important for a number of reasons, as images can be imbued with very powerful meanings, it is considered best practice to hold these safely, in your absence. It can also be incredibly useful to regularly review the artworks that have been created. As we come towards the end of our work together, you can decide, what you would like to do with your work. I will of course support you with this part of your journey.
Ending therapy
When you begin to feel better, we can begin to think about the ending to our therapeutic work together. Working on how we say goodbye to each other, and in what timeframe, is another important aspect to our work.