Your Therapeutic Journey
I really understand that starting therapy can be a big moment.
Taking the first steps in reaching out, takes courage. Sometimes making the primary call, or sending the initial email, is the biggest step on the path. You may have waited for months, years or even decades, so feeling any mixture of nerves or anticipation, is natural.
From our first interactions together, I aim to put you at complete ease. Helping you to reflect upon how you see yourself, how you see the world and your place within it, in a safely contained space, is part of my role.
To support you in your decision to begin therapy with me, I have described the therapeutic journey from our first hello to our last goodbye. This allows me to practice with complete integrity and offers you some realistic expectations about what to expect.
Initial Inquiry
This can take real bravery. This is where you can contact me, to let me know you are interested in working together in art therapy.
Discovery Call
The ‘Discovery Call’ is a thirty-minute free of charge Zoom call. It is an opportunity for you to meet with me, to learn a little more about art therapy and for you to briefly outline the reasons that you are seeking support. It’s also a space to share your hopes for therapy. Although it will only be a short call, there will also be time for you to ask me any questions that you may have.
‘Therapeutic Assessment’ Session
The ‘Therapeutic Assessment’ session will serve as a space for me to learn more about you and the information needed, in order for our work to be set up both safely and ethically. The ‘Therapeutic Assessment’ can take place either in person, or online and will last for up to ninety minutes. The cost of this session is £120 and is due prior to, or immediately after the session.
Initial Art Therapy 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. We will begin in our first session by spending some time going through the ‘Art Psychotherapy – Working Alliance and Informed Consent Contract’. We can then sign this document together. A copy of this, can be found here.
After the ‘Working Alliance and Informed Consent Contract’ is signed, the rest of 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.
Five Further Art Therapy Sessions
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.
Further Art Therapy Sessions
If at this stage of the journey you still feel comfortable in using the art materials and in what we are building together, the sessions and the work can continue on an ongoing basis, with regular reviews to ensure that the sessions and the space, continue to meet your needs.
Art Therapy Sessions – Working towards an Ending
We will regularly review and reflect upon your progress, at all stages in our work together. When you are beginning to feel better you can choose when your therapy ends, and I would encourage you to do so. However, I would ask that we think carefully about this together. Having a sudden ending is often inadvisable; planning and working on how we will say goodbye to each other, is so important.
Ending Art Therapy Session
This is our opportunity to put into practice, what we have planned together. As a moment to acknowledge all you have achieved, to say goodbye to our work, to your artwork (if necessary) and to say goodbye to each other.