I have always loved the arts. I received my BA (Hons) in Drama and Theatre Studies from the University of the West of England, and later received my Postgraduate Certificate in Therapeutic Arts and Diploma in Children’s Counselling from The Institute for Arts In Therapy and Education (IATE), a sister organisation of the internationally acclaimed Centre for Child Mental Health. Learning is lifelong, and I am currently studying for a Diploma in Parent/Child therapy. My interest in working with parents/carers and children stems from the fact that their relationship is a critical factor in how the child develops as an individual and in who they turn out to be. The outcomes I seek to facilitate in my work are positive and strengthened bonds between parents/carers and their children.

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Supplementing my skills as an arts therapist, I can draw on eight years’ experience as an English language teacher, during which time I worked in China, Spain, and the UK, teaching children, adolescents, and adults from a variety of cultural and professional backgrounds. This experience of teaching and engaging students from varied backgrounds has instilled in me a high degree of empathy and understanding. This has allowed me to build relationships more effectively, strengthened my interpersonal and communication skills as a supplementing feature to my skills as a counsellor.

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I use an integrative therapeutic model. This means it incorporates a variety of child development theories, psychoeducation and neuroscience. These elements provide the theoretical framework for the work I do with the children and young people and their parents/carers.

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why arts therapy?

1) Sometimes talking is not enough.

2) Using the arts can help develop the right hemisphere of the brain and integrate it with the analytical and reasoning left hemisphere.

3) Imagery can heal and act as a safe container for our feelings.

4) The arts can help you rehearse the impossible, playing out something you may not feel you can do in reality. The arts give you permission to see what the impossible would be like in a safe and contained way.

5) Moving from one art form to another can deepen the dialogue between the therapist and client. Art can often help us get to the core of what you are feeling more quickly than talking.

6) The arts can help us to convey meaning by externalising the internal.

7) The arts can reveal the hidden, lost, and neglected parts of the self.