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Consider for a moment what is currently keeping you awake at night. Is it some tension with a work colleague? Perhaps it is your lifelong habit of procrastinating that keeps you up all hours feeling guilty. You may be feeling torn over an important decision you have to make or perhaps you are facing the fears of recently being diagnosed with a serious illness.

These are all issues that commonly may be helped by seeing a therapist or counsellor. Did you know that using art in the counselling process actually uses a different part of the brain to solve problems? As a non verbal means of expression, art making can be greatly cathartic while offering a wealth of previously ‘unseen’ wisdom surrounding your issue.

This is a 1 day intensive workshop designed to familiarise participants with the benefits of art therapy and how it works.

You might have seen the posters at Integrative Health Solutions and wondered, ‘what’s it all about?’

Sometimes called art psychotherapy, art therapy is a type of counselling that uses art mediums as a primary tool of communication to help people explore their thoughts feelings and emotions about many of life’s challenges.

Art therapy encourages self-discovery and emotional growth through the use of art materials and discussion with your therapist and group members.

This type of therapy can be a powerful means of self development for people of all ages. It can be especially useful for those who find it difficult to verbalise their feelings.

Much of our behaviour and many of our decisions in life are motivated by the unconscious part of our minds. Using the right hemisphere of our brains to express what our life experiences are like instead of using words and language that is usually controlled by the left brain, is a great way to gain deeper insight into ourselves. This can lead to long term change and resolution to life’s problems and challenges.

Art therapy is a multi-part process, involving setting an intention or goal, the creation of art, the use of multiple art mediums and the very personal discovery of its meaning to you.

Participants in this group will be encouraged to visualise, and then create symbolic.artistic representations of the thoughts and emotions around a personal issue. The resulting artwork will then be reviewed, and interpreted in private by the art-maker only. While you won’t have to share anything with the group that you don’t want to, you will find that listening to others can be greatly beneficial in helping to develop your own self discovery.

The workshop will cover the following areas:

Expressing your issue/problem using a variety of art mediums

Learning how to interpret your artwork in order to gain a greater depth of insight into your problem or issue, the reasons behind it and possible blockages to progress

Sharing the insights you have gained that might be helpful for others (optional)

Using new insights gained through artwork to conceptualise a pathway towards resolving your issue or problem

Using art mediums to create a token of committed change/transformation

Supporting fellow participants in their commitments to change

Making new human connections and connection to nature

Benefits of group work…

There are many benefits to joining a group which you can read about in detail here.

This 1 day course is designed to connect you in a supportive environment to others who are currently facing a wide range of health or personal issues (either physical, mental or interpersonal).

You don’t need to have any artistic ability to do art therapy. Art therapy is for people at all experience levels. The aim is not to create brilliant or beautiful artwork or learn how to be a good artist. Skill is irrelevant as you will mainly be using the art materials to express what is happening for you in by means of a non-verbal communication method. While the end product always has relevance and importance, the action of engaging in the art-making process is the main focus. The workshop is in no way competitive and does not celebrate outcomes on the basis of merit. Here are some examples of artwork done by clients in therapy with descriptions of context below:

Clockwise from top left:

1. A 36 year old woman’s expression of her struggle with being bullied by her best friend
2. A 40 year old woman’s anger over receiving a cancer diagnosis
3. A 39 year old man’s worries about financial strain
4. A 50 year old woman’s expression of her lack of motivation in her job.

As you can see, these are all very abstract images and far from anything that people other than the art maker would look at for the sake of aesthetic worth. There is no need at all to feel worried about the fact that your drawing skills only extend as far as drawing stick figures and shapes. It’s the meaning that you attribute to your lines and squiggles that is important.

Here are some photos of a similar recent workshop!