Therapy for Children & Young People
Our Therapy Team includes experienced practitioners who are able to work with children and young people of all ages, including children and young people who are difficult to engage, and may require therapy over a period of time using a range of therapeutic modalities. Individual therapy sessions can focus on:
- Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Dissociative Disorders, Somatic Disorders, Eating Disorders, and Gender Identity.
- Substance related issues
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Conduct Disorder (CD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)
- Family dynamics
- Skill building
- Experiences of sexual abuse and/or sexual assault
- Phase of life challenges, such as living alone, social stressors and other transitions.
- Behavioural Issues including self-harm, drug and alcohol use and behaviours that lead to contact with the criminal justice system, including sexually inappropriate behaviour and/or offending behaviour
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)/Complex Behavioural Issues
- Mental Health including Depression, Anxiety, Personality Disorders, Bipolar Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD),
- Complex behavioural Issues, including sexualised behaviours and self-injurious behaviours, Mental Health Issues, Trauma/PTSD issues in people with an intellectual disability.
Art Therapy is now available in NSW
Our NSW office is now offering Art Therapy as one of our services.
WHAT IS ART THERAPY?
Art Therapy (also known as Creative Arts Therapy, or Art Psychotherapy), is an experiential form of psychotherapy. Art Therapy uses creative arts elements and materials, as well as the process of making art, to facilitate the exploration of feelings and issues, within the context of a therapeutic relationship.
Art therapy can be directive, focusing on a particular theme or issues, or even using a structured art invitation, or alternatively it can be non-directive, encouraging participants to make their own choices about materials and processes, and explore the content generated within the experience of artmaking.
Creative processes used during an Art Therapy session can include drawing, painting, collage, sculpting, working with clay or sand, working with soft fibres such as fabric and yarn, using craft techniques and found objects, using poetry and writing, as well as incorporating elements of play, drama, dance and movement.
WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM ART THERAPY?
People of all ages can benefit from Art Therapy. Engaging with Art Therapy can be particularly beneficial for people with disability and neurodiversity, and for people experiencing the impacts of trauma and abuse, family and relationship issues, stress and medical issues, grief and loss, mental health conditions, and those undergoing life transitions.
Art Therapy can be an effective therapy for exploring difficult or complex problems, and for processing intense or overwhelming experiences, which can be difficult to explain or make sense of in words.
Art Therapy can also have a powerful role in facilitating self-expression, as it provides the space and materials to communicate in ways beyond words. Because of this, Art Therapy can provide a valuable therapeutic space for participants who are non-verbal in their communication style, or who are in the process of developing their verbal communication.
Art Therapy can be delivered one-on-one with individuals, in group therapy settings, and with dyads (such as parent and child), or with small family groups.
Often, Art Therapy is found to be an accessible form of therapy for children and adolescents as they may find it easier to approach issues indirectly through artmaking. Young people are also very likely to value the sense of agency offered by the Art Therapy approach, which meets a participant where they are at, and allows them to make their own choices about when they are ready to share the content of their process during sessions.
WHAT CHANGES CAN I HOPE TO SEE FROM ART THERAPY?
Art Therapy has been found to support wellbeing and psychological and physical health in a range of different ways.
Art Therapy can reduce stress, anxiety, and agitation, and can teach valuable distress tolerance skills to participants. Often the experiential physical, sensory, aesthetic, and rhythmic processes involved in engaging with artmaking within a safe and therapeutic space can be soothing or regulating emotionally and for nervous system.
Art Therapy is a relational therapy. Exploring ways of being present and authentic both within the creative artmaking process and in the therapeutic relationship with the Art Therapist, has been found to increase connection, improve confidence, and has the potential to develop specific relationship skills.
Art Therapy is an effective form of psychotherapy for processing traumatic experiences, including complex developmental trauma and attachment trauma. Participants can often express traumatic experiences within artmaking which they may not be able to articulate with words. The use of artmaking in therapy can also act as a generative process, bringing important issues to the attention of the participant within their own arts-based language. Meaning can then be made via a continued process of artmaking, and explored verbally with the Art Therapist at the participant’s own pace. These processes can promote healing and improve the participant’s capacity to recognise and express their own emotions and experiences.
Participants may engage with Art Therapy as a sole therapy modality, or may have other therapies that they are attending as well.
WHAT DOES A TYPICAL ART THERAPY SESSION LOOK LIKE?
How Art Therapy appears may vary depending on an individual’s or group’s specific needs, or issues, however, typically an Art Therapy session will have three main stages:
- Begin with a verbal check-in and discussion of any issues (which could include a short warm-up art activity),
- Progress to the artmaking process. This can often be quite a focused and immersive experience, and there might be little or no verbal interaction during this time. The materials used and processes engaged with will depend on whether the session is directive or non-directive in nature, and what materials are culturally appropriate and therapeutically beneficial. Usually, the Art Therapist will let the participant know when they have a few minutes left of art-making time.
- There will often be some time to look together at the artwork created, to reflect on the experience of making, and to discuss any themes or issues that have arisen.
WHAT KIND OF TRAINING DO ART THERAPISTS HAVE?
Registered Art Therapists in Australia have training in creative arts, as well as a post-graduate degree in a specific form of Creative Arts Therapy, which includes training in psychological and psychotherapeutic methods, and a minimum of 750 hours of supervised clinical placement.
WHERE DO ART THERAPISTS WORK?
Art Therapists work in a wide range of settings, including within disability and mental health services, perinatal and maternal health settings, early childhood contexts, primary schools and high schools, hospital inpatient and outpatient programs (within medical wards, psychiatric facilities, and palliative care), community organisations, correctional facilities, with cultural community groups, with refugees and asylum seekers, and within aged care settings.