Art Therapy is a form of Counselling using a combination of art materials, art processes and traditional Counselling practices to achieve therapeutic goals. Art Therapy is a process.

While results are important and anticipated, your growth cannot be hurried or pushed along. Initial sessions are about getting to know you, your goals, concerns and the materials you would like to work with as well as an opportunity for you to become comfortable with your therapist.

Some people demonstrate change quickly and others take longer. Depending on each individual and their needs, the number of sessions required and the frequency of sessions will vary from person to person.

Before the Art Therapy Session Preparing yourself:

Art Therapy is not “art classes”. You are not going to be judged, graded, or criticised about the artwork you produce. Art Therapy is more about the process of expressing yourself through art materials and processes than the outcome. If you have had negative feedback about your creativity in the past, your therapist will be there in a non-judgemental way to help you through that and build your confidence.

Everyone’s goals for coming to Art Therapy are different; some may want to build artistic skill while working on self-confidence, anxiety, or depression whilst others may just need to scribble with a crayon or get messy with finger paint whilst working through anger or trauma. At all times, your therapist will be journeying with you in a supportive, non-judgemental way.

Clothing: Aprons are provided, however it’s preferable to dress so you do not have to worry about getting paint etc. on clothes and shoes. We want you to feel as relaxed as possible. Please tie long hair back as long hair and long, loose and frilly sleeves are prone to getting paint etc on them.

Bathroom: There is a wheelchair accessible bathroom available for clients to use.

Food: We recommend having something light to eat before your session so you are not distracted from your Art Therapy by hunger pains.

When you arrive: Please take a seat in the waiting room and your therapist will call you into the art room when it is time for your appointment. At your first session, the therapist will greet you, invite you into the art room to look around at the materials available and make yourself familiar the new setting, and then sit down with you and invite you to participate in a “get to know you” activity with the use of art materials. This session is about your therapist getting to know you and you getting to know them, finding out what your goals for Art Therapy are, going through your intake forms with you, and finding out what concerns or issues you would like to work on.

If you have difficulty leaving your home, have time constraints, or live far away: While we encourage face-to-face sessions, we understand that it may be difficult for some clients to leave home for varies reasons such as Social Anxiety for example. We also understand that clients are working and have constraints on their time, or may live far from the practice and are not able to drive here. In this instance, we offer online Video Telehealth Art Therapy sessions. First online sessions are about getting to know you, what art materials you have at home, and you getting to know your therapist. If you don’t have many art materials at home and are on NDIS, your therapist can make a request for funding of a recommended list of art materials for you to use at home. A similar list can be created for self-funded clients, but it would be up to them to purchase what they choose to and then claim for NDIS reimbursement.

During the Art Therapy Session Support Workers can wait in the waiting room: If a Support Worker has brought you to a session, they are welcome to wait in our waiting room. At some sessions, an adult client may feel that they would like their Support Worker in the art room with them. Art Therapy sessions are client-led and, if that is what you choose on that day, that is fine. All the therapist asks is that the Support Worker refrain from trying to lead the session.

What happens in the art therapy room: You will be free to explore and create. The therapist will work hard to build a relationship of trust with you by setting healthy boundaries and limitations, and also creating a space of permissiveness and freedom. Client-centred Art Therapy is founded on the belief that people can direct their own healing if given the right therapeutic conditions. This means that you will be offered suggestions, invited to participate in a variety of art processes, but guided by yourself in your choice of art making. That is, clients choose what they want to make and how. This way, you work on what you need to work on, what is bothering you the most, or what needs you need met (eg. sensory needs).

The therapist will work very closely with you to create an environment of deep acceptance while helping you deepen your understanding of any issues that are bothering you, meet your needs, help you to manage big feelings, and help you reach therapeutic goals. If you have difficulty or anxiety around trying new things, your therapist will invite you to try out a new art material you have not used or considered before by basically “playing” with it and seeing what it can do in a non-judgemental environment. Therapeutic goals are still being achieved in the simplest of art processes. For example, underlying “playing” with new art materials, skills are being built, self-confidence is increased, resilience to trying new things is strengthened, and anxiety is decreased whilst having the freedom to “play” without judgement in a supportive environment etc.

Talking: At times you may feel like mindfully concentrating on your art making without talking. At other times, you may feel just like talking through issues and not making art at a session. These are your sessions and the therapist will accommodate what you need for that session.

Length of sessions: 50 minutes contact time and 10 minutes will be allocated to administrative tasks.

If your need to leave the art room early: Sometimes you may feel that your art work is complete or you have worked on something that has made you feel tired either emotionally or physically and may want to leave the art therapy room early. On the occasion that you would like to end the therapy session early, it is important to trust that important therapeutic work is still being done. In these cases, it is far more therapeutically beneficial that you choose to end the session early than to be forced to stay in the session for its duration. This also builds the life-skill of learning to be able to express your needs to others.

After the Art Therapy Session: When you produce art work during an art therapy session, this is part of your therapeutic process, so it is important that you do not evaluate it as “good” or “bad”. There is no wrong or right way to do an art process; what you make is an expression of what you needed to say creatively at that time. If you struggle with perfectionism, remember that getting to know art materials and how they work takes practice. The therapist will encourage you to be patient and compassionate with yourself about whatever you have created and also invite you to explore what is behind your perfectionistic thinking when you feel ready to explore it.

Confidentiality: This is your special time. The information that you share with your therapist is between you and them and your therapist will not share that with others unless they feel you may be in danger of harming yourself or others. Your therapist will always check in with you first before breaking confidentially for this reason. Your therapist is mindful that clients may have past traumas and tendency to self-harm so will check in with your self-safety if you suffer bouts of depression or have been triggered by something before coming to a session or during a session, for example.

Caring for You: Each art therapy session is a personal experience for each client that can impact them differently each time. Like all forms of therapy, art therapy can be emotionally draining, especially if you have difficulty in maintaining focus for periods of time, are perfectionistic, or if you have physical disabilities that drawing, for example, has made your hand tired. You may feel tired or emotional as you process what you have worked on if it has unearthed some hidden issues that you may have buried previously. Your therapist will suggest strategies to help manage these big feelings. At other times, you may bounce out of the room excited about an emotional breakthrough or what you have just made! Give yourself compassion and time and just embrace you for who you are at that time.