Thursdays at 1:30pm • Studio Art Therapy Group for Refugee/Asylum Seeker Women

The Art Psychotherapy Process:
Art as therapy was first recognised as an effective response to trauma both emotional and physical when wounded soldiers returning from the 2nd World War who couldn’t put into words their distress, started to draw and paint as a form of relaxation and found their symptoms of shellshock (now PTSD) reduced in intensity and duration.

Art Psychotherapy is a recognised form of therapy within the NHS and included in NICE Guidelines. For those who either feel it impossible to find words to adequately express traumatic experiences or for those whose first language may not be English, visual expression can convey profound emotion in a safe and contained manner. It may also not feel safe enough to speak about profoundly traumatising experiences and art can offer a safe, containing alternative

The Benefits of Being in a Group:
For some, one to one therapy would be too intense and intimidating. Women coming together in a group, gradually sharing experiences with one another can be therapeutically beneficial on a number of levels. Isolation with a propensity to ruminate on repeated patterns of thought and remembering can be self-perpetuating and self-destructive. To participate with others in a safe, socialised environment allows for a feeling of mutuality to develop decreasing a sense of isolation and alienation from others. And not least through creative involvement there can be a sense of pleasure and aliveness in the activity itself. Women can also feel isolated culturally – to share experiences with women from different cultures can also reveal similarities in emotional life that we all share rather than remaining separated by particular cultural circumstances or events.

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="yes" overflow="visible"][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="no" center_content="no" min_height="none"]

 

Sessions Facilitated by: Co-therapists – Jackie Staite & Frances Walton

Jackie Staite & Frances Walton are BAAT and HCPC registered Art Psychotherapists, who have extensive experience of working in NHS mental health services, charitable organisations and therapeutic communities in the independent sector.

[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]