Trainings
I have run many trainings for different organisations. This is usually an interesting challenge as the workshop needs to be oriented towards the needs of the organisation as well as the client group they are working with.
Art therapy training is a two or three year Masters degree and clearly any training days/weeks are not an art therapy training per se. However many counsellors and therapists are seeing the benefits of image-making with clients and would like some guidelines about the practice. Other allied health professionals would like to add to their therapeutic tool kits and want to learn basic principles.
Hence art therapy history, making images, learning about symbolism and interpretation, improving visual literacy, developing versatility and confidence with a variety of art materials can all be part of the training mix. As a trained educator I enjoy creating an art therapy training programmes for personal and professional development.
Previous training organisations include:
- Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy Education – visiting tutor to run the Creative Weekends for first year students as well as the MA in Family and Child Therapy.
- Hospital of St. John and St. Elizabeth - Introduction to Art Therapy for Midwives and Post-natal group.
- James Wigg GP Practice – Presentation on Art Therapy and Mental Health for medical team and practice management.
- London Borough of Bromley - A six week programme (2 hours per week) for cross-curriculum teachers from primary and secondary schools in the borough. The programme focussed on how images made in lessons can be used to engender social skills, increased respect, personal reflection, communication and self-expression.
- NHS GP Practice in East London – lunchtime CPD meeting on art therapy.
- Synthesis Psychotherapy School, Athens, Greece - A five day programme for trainee and trained psychotherapists on using image-making with clients. The second visit for 4 days included some personal process work in art therapy and took the initial training to a deeper level. [See Special Report below]
- Training for Homeopaths (in UK, Germany, India, Japan) - Homeopaths have shown an interest in art therapy for a number of years. Homeopaths are not trained to use image-making with clients however they find it a useful way to develop a conversation with their patients in order to identify or exclude possible remedies. I was invited to present art therapy at various International Conferences for homeopaths.
- Ubelele Psychotherapy Centre, South Africa – Visiting tutor for art therapists. One Day training.
- University College Hospital - Three hour workshop for medical students about to embark on charitable work in a special needs centre in rural Ghana.
- University of Surrey – Presentation on art therapy to PhD. Psychology Department students.
In 2006 I was invited by Dr. Panos Asimakis to run a 5-day training for the Synthesis Psychotherapy Training School in Greece. What I found particularly interesting was working with and through a translator. As a picture can say a thousand words, the translator also has to convey a sense of the unspoken, while being accurate as to what is being expressed in words. This happens through timing, intonation, sensitivity and care, which Yianna the translator excelled in.
There were a couple of participants who were so facially expressive that I imagined I understood everything that was said prior to Yianna’s translation, and there were those who were nervous about speaking in any language…