|
Art Therapy
We offer a professional counseling / counselling
framework for working through art therapy issues for / with children and women
(Heidi does not work with men individually).
Therapeutic art techniques and exercises for kids and for women help them to be
creative and expressive of their emotional struggles in the pictures and other
art therapy mediums (clay, etc.) that they work with. The therapeutic benefits of art
therapy, art as therapy, or art and therapy are many. It is a very natural
process for any child, and most women, to enter into.
Explanation
Art Therapy is a form of therapy that uses art as a means of expressing and
working through emotional difficulties.
·
Allows for the expression and processing of emotions that may be difficult to
put into words.
·
Gives opportunity for the externalization of emotional issues encouraging
clients to see other alternatives.
·
Makes verbal expression more acccesible
·
Provides the client with insight into the issues they are dealing with so they
can move forward in their healing.
·
Helps bring change to destructive patterns of behavior
Children
Children do not
possess the same ability to verbalize difficult feelings and experiences that
adults do.
Because of their
difficulty with verbal expression and abstract thinking, talk therapy is often
very limited with children. Art therapy gives children the opportunity to
express and resolve their issues and behavioural difficulties.
Art therapy is
helpful for children dealing with a variety of issues including:
-
Grief and loss
-
Trauma
-
Separation and
divorce
-
Physical and
sexual abuse
-
Anger
management
-
Poor self
esteem
Women
Adults also
benefit from an art based therapy. No previous art experience is necessary.
Art provides a safe medium and allows for new insights to emerge in order to
process life experiences.
Art therapy can
help individuals who are feeling stuck in dealing with :
-
Loss and grief
-
Relational
difficulties
-
Abuse
-
Stress
management
-
Depression
Our goal is to help your child or you (Heidi does
not work with men individually) sort out & work through any relevant past or present
hurts (& the resulting influences on your child's or your life & relationships), & any communication, power struggle or intimacy
issues that may be hindering them or you.
Phone counseling / counselling,
Online audio / video, email
or LiveType Chat Instant Messaging etherapy sessions are available for
working through issues as an alternative to the standard
Office appointments we
also offer
(see
Online & Phone Counseling).
These are obviously not the best formats for art therapy, but where
there are no local art therapists available & parents / women are still
interested in trying to work in conjunction with an art therapist to try
to help their child(ren) / themselves express & process their feelings /
struggles, it is do-able. Where possible,
online audio video would be the best alternate medium for this,
although email attachments of scanned or digital photos of art, or even
faxes, would make this possible. It must be understood though, that this
is a somewhat more limited & limiting format than an office appointment for art therapy would be.
In our
Resources section
we have a number of
links, books, articles, essays & seminar notes that may be of help as a
supplement to counseling.
Context of
our Value Base
Our counseling services are available
to both Christians & non-Christians alike (as per our
Mission Statement), & for both
we integrate our spirituality only to the degree that people request & are
comfortable with.
We are respectful
of others being in somewhat different places than we are in the life journeys we walk out, & are also aware that many have been hurt or offended
religiously by others in their past.
We do not try to force our Christian value base or
beliefs on others, although it can at times affect what goals we feel
comfortable about being able to work on, because
there are a handful of moral & spiritual issues where we will not be
comfortable in counseling contrary to our beliefs. These issues generally
do not tend to come up in most people's counseling though.
We come from a spiritual, biblical
perspective so when requested we also function as pastoral counselors / counsellors
in addition to being professional counselors, marriage & family therapists.
We are very comfortable with prayer & the inclusion
of scripture where this is requested & desired,
yet even
then it will be integrated only
to the degree that people are
comfortable with.
Who we are : MSW MDiv 20+ years counseling experience
Please feel free to book
Online & Phone counseling appointments as an alternative to our Office
appointments
Back
to top
|
