Art Therapy Foundation Certificate

Now that I have completed the Art Therapy Week, I thought I would write a blog post to explain how I feel upon completion. I have chosen not to post how I felt after each day, as some of the elements I wrote were personal. However, I did keep a diary and this will be available upon request.

The final day of the Art Therapy week was the 29th of January. This was a day full of mixed emotions, anticipation for the ending of the day, exhilaration for the fact that I would have completed something I found quite intense throughout, and sadness at the fact that I would be saying goodbye to people whom I have become quite close friends with throughout the week.

The course itself was intriguing, the lectures in the morning sessions were sometimes heavy, but were filled with interesting case studies that supported the client group that we were discussing. The afternoon sessions enabled us to create artwork based on a word or a theme that was evident throughout the day. It was in fact these sessions that allowed us to experience the action of Art Therapy, how truly making art can change the way we feel and reveal hidden things that lie beneath our exterior.

I did feel that throughout these sessions I learnt more and more about myself, and how this method of therapy can truly change a persons happiness. Also participating in the sharing circle has massively increased my self confidence and self acceptance. During the afternoon we got a chance to look back at all of our work and review our most significant piece. This was an effective way of almost obtaining closure for the whole week, and it was really nice to hear everyone’s different views of their own progression. I hope to stay in contact with the people that I met during this course, as we may meet again in the future. We also had chance to ask the leading Art Therapist/ lecturer some questions about the MA Course. The answers to these questions were not shocking but somewhat daunting. I have come to realise that even though this Art Therapy week has proven to me that I want to follow this route in the future, and work within the Art Therapist profession. I need to acquire more experience working with different client groups and different types of people. This is my current plan for the future, to volunteer at daycare center’s and within schools that currently employ some form of therapy.

Here are a couple of examples of the work I created during the afternoon sessions:

Receiving the Art Therapy Foundation Welcome Pack

As I have mentioned in a previous blog post I am currently waiting to start an Art Therapy Foundation Course here at the University of Chester. I am very excited to embark on this course and learn more about myself and the profession of Art Therapy. With just a few weeks to go before the first day I have received a ‘Welcome Pack’. This welcome pack contained journal articles that features case studies and a bit more information about the practices of Art Therapy.

As you can see from these images I have began to interact and read the articles that I have received. The articles are really informative and have given me a bit more of a sense of what Art Therapy is about and how it can truly help someone.

Reading all of this material has only increased my enthusiasm and excitement for the course to start in the next few weeks. I plan to learn and soak up all of the information that is distributed throughout the Art Therapy Foundation Course.

Art Therapy Foundation Week – University of Chester

As I previously mentioned in my last Careers and Ambition post, I was looking to attend an Art Therapy Foundation course of some sort. After some thorough research I discovered that the University of Chester are running an Art Therapy Foundation Week commencing the 25th of January until the 29th of January. There was a cost in order to be able to attend this Foundation Week, but having a part time job and some other sources of funding such as the Chester Employability Fund enabled me to be able to afford to obtain a place.

To be able to pay and find out the vital details regarding this Art Therapy Foundation Week, I had to contact the Programme Leader and also the Admissions department. Therefore before even attending this Foundation Week I feel I have added to my skills, in terms of professional communication and formal communication. I had to send a lot of emails and make quite a few telephone calls in order to fine tune the details about the course. Which I believe is going to make it even more satisfying and rewarding when the time comes for me to actually begin the course.

Career + Ambition Update/Plan 1

Part of completing this Professional Practice is to increase my understanding of the professional world that surrounds me. Working in a professional environment is a concept that is somewhat scary, as being a student I am used to a environment that fits within my comfort zone.

Throughout my university experience I feel that there has been several occasions in which I have left my comfort zone behind, one of these occasions being completing my placement, which I conducted at a secondary school within Chester. The school I worked in  was called Queens Park High School, the confidence I gained from this experience was monumental as the situations I found myself in daily were quite challenging. Participating within the placement module allowed me to obtain vital experience of what it is truly like to work in a professional and educational environment.

This post is just to touch base with the plans and directions I am considering heading into,in the future. I have always known that I want to work with people and maybe within the education sector. After my placement I thought long and hard about the experience and the satisfactory feeling I had after each day, knowing that I had helped a child learn a new skill or technique. Despite the challenging moments of my placement I really did enjoy it, but I found myself unsure about whether teaching art within a secondary school and applying for a PGCE was the direct route I wanted to go down. I felt that I didn’t want to narrow myself to working only with children of a certain age, I feel I would really enjoy enjoy working with a variety of people, such as the elderly, offenders, children with learning difficulties and special educational needs.

Because of this I though long and hard about the aspects of art and what it is I enjoy most about it. I know that my true passion within art and photography is teaching it to others, but I also have a keen interest in psychology. I conducted some research as I have always been aware of the concept of Art Therapy, but I have never really throughly researched the benefits or positive affects of such a therapy.

I began to research work experience possibilities and foundations placements that would really allow me to obtain vital experience and get a feel for what it is like to participate within Art Therapy.

I came across the website known as the BAAt, which stands for the British Association of Art Therapists. This website features some information regarding what is it that Art Therapy is used for, and what instances Art Therapy really has benefited a persons well being.  I discovered a webpage that listed some potential Art Therapy foundation courses. Which I have screenshot below.

The only issue with the Foundation courses listed above is the location of them. because I currently reside in Chester it would have cost a lot to travel to each location every day. However seeing these listed gave me hope that there would be other Art Therapy Courses that I could apply for that were closer to home. I then started researching on the University of Chester’s website, as this is where I would apply for the Art Therapy masters.