Creativity in Counselling
This two-day course is designed to help you provide a rich, meaningful and insightful experience during the therapeutic process through the playful use of creative media.
Give voice to the unspeakable through the safety of symbolism and metaphor.
Though the course is primarily focused on working with children and adolescents, many of the ideas can still be applied to an adult client base.
“The arts are not outpourings of emotion but disciplined forms of enquiry,”
Ken Robinson, The Arts in Schools.
Course Aims
This course will enable participants to know how to:
- Utilise the arts as pathways to emotional expression
- Understand the latest research on the brain chemistry of rage, separation, joy and how imagery hardwires the brain
- Engage in a playful relationship to build rapport and empathy
- Start the therapeutic dialogue with play and storytelling
- Reveal internal images of place and self
- Dialogue the inner voice with puppetry and mask
- Choose art mediums appropriate to the emotional material
- Make meaning from metaphor and symbolism
- Open, facilitate and close a session with the arts
- Manage a mobile Play & Art Therapy Kit
Learning methods will include:
Presentation of case work with children, whole group discussion, small group work, pair activities, use of Children’s Literature and art materials.
A ‘hands on approach’ on this course will introduce you too:
- Jungian Sandplay and use of miniatures
- Art and Clay Imagery
- Puppetry and Mask
- Movement and Music
- Children’s Literature and Prose
- Drama and Fantasy
We will draw on Child Development Theory and Humanistic Theory including the work of Margot Sunderland, Dan Hughes, Sue Jenner, Transactional Analysis, Gestalt and Bowlby.
Learning Outcomes
Participants will have the ability to enhance their counselling practice through the inclusion of creative media and arts interventions.
Jungian sandtray image with use of miniatures. Boy aged 9.
Who would benefit:
This course is ideal for adults who provide counselling, therapy or welfare care to children and young people in a variety of settings.
Many of the strategies can also be used with adults for a more creative approach to the therapeutic process.
“What will happen if children don’t get help with their feelings?”. Boy aged 8
Course provision includes:
Tuition, Handouts, Certificate of Attendance, All day refreshments and a door prize! A copy of Anna-Michele’s inspiring book ‘How to Nurture and Enhance Children’s Emotional Development’ is included in the course fee.
Cost of course:
Please enquire about in-house rates. These vary according to number of participants, location and your specific needs.
Please enquire about rates for elsewhere and in house training investment.
Who Delivers - The Trainer:
This two-day course has been redeveloped from longer versions of 3-15 days of training. In the past this course has been delivered for use in a variety of settings and client bases such as Westminster Social Services, Dudley School Counselling Service and Nursery Childcare Staff in Glasgow.
However, in the current market, we have adapted this to maximise the input for the minimum amount of time and cost.
Having trained with the Institute of Arts in Therapy and Education in Integrative Arts Psychotherapy for many years, Anna-Michele ran a private therapy practice for children and young people in London and Bath. In recognition of her work with vulnerable children and young people, Anna-Michele was ‘grandparented’ into the UKATC scheme (now UKACP) to be accredited as a Therapeutic Child Counsellor. She also set up the ‘Certificate of Education’ and ‘Certificate of Emotional Literacy for Children,’ with Dr.Margot Sunderland and is still a regular trainer on the ‘Enabling Children to Speak About Feelings’ and ‘Emotional Literacy for Children’ courses at the Centre for Child Mental Health, London.
Contact with referees can be made available upon request.
