Aside from releasing tension and stress and actively having fun,
art therapy ...
- is capable of prompting self expression, feelings, and emotions
- has an ability to facilitate positive perspective on one’s life
- promotes a sense of personal independence, self reliance, and self sufficiency
- builds creativity to transfer and integrate into lifestyle and workplace
- installs constructive techniques and coping strategies to self manage emotions and solve problems
- increases one’s awareness and orientation (i.e persons, places, dates, and times)
- facilitates insight, empathy, and acceptance of other’s life challenges
- is capable of exploring, managing, and providing insight into traumatic experiences
- A child receiving art therapy is encouraged to develop interpersonal skills
- develops hand – eye coordination, fine and gross motor skills, and finger dexterity and speed
- It is capable of helping a child increase their attention- span, while decreasing any festering frustration
ART THERAPY - a therapeutic tool to help many aspects of development
I offer support using art as a therapeutic tool for NDIS recipients who are self managed or plan managed.
My office/studio is at Banksia Beach, Bribie Island.
With my background in child development and counselling, I use the modality of Art Therapy to
provide support in a number of different ways according to the areas of individual need.
Briefly, some of the areas I support in my therapy are:
My office/studio is at Banksia Beach, Bribie Island.
With my background in child development and counselling, I use the modality of Art Therapy to
provide support in a number of different ways according to the areas of individual need.
Briefly, some of the areas I support in my therapy are:
- fine motor skills (use of the smaller muscle of the hands, commonly in activities like using pencils, scissors, construction, craft, clay, opening containers, manipulating brushes, etc.)
- crossing the body's midline (performing tasks without having to switch hands, activating left and right brain, brain gym activities, body awareness)
- balance and coordination (maintaining a controlled body position during task, such as sitting at the table (static) to allow success at fine motor tasks) and dynamic (moving) activities, when participating in brain gym activities.
- body awareness (proprioception) (information received by the brain from muscles and joints to be aware of the body in space)
- self regulation ( the ability to obtain maintain and change alertness level appropriate for a task or situation for better attention to the task).
- sensory processing ( processing of sensory information in the environment and in the body in a way that allows for regulation and discrimination)
- hand eye coordination (ability to process information received from the eyes to control, guide and direct the hands in the performance of a given task)
- attention and concentration (ability to maintain attention to a task)
- hand dominance (consistent use of one hand for task to allow refined skills to develop)
- organisation and visual cues (use required materials to sequentially perform and complete a task
- working memory (remember information needed for comprehension, reasoning and task completion)
- excecutive functioning (use of the higher brain function in goal directed activities such as creative tasks requiring sequential steps)
- social skills (interaction with others either verbally or non-verbally, compromises, follow social norms)
- receptive (understanding) language and expressive (using) language
- play skills (voluntary engagement in self motivated activities that are normally associated with fun and pleasure where the activities may be goal oriented)
- social communication (pragmatics) (using language for different purposes, adapting to the situation, following the "rules" of language, eg taking turns, gestures, etc)
- reduction in stress and anxiety and depression(art and craft activities are self expressive and involve the opportunity to create and relax)
- reconcile emotional conflicts (restore or improve sense of personal well being and self confidence)
- following instructions (integrating receptive language, attention and concentration, working memory - use of games such as drawing from verbal instructions)
- language structure - concepts (develop understanding about direction, location, position, number, quantity, sequence, attributes, dimension, size and similarities and differences)
- learning difficulties (writing difficulties - brain struggles to moving hand to form shapes and coordinate tasks, processing what is seen - visual details