ART THERAPY
About art therapy
With the support and guidance of a trained therapist, art therapy can help people to access, discover, connect to and express their innate self. This, in turn, leads to meaningful life changes.
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Art therapy helps people to process distressing and confusing sensations and issues by transforming them into images, stories, gestures, movement or sounds.
Making art engages the whole brain and calms the nervous system. It bypasses rational thinking and taps into the body’s wisdom, reducing the need to talk. The body is active in the art-making process and helps to shift and release what is “stuck”.
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Research shows that in order to heal from trauma, we need to reconnect to our life force and flow, which we had previously learned to dissociate from in order to survive.
Maggie walks alongside each person at a pace that feels safe to them and supports their creativity.
Art therapy requires no prior experience with art making.
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“Difficulties that are experienced in the body may reveal themselves as anger, grief, sadness, depression, dissatisfaction or anxiety. Through art therapy, I help people to gently connect to their inner senses, so that what is held there can be safely heard and expressed via art, sound and movement.” Maggie Date
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Art therapy: a gateway for healing trauma in children
The children Maggie works with have often experienced distress, which may be due to particular incidents, medical procedures or difficulties at home or school.
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Distress can be displayed through behaviours such as not meeting developmental milestones, sadness, tearfulness, low energy or restlessness, worry, fear, not coping with change, problems with sleep, clinginess, difficulty socialising, difficulty making or maintaining friendships, having meltdowns, fighting, difficulty focusing in school, being quick to anger, changes in eating habits or self-harm.
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Art therapy provides an avenue for communication that does not require sophisticated verbal skills or social understanding. This is particularly beneficial for children. By working with the senses, the therapy allows them to return to their innate self.
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Art therapy assists in developing children’s emotional intelligence through the interaction the child has with the therapist, combined with the opportunity to be creative. The therapeutic relationship provides a safe space for a child to explore their inner world. Maggie is a role model for self-regulation; when this is combined with creative play, the child is able to explore themselves, develop their emotional intelligence and learn self-regulation skills.
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“I took my son to see Maggie as he was struggling with fears and anxieties. He's six years old. Maggie saw him three times, but I noticed a huge change after just one session. He now seems so much more relaxed and happy within himself. He’s more likely to try new things and take risks... it’s like his development has accelerated.”
Kate, 2020
