CHILDREN & TEENAGERS

Children & Teenagers

When working with children and teenagers, I believe in the integrity of young minds and their adaptive and developing nature. As a result, initial sessions are instrumental in establishing:

  • a foundational sense of safety and trust for young clients

  • creating a felt sense of control by young clients

  • a respectful set of boundaries

Unlike adults, who are more readily adaptable to enquiring into and/or exploring their vast, multi-relational lived experiences, children and teenagers can often present with a more reserved curiosity. That being said, at the base of the therapeutic arts enquiry process is the theme of “play”, and where children & teenagers may lack in lived experience to enquire into they excel with a sense of curiosity and willing to play.

However, the need for an innate ability to provide a sense of nurturing and sensitivity to the way that both children and teenagers think and feel is vital to encouraging this sense of curiosity, as well as guiding an often unexperienced process of creative exploration.

NDIS clients working on art activity

Areas of expertise include:

  • Anxiety

  • Depression

  • Forming & understanding identity

  • Autism

  • ADHD

  • Sexuality & gender

  • Low self-esteem

Client finger painting

Areas a client may focus on, include:

  • Building social and communication skills.

  • Building resilience.

  • Emotional regulation.

  • Developing mental and emotional wellbeing.

Red heart

Potential benefits to clients:

  • Empower young clients to express themselves freely in a non-verbal way, for when verbal expression is more difficult.

  • Increase self-worth, self-esteem, and/or self-understanding.

Person holding art material

What does a session typically look like?

Art Therapy can be considered as an extension to more traditional 1:1 ‘talk therapy’, however the significant difference is the element of “play” that can be incorporated into a session.

By including age-appropriate, creative modalities that a younger client may feel more comfortable with, allows for a less intrusive, more inclusive enquiry process into issues or concerns they may have and to help them “find their voice”.

“Really listening requires an attitude which respects the other’s experiences and stories”, and that, “deep listening is a way of being attentive and present in the moment, and requires an attitude of being attuned to and aware of the other.”

- McInernery, 2012