After 20+ years of working in the participatory arts, I have seen creativity encourage growth, confidence, independence, and repair in youthwork, schools, colleges, refugee, family or community groups as people expressed and made sense of their own experience. Art (and ritual) eased trauma and loss for many. Psychotherapy training was then a natural progression. 

 

I trained at The Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education (IATE). Attachment Theory is the core to my theoretical orientation and the therapeutic relationship is a central to this. Developmental theories inform my work, and I also work with Gestalt and TA in looking at psychological patterns or problems. EMDR has become a core part of my work and trauma work has become a specialism

 

Integrative Arts Psychotherapy (IAP) uses mixed arts to provide a bridge to the unconscious, and to find form for feeling. Within the therapeutic relationship there is a creative space to experiment. The Humanistic perspective is to ‘walk alongside’ clients, to help people find their resources and thus enable growth. My approach as an IAP is to provide an empathic space to work through issues, and also to build a client’s resilience as part of the reparative process.

 

Within the NHS I have worked with with diagnoses including bipolar disorder, personality disorders, PTSD, complex trauma, depression, anxiety disorders, abuse, eating disorders, self-harm and physical disability issues. I also worked within the Community Learning Disability Team (CLDT) with clients who had experienced trauma, abuse, bereavement, psychosis, and core identity issues from being born with a cognitive disability. The arts were an essential ingredient in finding ways to communicate on many levels

 

More information at: www.mariatribepsychotherapy.com (this will open a new window).