Mindscape School Art Therapy programme provides a creative hands-on intervention to improve emotional regulation.
Creative approaches and art making can be a more natural way for children to express emotions. This can help the child to learn healthy coping strategies and resilience.
This can help to prevent maladaptive behaviour and ensure a smooth transition to school.
You can read more about school art therapy programmes on Mindscape’s informative blog. Discussing the benefits and positive evidence of the value of art therapy in schools.
Sessions can be arranged on an individual basis or as a half / full days rate,
Children and young people who find it hard to express their worries or difficulties in words can find art therapy a particularly useful way of communicating. Suitable referrals to art therapy could be those who are experiencing emotional and behavioural difficulties. These problems often impair their learning and adversely affect their relationships in school.
Suitable referrals to the school art therapy programme might be those who are experiencing:
- Anxieties or emotional distress that impairs their normal daily functioning, and or causes others to be concerned for their welfare.
- Family relationship problems that are causing significant emotional distress.
- Prolonged grief reactions that impair daily functioning.
- Minor self-harm.
- Increasing isolation and withdrawal.
- Significant and prolonged mood change.
- Mild to moderate fears and using avoidant behaviours.
- Prolonged disturbed sleep patterns.
- Significant changes in eating habits could threaten emotional and physical welfare.
- Impaired functioning at school, directly due to emotional or mental health problems.
- Adverse reactions to major life events or changes.
- Difficulty in coping with issues of separation, loss, or significant changes in parental figures.
- Chronic soiling and wetting problems, assessed to be of a non-organic nature
Further Information
Unsuitable referrals for the school art therapy programme are children and young people who are already receiving therapy or counseling. Referrers will also need the following measures in place:
- Young people with behavioural difficulties should have additional behavioural support services in place
- Ideally, the students must be able to attend weekly sessions held at the same time every week
- It is crucial that relevant professionals (e.g. child protection officer, class teacher, learning support assistant, behaviour support worker, advisory teacher, etc.) are able to meet together with the art therapist for assessment, handover, and review purposes, to ensure that all adults are working together
- Work with families/carers must be undertaken to promote a consistent approach
For more information contact Mindscape for more details. You can also follow Mindscape on Facebook