• Psychotherapy
• Arts in therapy
• What can therapy help with

Kathy Ross, Integrative Arts Psychotherapist working with clients in West London, UK

Psychotherapy provides an opportunity to talk through your emotional concerns

Psychotherapy is a place where you can safely explore your emotional concerns, patterns of behaviour and past experiences that may be impinging on current relationships. It is an opportunity to explore your difficulties, hopes and fears with an experienced professional. Some issues that bring people to therapy include anxiety; depression; loss of interest and enjoyment in life; low self-esteem; past (recent or long ago) traumas or difficult relationships. It is an opportunity to look at old patterns and difficult feelings with the aim of insight and well being. Therapy may be short term or long term depending on the needs of the client.

Why use arts in therapy?

Integrative Arts Psychotherapy is not about creating art work but about exploring self and raising awareness of self through creativity. Art allows images to be created that hold meaning that may otherwise be hard to express in words. My approach as an Integrative Arts Psychotherapist is to integrate the use of creative media, such as painting, clay, drawing, music and sandtray so that therapy is a combination of art and talking therapy.
As a client, no training in the arts is necessary, just a willingness to explore yourself, with the aid of the therapist, in a creative way.
Working with the arts is not only a way to explore difficulties but helps provide insights and discover new ways of being and living a more fulfilling life.

Psychotherapy is useful to help clients with a range of issues:

Psychotherapy is useful to help clients with a range of issues:
Depression
Anxiety
Self esteem and self confidence
Living with a medical condition, rare disorder or body difference
Body image
Trauma and loss
Loss of meaning in life
Reconnecting with creative aspects of self

Thinking about psychotherapy and wanting to know what to expect?

Therapy normally takes place on a weekly basis in a 50 minute session.
The number of sessions depends on the nature of the work you want to pursue.
Short term work normally focuses on an immediate and specific issue.
Work focussed on persistent emotional concerns with the aim of learning new skills and restructuring enduring ways of being are likely to require longer term work that can range from 6 months to 2 or more years.

It can take a while to feel comfortable exploring difficult feelings with someone and, if this is something you struggle with, it is important to be aware that it may take time to feel safe and secure with the therapy process.

The first step is to contact me. This initial discussion allows me to find out a bit about your current concerns and for you to find out more about how I work.