Gloucestershire Art Therapy Associates

About Us

Who are we?

We are a group of State Registered Art Therapists/Psychotherapists registered with the Health and Care Profession Council (HCPC) and registered with BAAT as private practitioners.

Experience

We have extensive experience within the NHS, social services, education and the private sector. We are offering individual and group therapy on a sliding scale of £40 - £50 per session.

Featured Member

Jane Brighton

Jane Brighton is a practising artist who graduated in Fine Art from the Slade School and regularly exhibits her work.

She trained as an art teacher at the Institute of Education, London University and was a tutor in further education for many years, before graduating from Goldsmiths college, London University with a post-graduate diploma in art therapy.

She is a state registered art therapist with HCPC & registered with BAAT as a private practitioner.

She has worked for the NHS and Social Services with working age adults for 25 years, as well as privately.

She has worked for a complementary health clinic for 14 years for people with life-threatening illnesses and has done much work on the body/mind relationship.

Benefits

What is Art Therapy?

Art therapy has much in common with 'talking cures'. Psychological problems are addressed at the root rather than the symptoms.

However, it also has the major advantage, through creative art making, of enabling people to work deeply with non-verbal areas of experience.

Creative expression values people's capacity to experience themselves as having choices, value and meaning.

Within the healing therapeutic relationship and the creative work people can find their own creative and psychological resources.

Art Therapy is not about 'good art' or artistic ability. All healthy children draw and paint but most of us as adults have been taught that we can't.

Children play as part of their learning about themselves and the world. Image making is part of their adaptive process.

Art Therapy aims to make this natural method of psychological change available to all.

When does Art Therapy help?

For renewal - A quiet space for reflection, for redirection, for healing.
Widely used in the successful treatment of anxiety, depression working through past traumas.
For physical symptoms reflecting stress, inner unease and conflicts.

Sessions are usually for one hour per week. The initial commitment is for six weeks, after which time the duration is negotiable.

Art Therapy in Depression and Anxiety

Art therapy is a powerful psychological therapy in the treatment of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress syndrome, bipolar disorder and psychosis.

People come for Art Therapy for many reasons - depression, anxiety, relationship problems or just a sense of having lost a sense of direction or wanting a space for reflection and healing.