Current Projects

Our direct work includes key partnerships with a variety of bodies including: Gartnavel Royal Adolescent Unit, Yorkhill Hospital Department of Child and Family Psychiatry (Caledonia House) and the Family Centre in Ayr.

Art Beat – East Dumbartonshire

Art Beat is a project set up to offer Arts based therapy to vulnerable young people aged 5-18 years who live in East Dumbartonshire and who are affected by drug and alcohol misuse within the family.  Art Beat offers group based therapy with a State Registered Art Therapist and follow-on Art Workshops with experienced Visual Artists.  The sessions involve a wide range of traditional art materials as well as new media to offer opportunities for the young people to find their own voice with which they can express what is important to them.  Art Beat aims to reduce the harm which drugs and alcohol can do to young people and to develop creative thinking.

CRE8 – Pearce Institute -Glasgow

This project uses a combined group approach using Art Therapy and Baby Massage to develop bonding and attachment with babies and mothers with Postnatal depression.  Most of the referrals for this group have come through the Leaving Care Services of the Social Work Department.  Most of the young women have been in care for most of their childhood, which has significant implications for their ability to bond with their own babies. 

East Ayrshire

Two of our Art Therapists are working on this pilot project to provide a one day per week Art Therapy service with referrals coming from a joint Social Work/Education Service.

Family Centre – Ayr

The Family Centre is part of the Children and Families sector of the Social Work Department in South Ayrshire.  Whilst the Family Centre work encompasses the whole family, there is a focus upon Early Intervention. 

Located in an area of high deprivation many parents attending the centre suffer from depression and addiction problems. Creative Therapies contribute by doing Art Therapy work with pregnant women and young mothers as well as children ranging from nursery to adolescent ages.

Creative Therapies has a long and positive relationship within this Social Work organisation.  Art Therapist Patricia Perry originally began this work as a pilot project in the late 90’s. Referrals are taken from the Social Work Area Team, Social Work Children and Families Disability Team, local Health Visitors and Educational Psychologists. Creative Therapies are working with children and families experiencing various crisis or emotional disturbances such as:

• Postnatal depression
• Pregnant  women seen as high risk of developing postnatal depression
• Early attachment difficulties and bonding
• Fostering and adoption
• Addiction within the family
• Domestic violence
• Emotional, physical and sexual abuse
• Neglect
• Long term and terminal illness
• Bereavement
• Disabilities
• Other childhood trauma

Gartnavel Royal Adolescent Unit - Glasgow

There is currently an Art Therapy group running in the Adolescent Unit offering support and a space for creative expression.  Most of the members of this current group have an eating disorder.  Clinical notes are taken by the Art Therapist and used weekly in team meetings.  This weekly feedback can relate other elements of the young person perhaps not seen in the unit.  Music Therapy and Drama Therapy have also been running in the past and are being considered for future supports especially as part of the summer programme which Creative Therapies are involved in.

Yorkhill Hospital Department of Child and Family Psychology - Glasgow

The Arts Therapies have a vibrant and well established presence in this unit, with the concurrent weekly Art Therapy and Music Therapy groups.  Both groups are well integrated into the ward programme, with comprehensive notes from the sessions going to weekly team meetings.  Expressive Therapies allow children to reveal different aspects of themselves and their issues.  This feedback from Creative Therapies contribution is well valued in team meetings as it offers a fuller understanding of the child.