Images coming soon…

Showcase Exhibition

Ten years on, Creative Therapies are still passionately committed to the belief that Arts Therapies offer a treatment which has artistic expression at its core, which, with the support of trained therapists, offers a powerful force for recovery from trauma and a return to healthy development.

Creative Therapies recently documented and celebrated a Showcase Exhibition for 10 years of work.

10th Anniversay Gallery

Early Intervention

Through the work Creative Therapies has done with children and young people, in various projects, it has become evident that developing an area of expertise in Early Intervention work with mothers and babies would be beneficial - especially those mothers at risk from Postnatal Depression.

Early Intervention breaks cycles of parental dysfunction and helps mothers from dysfunctional families to break the cycle of poor parenting, neglect and abuse.

Creative Therapies work with vulnerable mothers and their babies using an innovative approach to the treatment of Postnatal Depression.  The programme uses Art Therapy, Baby Massage and Relaxation Techniques to facilitate maternal bonding.  Sessions are delivered to small groups and within the group they are able to:

• Address issues of isolation
• Realise they are not alone with their problems
• Learn from each other
• Have a chance to meet other mothers and children
• Have something to look forward to each week
• Raise self esteem as skills develop which improves bonding between mothers and babies

Pupil Support Project – Ayr

The Pupil Support Project was a time limited piece of work funded by the Scottish Executive between 2004-2006 allowing Art, Music and Drama Therapists to work in various primary and secondary schools in South Ayrshire.  The project was created to support children in mainstream education who were unable to sustain full-time attendance at school or who were facing  exclusion. Many of the children seen were therefore referred with regards to their challenging or difficult behaviours.   

This work offered the pupils time for reflection and introspection within the school day, which primarily has an outward focus. It also offered the chance for creative therapists to work within education alongside teachers to consider the changes in the education system and the varying needs for emotional learning as well as academic learning.

The Different Creative Therapies

All of the Creative Therapies encourage the development over time of a consistent, trusting relationship between the therapist and the client.  This can address many issues relating to attachment and trust.  However, there are also slight differences and emphasis on different elements in each of the different modes of creative therapy.

Art Therapy

Art making as therapy encourages a playful, and often less intrusive processing through image language.  Image language comes before verbal language in our developmental stages and can access our metaphoric and symbolic thinking more directly.  Symbolic and metaphoric thinking are very powerful tools in problem solving.  Art therapy also encourages imagination and offers a space where people can experience themselves as creatively powerful people with choices.

Creating a physical image also enables the client to express and reflect upon inner senses, emotions, or feelings – especially those which may be ambivalent, paradoxical or less concrete – without needing to find words or translations.  In this way the created images can often hold or contain ambiguity, ‘not knowing’, and areas of messiness.

Images do not have a set ‘meaning’ that therapists interpret, but are viewed alongside the client and reflected upon together.  The image can also hold undesirable, or conflicting parts of the client.  It is important therefore to remember that Art Therapy is not about being good at art or about making aesthetically pleasing images.  However, beautiful images are created frequently in Art Therapy, often after an initial period of disarray, and the ability to create or be part of beauty can also be a hugely positive experience for many people.

Drama Therapy

Dramatherapy has as its main focus the intentional use of healing aspects of drama and theatre as the therapeutic process. It is a method of working and playing that uses action methods to facilitate creativity, imagination, learning, insight and growth.

Dramatherapy is a form of psychological therapy in which the expressive arts - such as drama, movement, voice and sound - are used within the therapeutic relationship. Dramatherapists are both artists and clinicians and draw on their training in drama and therapy to create methods to engage clients in effecting psychological, emotional and social change. The therapy gives equal validity to body and mind within the dramatic context: stories, myths, playtexts, puppetry, masks and improvisation are examples of the range of interventions that a dramatherapist may employ. These will enable the client to explore their life experiences through an indirect approach.

Dramatherapy encourages the use of both the body and imagination to explore thoughts and feelings.  The use of imagination and the body allows the client to come to inner difficulties indirectly, through the safe distance of symbols and metaphors.  By enacting a symbolic story, the client can express themselves at their own pace, both verbally and non-verbally.  The use of stories, improvisation, role-play, games, movement, voice and music also offer the client a chance to explore different ways of being, behaving and relating to others.  Acting in therapy may also help to manage difficult feelings and reduce the need to ‘act them out’ elsewhere. 

Dramatherapy is not geared towards performance – the focus is on the creative process, not the finished result. 

Music Therapy

Music Therapy focuses on using improvised music to access our inherant creativity and promote well-being. Music Therapy uses music as a mode of communication with which to develop a trusting therapeutic relationship. Therapists and clients have access to all sorts of musical instruments including a range of tuned and non-tuned percussion. Self-expression and co-creation in music can enable clients to access and process thoughts and feelings that they may be unable to process using words alone. A feature of the ‘First Relationship’ between mother and infant is the innate ability to communicate cross modally; particularly by translating movements, gestures, facial expressions into sounds and vice versa. In the safety of the therapeutic space, clients of all ages can develop their ability to play creatively and symbolically, increasing their self-understanding and their ability to convey meaning to others. Within the musical interactions, clients can safely express painful, conflicting and abstract feelings, which may feel unmanageable and impossible to express in other ways.

Within the musical relationship, clients sometimes have a very different experience of themselves, including a level of control and a feeling of power, which may be hard to achieve in other areas of their lives. Depending on their reasons for referral, the music therapy relationship can sometimes involve aims such as development of social skills, turn taking, listening, concentrating, language, self-awareness and empathy towards others as well as emotional self-awareness and understanding.

Movement Therapy

More information coming soon…

The Board

Andrew Dawson-Chair

Andrew Dawson is a Child Psychotherapist and Drama Therapist working in the West Glasgow Community Health and Care Partnership. Andrew originated the idea of Creative Therapies and created the company in 1996.

Linda Fleming

Linda is a qualified Chartered Accountant with over 25 years of financial experience gained in the Private Sector.  Linda has been actively involved in the Arts for the last 8 years.More information coming soon…

Karen Ferguson

More information coming soon…

Anne Greer

Anne is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist.  Anne trained in Edinburgh from 1986-1991.  She took her first Consultant post in Ayrshire in 1993 and moved to Glasgow in 1998.  Anne has a special interest in Psychodynamic Group Therapy with Young People.

Louis Skehal

Louis is a former Social Worker and Community Worker and retired as Head of Service (Community Care) in 2006.  Louis also lectured at University of Glasgow for 2 years and has contributed to the development of best practice with Community Care Works based at Glasgow and latterly Strathclyde Universities.  After retrial Louis has carried out some consultancy work for the Scottish Executive with the Joint Improvement Team.  Louis s now a full time student at Glasgow School of Art studying Sculpture and Environmental Art.

Phyllis Steel – Company mentor

Phyllis has been involved with Creative Therapies since its inception in 1996.  She currently supports the different aspects of the company’s work and ongoing development as Company Mentor.

Office Team

Sarah Harwood

Sarah has a background of management consultancy within corporate private banking in both London and New York. Following significant marketing experience within the retail and pharmaceutical industries she was appointed Office Manager of the Glasgow Housing Association in 2000. She joined Creative Therapies as General Manager in 2006.  Sarah is married, lives in Glasgow, and has two children Charlotte and Angus.

Cathie Smith - Training Manager

Cathie has many years experience in business development through her work in engineering, selling steel to the oil and heavy fabrication industries.  She then spent 10 years in Italy where she worked as a consultant for Fiat developing and coordinating all of their English Language Programmes.  As a result of this Cathie started her own company designing business training and offering consultancy services to companies throughout Italy.  On her return to the UK, it was suggested to Cathie that her skills might be of value to the voluntary sector and she has indeed found this to be the most rewarding experience in her career.

How Creative Therapies Started

Creative Therapies was founded in 1996 by Andrew Dawson, then Dramatherapist, now Psychotherapist. For the last ten years the company has worked in the field of children and young people’s mental health, using the Arts Therapies, Drama, Dance Movement, Music and Arts as a support and therapeutic intervention with emotionally distressed children and young people in Glasgow and the West of Scotland.

Creative therapies works closely with colleagues in health, education and social services to provide a highly specialised service for some of the most vunerable children in our community. 

Mission

More information coming soon…

Aims & Objectives…

More information coming soon

Creative Director & Art Therapist

Sheena McGregor

Sheena is a graduate from Glasgow School of Art and a Founder Member of the Glasgow Print Studio.  She previously worked as an Art Tutor for HMP Barlinnie from 1991 - 2000 and qualified as an Art Therapist at Queen Margaret University College in 2000. Sheena is state registered with the Health Professionals Council and is a member of the British Association of Art Therapists.  She has particular interests in working with Children with Emotional Distress, Fostering and Adoption, Mothers with Postnatal Depression and Eating Disorders. 

Sheena has art work in many private and public collections and has 2 children Josi and Sepp.

Therapists & Arts Workers

Rachel Campling

After a career in languages and with a life-long love of movement and drama, Rachel gained an MA in Drama and Movement Therapy and now works as a dramatherapist and trainer with children, young people and adults in education and mental health settings. Having had personal experience of the healing effects of  imagination and movement, she is passionate about using creative arts to nurture confidence and creativity.

Lesley Craigie - Movement Therapist

Lesley is a Movement Therapist whose background is in physical education. She has worked in special education for more than 20 years with children and young people with a range of disabilities. She has also delivered courses and In-Service training which has focused on movement as a means of communication. The training is titled, ‘Creative Interaction’ and is a way for the participants to explore their inner worlds using improvisation and expressive movement.

Pearl Kinnear - Artist

As well as being a practising artist, over the past 12 years Pearl has gained a wealth of experience on a wide range of projects in the community. Pearl has worked with clients of all ages and from a variety of circumstances and backgrounds. Pearl believes that the most rewarding thing about her work is witnessing the confidence and enjoyment that experiencing art can bring to participants and the new voice that people find through creativity.

Janie Nicoll - Artist

Janie is a Visual Artist who works across art forms but who predominantly works with digital photography and installation.  Janie is also currently Artist in Residence (digital media) at Callendar House, Callendar Park, Falkirk.

Kavitha Ratnam - Art Therapist

Kavitha qualified as an Art Therapist in 2004 from Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh and is registered with the Health Professionals Council.  She is also a member of the British Association of Art Therapists.  She has special interests in working with children and families and in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  Kavitha also has an interest in narratives - from the stories of our individual experiences of life, to the fairie and mythical stories of the world.  Her past experience includes Art Therapy work with asylum seekers, refugees and displaced people, children in mainstream education facing exclusion, adolescents suffering from disturbances in Mental Health and elderly people in psychiatric day care. 

Louise Schmid-Butler - Art therapist

Louise is a State Registered Art Therapist who qualified in 1996 from the University Settlement of Edinburgh.  Louise works with an eclectic approach which is a matrix of theoretical concepts drawn form Donald Winnicott, Wilfred Bion and C.G. Jung.  Louise has a special interest in Drawing on Dreams, Intercultural Issues, and Aesthetic Experience (or lack of it) in Early Infant Attachments.

Louise has experience of different client groups in a variety of settings: people of all ages in Mental Health, social services, mainstream education and in the independent sector.

Aby Vulliamy - Music Therapist

Aby divides her time between working as a freelance Music Therapist in Glasgow, and lecturing and supervising students on the MSc training in Music Therapy at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.  Aby’s clinical work is mostly with children and adolescents with learning disabilities or mental health problems in educational, psychiatric inpatient and residential care settings.

Aby has also presented clinical case studies using images and sounds from Art and Music therapy groups at conferences and trainings around the UK and as far afield as Estonia.

How Creative Therapies Started

Creative Therapies was founded in 1994 by a drama-therapist in response to the needs of people with emotional, physical and mental health issues. Originally it was set up as an association of arts therapists working in various communities in Glasgow. By 1996, it became a company limited by guarantee, had gained charitable status and was governed by a Board of Directors.

This formal structure enables the provision of ‘creative therapies’ to be accessible to more people, in particular, young people and families. It also enables the company to fundraise for projects and to plan work in close partnership with other agencies. 

Creative Therapies now employ Art, Drama, Music and Movement Therapists and hope to see the company develop further. To partners, we are known for the depth of our work, our commitment to the young people we come into contact with, our willingness to share our expertise and the innovative and responsive nature of the company. Our work has been made possible by individuals and organisations that understand our need to sustain work with the young people over a period of time.

Company Aims

Creative Therapies has two main aims:

 - to relieve human suffering and distress of a psychological, emotional, social, behavioural, instititional or familiar nature through the application of creative therapies.                            

 - to promote, maintain, improve and advance education through research training and  in the application of creative activities

Creative Therapies is committed to sharing knowledge and is organising a conference ‘How Imagination Heals Troubled Children’ for May 2008.

To find out more about our work please call: 0141 342 4444 or email: info@creativetherapies.co.uk

How Imagination Heals Troubled Children

In May 2009 Creative Therapies are holding a major conference ‘How Imagination Heals Troubled Children’ . The keynote speaker will be Emeritus Professor Colwyn Trevathen, Child Psychologist and Psychobiologist, University of Edinburgh. He will highlight the process and benefits of working with arts therapists in improving well-being and building new confidences in children and families.

This conference will be a unique opportunity to promote our work, demystify our approach and make direct contact with targeted health board representatives and local authorities, social services and education representatives.

More information coming soon…

To note your interest contact: cathie@creativetherapies.co.uk

Training events are run by Creative Thearapies and Giant in an identified venue on a specific date.

Training events will be advertised throughout the year on both companies websites (see below for Creative Therapies events), by email alerts and through other publicity.

To sign up for  cathie@creativetherapies.co.uk  and write training alerts in the subject box.

As well as training events, courses can be delivered in-house with our professionals coming to you.

Creative Therapies training events coming soon…

Click here for: Giant training events

Images coming soon…

Creative Images

From drawings on the walls of caves many thousands of years ago human beings have used images to respond to the world and also to contain fears, wishes and anxieties about real or imagined threats to self or the wider community. Faced with fear and confusion, many people find it hard to think, or find words to express their distress. Creative expression offers another way of communicating, a more individual language. Within the therapeutic relationship, this voice can be heard and understood.

Powerful messages are conveyed through the images, expressing feelings of loss, fear, abandonment, neglect, loneliness and hurt. Somehow feelings of suffering become transformed into expressions of honesty, and, almost by chance, of beauty. This process of transformation signals the beginning of recovery.

Image Permission

For art therapy to begin in any meaningful way, a relationship of trust must be established between client and therapist. An important factor in the formation of trust is confidentiality, about what is told, but also about images from the unspoken communication of art expression. These are rarely seen outside the sessions, but safely stored by the therapist for the duration of therapy. In this way the therapist takes care of the work and holds a tangible record of the journey travelled together.

Creative Therapies have been give permission by the artists to share some of the wonderful images produced in the safe spaces contained by arts therapy sessions. These time-limited engagements often becomes  transformed into magical worlds of stories, images, sound, colour, drama, creatures and spirits, drawn from the imagination.

Creative Therapies Training

Since 2000, we have offered training programmes targeted at social workers, care workers and teaching staff. We will continue to do this in the future but in a different way and on a smaller scale. This new approach is the outcome of recent focus group consultations. We will develop more bespoke training to take place concurrently with each project. This will enable the trainee’s to put into practice their new skills under the guidance of an experienced arts therapist.

We offer staff training sessions which are ideal for health workers, social workers and teaching staff to explore integrating art, drama, music and play with mainstream arts practitioners.

We employ art, drama and movement therapists who are Allied Health Professionals and members of the British Association of Art Therapists.

The Inclusive Arts Training Programme 2008/2009

The Inclusive Arts Training Programme brings together the expertise of Creative Therapies and Giant to deliver a wide range of training initiatives for those interested in using the arts to develop their own skills and work with their client groups.

It is aimed at artists, play workers, teachers, social workers, health workers, parents and carers and everyone in betweeen.Whether you are looking to develop your own skills; fulfil your CPD requirements; explore new ways of working with your client group; or develop work to fit with the curriculum you will find it all here. 

To download the full training programme click here: Inclusive Arts Training Programme

The Courses

All training in the programme is available to be delivered from May 2008 - March 2009. Courses can be delivered as in-house training with our professionals coming to you, or as training events run by Creative Thearapies or Giant in an identified venue on a specific date. Training events will be advertised throughout the year by email alerts and through other publicity.

To sign up for training alerts email: cathie@creativetherapies.co.uk  and write training alerts in the subject box.

Flexibility

Our Training Manager, Cathie Smith is happy to discuss training sessions and programmes tailored to suit your needs. This might involve doing a full day course over two half days or devising a weekly mentoring programme for your team across many months.

For More Information or to Book

Contact us with your requirements and we will work to meet your training needs.

Call: 0141 357 5000

Email: cathie@creativetherapies.co.uk

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.

Mailing Address:
Creative Therapies
100 Beith Street
Partick
Glasgow
G11 6DQ

Tel: +44 (0) 141 342 4444

Early Intervention

Through the work Creative Therapies has done with children and young people, in various projects, it has become evident that developing an area of expertise in Early Intervention work with mothers and babies would be beneficial - especially those mothers at risk from Postnatal Depression.

Early Intervention breaks cycles of parental dysfunction and helps mothers from dysfunctional families to break the cycle of poor parenting, neglect and abuse.

Creative Therapies work with vulnerable mothers and their babies using an innovative approach to the treatment of Postnatal Depression.  The programme uses Art Therapy, Baby Massage and Relaxation Techniques to facilitate maternal bonding.  Sessions are delivered to small groups and within the group they are able to:

• Address issues of isolation
• Realise they are not alone with their problems
• Learn from each other
• Have a chance to meet other mothers and children
• Have something to look forward to each week
• Raise self esteem as skills develop which improves bonding between mothers and babies