Amy Dolan - Art Psychotherapist

Art Therapy

Art Therapy is a form of psychotherapy that holds art making processes at its centre. This said participants do not require any form of previous art making experience.

The internal parts of ourselves, what some call our subconscious, are in constant dialogue with our past and present experiences of the outside world. 

At points in life we can experience challenges and changes when it comes to our identity, an experience of loss, physical illness, trauma, relationships or insecure attachments. These experiences and how they continue to affect us can be hard to verbalise. Some of these circumstances may have occurred in our early preverbal life, be painful, or escape our words when we attempt to share them. Sometimes they can become overwhelming and hard to hold alone. Sometimes we simply may come to therapy with a sense of curiosity about how our journey through life is affecting our relationship with the present.

The expression that can be supported through the use of art materials can provide a form of communication where words cannot. 

Amy, The Art Psychotherapist 

An Art Psychotherapist holds a safe, playful and confidential place that facilitates the use of tactile and visual materials. They are a supportive witness and empathetic participant in the relationship that develops with these materials. 

Art Psychotherapy is client- led. As an Art therapist, I will always actively listen to what occurs, thinking and talking alongside you, when you need me to. I will also support you with the space to ask your own questions and agency to come to your own answers, both verbally,visually and sensorially.

I am committed to adapting the Art Therapy space so each person that I work with has a sense of ownership of it. I strive to make an accessible space for people of any neurodivergence, age, gender identity, physical ability, sexual orientation, race and social background.