Sally Johnson – Creative Arts Therapy in Leeds

Hi, my name's Sally. I'm an art psychotherapist. I qualified from the University of Derby in 2022 with a Masters of Art in Therapy. Prior to that I worked a lot in healthcare, so I've worked with adults with autism in residential settings, I've worked in community settings as well, charities with adults who have a diagnosis of complex emotional needs, so personality difficulties. I've done other work in charity, so working with those with mild to moderate mental health issues. So I've got quite a lot of experience across a range of client groups. So I would like to start by just saying a little bit as well about what art therapy is um because you might be thinking what was this and basically it's a form of psychotherapy it's been around for many many many years but it's getting a lot more traction over more more recent years so it's got a lot of roots in psychoanalysis and you know older practices but it's it's kind of been revamped a little bit and the premise is It's a really good way to tap into our unconscious because there's a lot of things that are going on underneath our surfaces that we're not necessarily familiar of. It might manifest in behaviours or you know patterns that we repeat and it's a really good way of really bringing that out to the surface and sort of reflecting back on the images. It's almost like a visual diary so you can kind of look at an image and think I remember how I was feeling when I did that and I was going through xyz and you know there's a lot of symbols that are repeated that have been used for thousands of years that you know humans have always kind of creatively expressed themselves so it's a really good way to kind of tap into that really raw kind of altruistic state Yeah, there'd be no expectation as well. You wouldn't be chastised if you didn't create work. I'm not expecting a masterpiece after every session. There'd be no kind of exhibition in the Louvre at the end. It's just a really good way of really drawing that inner stuff out and, you know, I'm tangling it a bit. Yeah, picking it out and seeing, you know, reflecting on it in a different way. I'd also offer my first session for free because I think it's really really important to have a chemistry call. to make sure that there is that rapport and that connection because there's nothing worse than having a sort of therapist that you don't have any kind of spark between. I think it's really important in my own experience, it's really helpful to have that kind of, just to know that the person that you're going to be spending quite a bit of time talking to is is able to provide that space for you. So yeah, I really, really hope to hear back and look forward to meeting you. See you later.