Children and Young People

Children and Young People

It is often difficult to know how to help a child or young person who is struggling with an emotional problem or displaying difficult or disruptive behaviour. How do you engage them in a conversation about their difficulties? How do you approach the subject of self-harm or tackle aggressive behaviour without making things worse?

This is where arts based psychotherapy can really help.

Using small world objects to express feelings

By approaching issues in a creative way, the therapy taps into children and young people’s natural desire to play and be creative and encourages them to express how they are feeling through a different medium. For example, they may find it hard to describe an upsetting situation at school, but might be able to map it out using animal figures to represent different people and emotions. A roaring hippo can describe the power of an experience without needing to find the words.

Using simple art and craft to explore difficult issues.
It might be too painful and raw to talk about the loss of a family member but an image or a paper cut-out could capture the depth of feelings without words and might be a starting point to a grieving process.
 

Using art to express a feeling

Perhaps adolescence feels like spiraling into the unknown with demons ready to strike at any time. Anxiety and depression are difficult to talk about directly with a young person, but an image can capture the feeling and be a starting point for a conversation.

All these images serve as visual metaphors for a child or young person’s experience and can be used in therapy to help them work through their complex feelings.

I have been working with children and young people for over 20 years and the range of issues as interesting and varied as the children and young people I see. Below are some of the more common issues:

  • Self-harm
  • Anxiety and depression
  • Bereavement
  • Aggressive/disruptive behaviour
  • Relationship difficulties
  • Family issues
  • Eating disorders
  • Abuse and neglect
  • Transition and change


If you would like to know more about therapy with children and young people please contact me or look at my 'Testimonials' page to see what other people have said.

Phone: (01225) 590841


 Email: dominihooper@gmail.com