By Abi (Year 10 work experience student)
Intro
I am writing my blog as I am on work experience with Naomi. Naomi has introduced her project ‘Create for Confidence’ to me and explained how she is trying to bring art into schools to prevent anxiety and depression.
New way of understanding art for work
Before I had only thought art therapists took part in art for their jobs, however during my work experience I learnt about the diversity of jobs in this area. I also learnt about the types of researchers there are and what they do for research (experiments/ focus groups etc). I had also discovered people work in universities and were not just there to study.
Setting the scene
Setting the scene on Monday, I met with Nikki McAuslan for an experience in creative therapy. When I had walked into the room, she had set a therapeutic environment by using essential oils and was very welcoming. She had mentioned she gets some people to create therapy smells which are used by mixing oils which I found very fascinating. Nikki had then set me up an activity to share with Naomi where we took turns to paint on a canvas and slowly clashed our creations together.
Diverse ways of expressing
Compared to Nikki’s painting session, on Wednesday we had taken part in an art drop in session with OTR. This gave me the ability to have some quiet time by myself to work on whatever I had wanted, and I chose to do painting. However with Nikki she occasionally gave some feedback, connected with me, and told me about the common details she noticed about my painting.
Found new confidence to follow my path
Over the past week I have learnt a lot about art therapy and how much qualifications I need and how long it will take me to graduate. Although it is hard work I am feeling quite confident into studying this topic and potentially see it as a future job in the future. Naomi has inspired me to try preventing mental health, I have been influenced through all the meetings Naomi has had and the research she has shared with me.
