Sarah Hall - personal statement

  • PERSONAL STATEMENT

    I have utilised my inherent creativity throughout my life, but became a professional artist after graduating from the Glasgow School of Art in 1992; exhibiting nationally and internationally thereafter. However, as a result of my personal experience of the healing capacity of creativity, my interest in the therapeutic potentiality of the arts led me to work for many years in community arts settings, including in schools with troubled adolescents, and with adults in long stay hospitals and in prisons. I have also held posts as Director of Paintings in Hospitals Scotland, and as Development Manager of Art in Hospital prior to returning to education as an academic lecturer at the Glasgow School of Art.

  • I returned home to Cornwall in 2005 to consolidate my interests and experience by pursuing my long term desire to train specifically in art psychotherapy, undertaken at the Institute for the Arts in Therapy and Education (IATE), London. This is a unique training and the only course in the UK to provide dual registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) which regulates Art Therapists and the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) which regulate the practices of Psychotherapists. I am also a member of British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT).

  • My theoretical orientation is Integrative with a specific interest in Psychoanalytic and Jungian theory as well as Gestalt practices. My Art Psychotherapy training and prior professional experience means I can utilise 7 diverse art forms as a psychotherapist including 2 dimensional visual art, clay, sandtray, puppetry, bodywork, music and drama and creative writing (ie poetry therapy). All or some of these can be explored as required depending on the agreed treatment plan, client preference and the course the therapeutic work takes.

  • CLINICAL AND PROFESSIONAL PSYCHOTHERAPY EXPERIENCE
    I have worked within the NHS at Plymouth Community Healthcare in an outpatient setting with patients with Schizophrenia, Personality Disorders, Eating Disorders, Bipolar and other acute mental health problems, and presented a joint paper on this work with Dr Battersby at UKESAD (UK and European Symposium on Addictive Disorders) in 2014.

    I have a specific interest in Addictions, and have previously worked with clients in residential rehab for Broadreach House in Plymouth and currently provide group psychotherapy for women with dual diagnosis (substance misuse combined with other mental health problems) at Longreach House, the female only rehab in the Broadreach portfolio of treatment centres.

    I am additionally a Consultant for Addaction in Cornwall, one of the UK’s leading drug and alcohol charities. Prior to this county wide, and occasionally national role, I worked with Addaction’s Breaking the Cycle in North and East Cornwall, seeing clients for psychotherapy who had been referred because they were parents and their substance misuse was negatively impacting their children and family life.

    Other previous experience includes supporting survivors of sexual violence and domestic abuse with WRSAC in Cornwall and working in Private Practice from the AGIP centre (Analytic Group and Individual Psychotherapy) in north London.

    It is not necessary for you to have a problem with addiction to see me or benefit from my approach to psychotherapy. I currently have a number of clients in private practice who are engaged in both long and short term psychotherapy for a range of other reasons, working through their symptoms and feelings with the support of the arts as/if deemed beneficial.

  • Other linked pages:

    About Us

    The Therapists

    Margot Young

    Dr Alison Battersby

    Davina Robertson