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Rebecca Claire Art Therapy, Portsmouth (2026)

01/08/2025

It was so great to facilitate an art table at Friends Without Borders Portsmouth weekly Drop-In this week.

The Drop-In provides much needed free resources, including immigration advice, Access To Justice, English lessons, freshly cooked food, a space for children to play and more.

The art table enables children to play, explore and express themselves, and adults to connect with creativity and be in the present moment.

It is a free flow, busy environment, with so much warmth and friendliness. Individuals and families from Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Iraq and around the world attend, sharing food, comradeship, hope and strength.

Artwork created included themes of home, special places, family, faith, freedom and symbolism.

Thanks for having me !

01/08/2025

The best kind of training day! 🌊🏖️☀️🎨

Eco art therapy is a therapeutic practice that combines art-making with nature-based experiences to support emotional, psychological, and spiritual well-being. It integrates principles from art therapy, ecopsychology, and environmentalism, encouraging individuals to engage creatively with the natural world.

Core Elements of Eco Art Therapy:
1. Art-making in or with nature: Using natural materials like leaves, stones, wood, or earth to create art, or creating artwork while in natural settings (e.g., forests, gardens, beaches).
2. Connection to the environment: Helping people foster a sense of relationship and reciprocity with the Earth.
3. Therapeutic reflection: Guided exploration of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors through both the artistic process and interactions with nature.
4. Mindfulness and presence: Encouraging awareness of the senses, surroundings, and emotional states.

Benefits:
• Reduces stress and anxiety
• Enhances mood and creativity
• Fosters environmental awareness
• Supports trauma healing and emotional processing
• Improves connection to self, others, and the natural world

17/07/2025

It was so great to facilitate Art Therapy workshop 3/3 with the Rural Refugee Network last week.

A soft start to the session allowed attendees to arrive gradually and participate in lively board games whilst waiting.

We started the session with our favourite ballgame; which enables movement, playfulness and helps us to remember everybody’s names!

The activity was proceeded by a take-away grounding technique, “square breathing,” and some psycho-education to help the young people understand the impact of trauma on the brain and the body, normalise this response and reduce stigma. Our incredibly helpful interpreter made more complex pieces of information accessible for attendees.

The art making theme was once again inspired by postcards from around the world, with a large world map as a prompt. Other theme prompts included a favourite place, a special memory, or something that brings you joy.

Natural materials and a basket of animal figures were also available for inspiration, or to allow for interaction with the objects for those who might not want to engage in art-making.

Art created took the form of landscapes - both tranquil and turbulent, national flags, sea scapes, faith and religion, animals, mandalas and patterns.

A really insightful and reflective workshop as ever, with connection and camaraderie flowing throughout.

It is always such a pleasure to work with these young people, RRN staff and volunteers.

18/06/2025

It was so rewarding to facilitate this Art Therapy workshop with last week - and to celebrate Eid together.

Themes of nations and flags, home and belonging, nurture and growth, faith and religion, destinations travelled, and interpersonal relationships arose - with some amazingly poignant pieces of art work created.

It’s always an honour to work with this inspiring group of young people.

❤️

21/05/2025

It was so great to facilitate the first of three Art Therapy workshops with recently.

The theme for this session was around-the-world, and group members (young people seeking refuge here in the UK) engaged in art making, games, play materials, natural materials and sensory, grounding items. Lots of Sudanese flags appeared in artwork made, as well as images of home or imaginary buildings, animals, places travelled and hopeful future destinations.

Participants shared stories and connected over routes travelled, using the large world map featured on the table to point to whilst sharing experiences.

Themes included journeys, destinations visited, treatment received in different countries, homes left behind, hobbies and interests, fears and anxieties, work and study, building trust and connection.

It is a privilege to work with these inspiring young people.

[Prior consent obtained to share].

18/04/2025

We’ve all heard it before - but - sometimes it is helpful to remember that a journey of a thousand miles starts with **one single step**

A recovery journey is not a linear process; there are ups and downs, setbacks and progress. Be kind to yourself and learn to ride the waves.

Art Therapy can enable expression of deeper emotions and inner experiences, in a nurturing, compassionate safe space.

12/04/2025

What is Trauma?

‘Any event or ongoing experience with a significant impact on the survival of the animal part of the brain’ (Van de Kolk, 2014). Trauma is not necessarily the traumatic incident(s) experienced but the impact for that individual - the internal injury - as well as the intensity of the experience of helplessness & powerlessness (Levine, 1997).

It can be an inconsistent, neglectful or abusive caregiver as a child (developmental trauma), a single traumatic incident like a car crash (acute trauma), or a traumatic experience that lasted several years - like war & displacement (chronic trauma).

When trauma remains unprocessed your body feels as though it is live & happening in the present - continuing to shape thoughts, feelings, reactions, bodily sensations (Maté, 2022). The Prefrontal cortex (logic-making part of the brain) is literally short circuited and remains offline when an individual with trauma is exposed to trauma triggers (Van de Kolk, 2014).

In this way adaptive response patterns inhibit the defensive system, causing a smaller “Window of Tolerance” and difficulties regulating; which adversely affects relationships, social connection, cognition, memory and quality of living (Siegel, 2020).

The energy from the unresolved traumatic incident remains highly charged and in need of release and relief, causing states of hyperarousal and hypo-arousal, manifesting in complex psychological disorders and psychosomatic symptoms - such as chronic fatigue, digestion issues, insomnia, and even degenerative diseases (Dana, 2018; Maté, 2022).

For these reasons, trauma cannot be rationalised “out of” (Levine, 1997). The right hemisphere of the brain is where emotions, memory and creativity are stored (the amygdala and hippocampus specifically, part of the Limbic System) (Van de Kolk, 2014). Art making engages body-mind connection, stimulating the creative capabilities of the right hemisphere of the brain where trauma becomes imprinted - as well as working with the left hemisphere, improving integration in the brain (Kalmanowitz and Ho, 2016).

08/04/2025

Spring has sprung in the hospital grounds 🌞🌱🌼🌸🌷

07/04/2025

What is Art Psychotherapy?

Art Therapy is much like talking psychotherapy, except there is the extra medium of artmaking to utilise too. It can be easier for individuals to express themselves through art rather than words, with painful experiences often eluding words.

It can also provide an outlet for the client, making therapy feel less intimidating – with the focus not only on them but the art also.

Traumatic experiences often become imprinted in the right hemisphere of the brain; where emotions are stored, and creativity. Artmaking directly accesses the right hemisphere in a way that cognitive thought and logic-making cannot, stimulating this hemisphere directly. Through artmaking, new meanings, metaphors and significance can be drawn from difficult events, helping to create more manageable narratives and helping to “metabolise” painful traumatic experiences. Artmaking can also be a sensory and grounding experience.

Like conventional psychotherapy, the Art Therapist will aim to foster a sense of connection, be open and accepting, curious, empathetic and attuned to the client’s emotional state, in order to build a sense of safety and trust in the therapeutic relationship and space. This caring and non-judgemental environment can help to improve emotional regulation skills and to improve self-worth.

Art Therapy is;
• A space to share thoughts, experiences, to reflect together and draw new meanings and connections.
• Artmaking can be grounding and can enable expression and provide space to communicate safely.
• Clients have choice and control over the materials they choose to use and what they would like to create, enabling some autonomy in the space.

07/04/2025

Expressive Arts Easter workshop paint 🎨🐣🎶 🎭 🧸

This time last year we were let loose at Southsea Cinema and Arts Centre, as children of all ages explored art making of many mediums, slime making, musical instruments, puppet play, face painting and more! It was completely free flow, enabling children and young people an autonomy they do not often have. It was such a fabulous few days facilitating these workshops! Messy but equally awesome 🤩 😅 and a huge hit! 🌈🖍️📝

Rebecca Claire Art Therapy

01/08/2025

01/08/2025

17/07/2025

18/06/2025

21/05/2025

18/04/2025

12/04/2025

08/04/2025

07/04/2025

07/04/2025

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