My name is Will, I am an art psychotherapist registered with The British Association Of Art Therapists (BAAT).

I have worked in both child and adult mental health, helping individuals share their experiences and stories through art making. My passion lies in helping support children’s emotional and psychological development and helping to make a difference in children’s mental health. I believe that the creative process goes beyond the spoken language by helping a person unlock their difficult thoughts and feelings.

I began my professional journey working as a crisis support worker, where I offered emotional support to adults who had reached a point of crisis in their lives. I was a part of a team that helped reduce the use of emergency services by offering a safe space with a 1 to 1 intervention to help with the persons recovery and by encouraging emotional resilience. I have also been involved in projects in secondary schools, providing art therapy to children by working alongside artists, other mental health workers and educators to support creative problem solving as well as to raise awareness around mental health. This was in aim of introducing art therapy to young people to encourage creative and intuitive ways using non-verbal, mind and body connection and encouraging the students to tell their stories through the art making process.

My work is central to a child focused approach. This approach treats the child or young person as the expert of their life experiences. I support children to reach their optimal potential, helping them explore any difficulties that they may be going through by offering them a safe, non judgmental and expressive space to get involved in the art making process.

I have a condition called ‘Dystonia’, and this results in tremors affecting the right side of my body. I am also a drummer and I connect drumming to my art therapy practice. I feel that my tremor, music and art therapy has lead to my tenacious attitude towards understanding the importance of expressing yourself creatively through therapy.