Eastleigh College offers a range of HE courses, and learners on our DipHE Level 5 Counselling course have taken part in a professional development workshop.

Second year students on the course participated in the creative workshop to explore a way of encouraging clients to express themselves. 

The art therapy workshop, which was held on a Saturday, was extremely well received with many learners enjoying first-hand how the therapeutic creative work can be.

The professional development workshop was delivered by Mia Caisley who explained: “Using creative expression for a tool for self-exploration, we used resources available for use as a means of expressing the verbally intangible; when words don't quite do the trick, other platforms might.

“The day consisted of dabbling with different mediums and discussing outcomes in relation to how accurately they depict our inner worlds, undergoing something comparable to an investigation into how it is that art and play therapy could be a useful tool with clients. And for ourselves to get in touch with our current states, or as a way of offering stimuli for observations to be made.”

Student, Hannah, found the art workshop to be incredibly effective. She said: “The workshop enabled me to externalise and explore my own thoughts and feelings through art. It also enabled me to become more confident in using creative materials with clients."

Fellow student, Roger, added: “I really enjoyed the creative art day. The experience helped me to incorporate more creative therapies into my practice with clients. It was also a great opportunity to bond with the group.”

Mia concluded: “From a personal perspective, it was an absolute pleasure to work with such lovely students and I had a thoroughly enjoyable experience at the college.”