Amanda Scott Art Therapy creates a space that brings together dreaming, creativity, art therapy and personal development. Amanda offers this through individual art therapy sessions in Melbourne and Creativity for Wellbeing group sessions in Melbourne. See more about Amanda Scott Art Therapy’s services below.
Therapeutic Arts Practice, or Creative Arts Therapy, integrates therapeutic techniques with the creative process to improve mental health and wellbeing, to come to approximations of meaning to inform us, our decisions and our values.
The creative process offers the opportunity to assess where you are at in your life now, to explore values and patterns of being, and to make choices around preferred ways of being moving forward.
In the four years that I undertook the Masters in Therapeutic Arts Practice at the MIECAT Institute, I came to know The MIECAT form of inquiry as a roadmap for exploration. It is a tool kit of procedures that assist with coming to meaning and making sense of something of value or significance (Lett, 2011, p. 152). The form of inquiry is arts-based, valuing multi-modal paths to knowing.
Companioning is an experience of the values of safety, emergence, and curiosity, enacted with another. Companioning can provide safety and support to stay with the emergence of what may come.
A companion is present alongside the inquirer and is in service of the inquiry. “The participant is an expert in their own knowing and a companion does not interpret but seeks to understand” (Lett, 2011, p. 269).
Companioning can offer a safe space to explore difficult experiences, hold seemingly opposite realities concurrently, and make meaningful decisions and potentially find alternative ways of being.
I value creating safe “containers” for people to explore within. Without safety, diving into the unknown can be uncomfortable and overwhelming. When exploring the unknown it can be helpful to begin with a known context.
Using the arts to explore the unknown allows for space and distance from topics that feel emotionally charged and thus provides an invitation to ‘stay with’ discomfort in a safe way.
Clear steps and transparency gently encourage you to come to the edge and engage with the unknown while being held safely.
Emergence is facilitated by multi-modal expressions: visual, movement, word, or sound, all of which support the forming of embodied, pre-reflective knowing. The inquiry process is cyclical, non-linear and in a constant state of becoming.
‘Staying with’ present experiencing, calls for trust. As things are constantly in motion, there is an impermanence in each approximation of knowing. I value the emergent and ever-changing nature of this approach to Therapeutic Arts Practice.
I am driven by curiosity and a desire to grow, transform and understand myself and others. As a companion, I hold the value of curiosity so that I can bring presence to what feels most important in the moment, to the inquirer and the inquiry. Curiosity also forms a part of allowing for emergence.
Curiosity encourages us to take a risk and step out of the comfort and safety of that which is known, in order for something new to emerge.
Co-facilitated by Jacqui Grace (MA AThR) of Beautiful Wasteland and Amanda Scott (MA AThR) of Amanda Scott Art Therapy, this workshop is an invitation to aesthetically reflect on the year that has passed and bring these knowings into collaboration with your intentions for the coming year through eco printing on watercolour paper and binding your own bespoke journal.
Art therapists use creative, arts-based processes as part of their therapeutic work with clients, to facilitate self expression, communication, self awareness and personal development.
Creative expression has been found to improve health including physical, emotional and cognitive functioning, integrating socially and increasing the overall quality of life, meaning and insight of self in the world.
My approach begins with developing a safe space for you to enter into, or continue on, a journey of self-discovery.
I will journey alongside you, in a co-inquiry together, focussing on strengthening meaning, expanding perspective, and developing a connection to spirit and purpose.
I will encourage those I work with to explore their unconscious world and significant internal experiences and patterns, bringing light, awareness and healing.
“Transpersonal work provides people in crises with an alternative to symptom suppression. It helps them to creatively adapt to their crisis, using the experience to grow and truly heal. The experience is transformed into a breakthrough rather than breakdown.”
– Phoenix Institute of Australia
Transpersonal Art Therapy uses a psycho-spiritual approach to counselling, recognises a spectrum of consciousness, including altered states, dreams, intuition and a collective consciousness, and accesses creativity to work through problems and issues.
Transpersonal Art Therapy encourages self awareness which leads to authenticity and personal empowerment, is client centred and based on the Shamanic Model, encourages holistic healing by considering mind, body, spirit and environment.
Focussing is a very useful tool to connect. When someone is overwhelmed by emotion, or highly analytical and unable to flow, it can be helpful to use this technique to connect with inner knowing and creativity.
The MIECAT Form of Inquiry begins with bringing attention and awareness to experiencing. This is then followed by expressions of experience completed in any art-form and sometimes verbally. More information about the MIECAT approach can be found here.
My approach is influenced by the person centred approach developed by psychologist Dr. Carl Rogers who believed that the relationship with a person has therapeutic value, and a therapist who was deeply understanding (empathic), accepting (having unconditional positive regard) and genuine (congruent) was the basis of a therapeutic relationship.
Transpersonal Art Therapy uses a psycho-spiritual approach to counselling, recognises a spectrum of consciousness, including altered states, dreams, intuition and a collective consciousness, and accesses creativity to work through problems and issues. Transpersonal Art Therapy encourages self awareness which leads to authenticity and personal empowerment, is client centred and based on the Shamanic Model, encourages holistic healing by considering mind, body, spirit and environment.
This involves using imagery to create and put energy into what you want to create for your present and future. This can help an individual to manifest what they want by focussing on these things, based on the idea you attract what you focus on.
Working with the aspects of self in the present moment.
Gestalt techniques can assist in creating awareness around the aspects of self, discovering the needs and reasons for them being present.
Ritual is a very powerful way to allow for one to move through and honour an experience or transition. This can aid in releasing old patterns or emotions, honouring parts of self and re-enacting a psychological death in order to move into new opportunities.
Art therapy can benefit all ages, genders, cultural backgrounds and socio-ecenomic circumstances. The insights, growth, healing and learning is tailored to the individual needs of the client. The therapeutic process begins from where the individual is at and will be guided by the client, as I will facilitate the discovery process.
My particular style is great for someone who is wanting to explore themselves in the world and who is ready, courageous enough and willing to step into the unknown in order to discover something new.
Art therapy is suitable for anyone who would like to inquire into themselves and how they experience the world, discover more about themselves, clear blockages, heal from past experiences, develop and connect with their creativity, or improve relationships.
There are many other reasons someone may want to explore art therapy, as many reasons as their are individuals. Art Therapy can also benefit those experiencing a range of mental, emotional and physical illnesses, disorders, addiction, trauma, grief and loss.
Remember to keep an open mind, and ask for that you need.
Since 2003 I have worked as a facilitator, running various self empowerment programs, workshops, camps and seminars. During this time I studied a Bachelor of Art, Visual Art and Photography, Diploma of Youth Work and a Diploma of Transpersonal Art Therapy at Phoenix Institute of Australia in Melbourne in 2009. I began Amanda Scott Art Therapy in 2011 and completed the Graduate Diploma in 2014 and Masters in Therapeutic Arts Practice at The MIECAT Institute in 2016. My personal journey has been one of exploring the depths of myself, my identity and finding my unique place in the world.
As a quiet and shy teenager, I found myself confused and unsure of who I was. I had always been a bit of a chameleon. I had discovered the best way to survive in school was to not stand out. When finishing school and attending my first personal development program, I was stunned when I was asked my opinion on something, and I had no idea what I really thought. This sparked a journey inwards, and a realisation that I had spent years becoming what I thought I should be, determined by people around me, school, the media, and now I had no idea what was my true voice.
The next few years I felt so lost, and not sure how to find what was true for me, as I had no previous awareness on what it really meant. I went through years of depression and anxiety, fighting with myself and the judgement that I had no reason to be depressed, I had a good life, what was I complaining about? I attended many programs, in order to find my way. Creativity, art therapy, and creative journaling became my friend.
It was a gradual process of allowing myself to have a voice, allowing my experience to be valid and worthy of being shared, allowing myself to be vulnerable and let people see me. Through opening up, I have deeper connections to those around me, I have found my unique voice, and it is more infinite than I expected, because I have realised I am constantly growing, that I am in a constant state of becoming.
I have found acceptance and joy, of perfection in the imperfection and willingness to share my vulnerabilities. Because in being authentic in my triumphs as well as my challenges, I can be more true to myself and feel more connected to others. I am human, I am imperfect and I am courageous enough to keep opening.
Amanda now runs Amanda Scott Art Therapy in Melbourne, working with adults, an Art Therapy networking group, and workshops & camps as a community facilitator supporting children and young people involved in the child protection system in Victoria, and has trained facilitators to run these programs nationally.
Amanda draws on her skills in art therapy and group facilitation to journey with clients facing various challenges into a space that they can connect with their own intuition and inner knowing, to find the tools to fulfil their potential, find hope for the future and live a meaningful life.
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