Our Treloar’s mental health team is made up of Counsellors, an Art Therapist, Music Therapists and Play Therapists, who all use their expert knowledge and skills in a non-judgmental way to provide evidence-based psychological interventions. We also have a family therapist.
Sessions can help students deal with particular feelings and experiences causing them problems and disrupting their learning. Structured sessions also support emotions the student doesn’t know they have, which can also alleviate the physical effects of stress.
Art Therapy:
- allows for a student’s natural self-expression and exploration through art making activities.
- can help students to release stress and express feelings that are hard to verbalise.
- is individually tailored to a student’s need and preferences at a client-led pace. For example, some students require longer brushes, light boxes (vision impairment), and ‘hand over hand’ support.
- allows exploration of materials that are sensory and soothing, for gently fostering a trusting therapeutic relationship.
Music Therapy:
- uses a wide range of musical instruments, sounds and styles to support self-expression.
- can help students to regulate difficult emotions, 1:1 or in a class group.
- can help the student to develop the emotional sensing of others and improves self-expression and communication.
Play Therapy:
- gives the opportunity to act out inner experiences and feelings for processing what has happened.
- spontaneous assisted play enables the counsellor to meet the student at their level.
- can help children of all ages with understanding and expressing unknown feelings for healing.
- can help organise personal experience through social cooperation, emotional regulation and problem-solving
Sensory Pre-therapy counselling:
- is a play approach using materials and skills for activating sensory input.
- helps students who are unable to verbalise internalised feelings, due to pre-birth, during birth or early trauma experiences or due to either physical, emotional or cognitive processing difficulties.
Professional Training:
All of our team have specialist training within their field to at least degree level and are constantly striving to improve their way of working and complete further training. Vanessa Edworthy, Head of the team, is currently completing the final year of her master’s course, in Play Therapy, CBT and also Systemic Therapy, where her dissertation will be focussed on working with clients who have a disability. Cress Lindsay, Specialist Music Therapist, is currently undertaking her PhD at Guildhall University. Jude Horwell is in the process of training her young dog, Stanley,to be a Canine Assisted Therapy Dog—in working therapeutically with disabled children.