Lizzie aims to maximise clients’ emotional wellbeing, resilience and mental health, and help families, professionals and organisations better understand and manage these issues.
Experience
Hi there, I’m Lizzie! I’m an art therapist, and my specialist area is therapeutic work with children, young people and their families. I have 11 years’ experience working as a therapist in primary and secondary school, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) and community settings. I’ve also worked with adolescents in a residential therapeutic community and with adults in NHS Mental Health units and community day centres. I established Creating Healthy Minds in 2014, developing my Private Art Therapy Practice alongside my CAMHS Clinic work.
I love working with others and provide clinical supervision to qualified and trainee art therapists and counsellors. I also offer consultation and reflective practice sessions to a wide range of health, education and social care professionals. I have lectured on the Foundation and MA Art Therapy courses at the University of Hertfordshire for a number of years and enjoy delivering training workshops and writing about art therapy, emotional wellbeing, mental health and social care issues. I’m an active member of the British Association of Art Therapists, and have facilitated and led CPD opportunities, co-ordinated and represented professional bodies at local and national levels.
Qualifications
I qualified as an Art Therapist in 2008, having completed the Masters Level training at the University of Hertfordshire. The British Association of Art Therapists approved me as Clinical Supervisor in 2012, and as a Private Practitioner in 2014. In 2016 I completed a Postgraduate Diploma in IAPT* Systemic Family Practice, awarded by Kings College London, in partnership with University College London and the Anna Freud Centre (*Improving Access to Psychological Therapies).
My first degree—a BA Hons in Philosophy—consisted of studying Psychology, Cognitive Development, Personal Identity, Existentialism, Human Rights, Ethics, Political and Religious Philosophy, Social Knowledge, Philosophy of Art & Literature, Imagination and Visual Art. I also hold a City & Guilds of London Level 2 Certificate in working with people with learning difficulties.
I’m committed to continuing my professional development. I keep at the forefront of developments within art therapy practice and research, and attend courses about other therapeutic models; examples include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Solution Focused Therapy, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy, Mentalisation Based Therapy, Family and Systemic Approaches to Therapy, Play Therapy, Transactional Analysis and Parent Training Programmes. I integrate concepts from these specialisms into my work, to offer the most helpful therapeutic approach to each of my clients.
