Kapiti Art Therapy was opened by Kapiti resident Corinne Allan in October last year.
Art therapy is an alternative and creative way to help people with a variety of needs, including those such as emotional stress, asperger’s, ADD, dyslexia and anxiety, to improved balance and coordination, muscle strength, memory and concentration.
We got in touch with Corinne, to find out what shaped her passion for art therapy, and why she decided to open up her business. She told us, “Kapiti only has one sensory group with 8 places and the Health centre in Paraparaumu. There is a waiting list for 9 months for children to be seen and the children usually get discharged after eight sessions”.
Wellington Hospital’s early childhood intervention service currently has over 2000 children on the waiting list, the highest in the country.
Demand for children who struggle with these kinds of difficulties to be seen is very high, and Corinne Allan has been working very hard to support and help some of these people.
While art has been used as a way for people to communicate their thoughts and ideas all throughout human history, the concept of art therapy is fairly new and first came about in Europe and the U.S. in the 1940’s.
Art therapy can be for anyone at any age, and you do not need to be artistically talented to undertake it. There are no set limits as to who can undertake art therapy, and it can help different people in different ways. When undergoing art therapy, you can work with professionals who can analyze the ‘underlying messages’ in the artworks you make.
Image from Kapiti Art Therapy FaceBook page.
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Corinne has joined the WellART group in Wellington, a professional group of art therapists. She works under the guidelines from ANZATA (Australia- New Zealand Art Accusation). She has diplomas in Art Therapy, Mindfulness Thought Processing, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Conflict Management and in Team Dynamics.
She has an overseas diploma in Montessori education. Corinne has worked with children with different abilities for 5 years and has also spent 5 years working with troubled male youth.
Image from Kapiti Art Therapy FaceBook page.
We would like to thank Corinne Allan for taking the time to get in touch with us, and for giving us some background into her business.
