This highly experiential training day will model practical ways of using creative arts approaches for dealing with anger, frustration, and the disruptive acting-out of children and adolescents. Expressive Therapy tools such as drawing, bioenergetics, emotion-focused activities and relaxation will be introduced. As well as presenting the framework and principles of Expressive Therapies, there will be a focus on understanding symbolic expression of anger, bringing closure after expressive work and supporting cognitive and somatic integration.

These approaches have been developed from emotion-focused and psychodynamic theory, and support young clients to resolve underlying emotional issues impacting negatively on behaviour and cognition.

The aim in using creative arts-based emotion-focused activities is to guide a client to work through the layers of negative or difficult emotions and return to a calm and balanced emotional state. Anger is often a secondary emotion, a reaction to being hurt or feeling vulnerable and exposed. Under anger there are likely to be other more vulnerable feelings, such as sadness, hurt, loss. Emotional resolution is enhanced when these primary feelings can also be accessed and experienced in the safety of a well-established therapeutic alliance.