Groundswell - Linking Nature and Imagination

Groundswell offers individual and group art therapy sessions to children, families, women and community groups by a member of the Irish Association of Creative Arts Therapists registered with the Health Professions Council (UK). Art therapy is a post-graduate qualification that combines academic and practical experience throughout the entire spectrum of health, community and social services.

Art therapy is a medium of psychotherapy whereby the client creates their own expressions through a variety of art materials (usually paint, clay, pastels, pencils, collage materials, found objects, photographs and a range of papers). Art therapy is not a style of art teaching; the art therapist's role is not to instruct, but rather to facilitate engagement with mediums of creativity.

"The overall aim is to enable a client to effect change and growth on a personal level through the use of art materials in a safe and facilitating environment" (British Association of Art Therapists)

"As only the client creates the art expressions with the materials, the interpretation and understanding of them is guided by the client not imposed by the therapist" (Irish Association of Creative Arts Therapists)

Ordinarily art therapists work indoors with predominantly bought art materials, however materials from the garden and landscape offer a vital and ‘alive’ medium for art therapy. Natural materials (water, branches, stones, soil, plants, leaves, vines, flowers, seeds, sand, berries, wood, shells, lichen, bark, turf, straw, meadow grasses, etc.) can be gathered and arranged in a variety of forms, including large scale structures, dwelling spaces and sculptural features. Seasonal festivities, folklore traditions, foraging and the scope to indulge the senses in a variety of natural materials and landscape related materials (i.e. felted or raw wool, feathers and plant dyes) can further develop ideas and mediums of expression.

Social therapeutic horticulture is an associated theme to the practice of art therapy in the landscape. This term links gardening to health promotion, utilising garden activities (propagation, maintenance and harvest) to the furthering of self-confidence, communication, and well-being. The rejuvenating potential of nature can act as a source of resiliency that works flexibly with an individual's potential for 'growth'.

Art therapy in the landscape also incorporates land art practices. Land art developed in the 1960's as a specific category of artistic practice concerned with using natural materials and processes in the production of art. Prominent artists in the land art movement are Andy Goldsworthy, Chris Drury, Hamish Fulton, Richard Long, David Nash and herman de vries. Land art seeks imaginative and metaphorical engagements to earth and nature. It is also a way to document personal associations to terrain - the landscape as a canvas for interactions with the environment. Land artists collaborate with nature as an unpredictable art material, its universal appeal is in its accessibility; it is truly alive with possibilities that each person can employ to shape their own meaning and purpose. Photography is used extensively in this medium of art to capture the often ephemeral nature of land based artworks in relation to changing environmental conditions.

Groundswell's landscape for art therapy includes a large organic vegetable garden with indigenous trees and hedges, dry stone walls, herb beds, meadow and grass areas. The combination of an indoor studio space (where outdoor materials can be used along with traditional art materials) and an outdoor space (for exploring, gathering and making) offers scope for physical immediacy and the triggering of different kinds of creative responses. Land art infuses a sense-ridden immediacy to art making that offers participants a second-look at their surroundings. Art from nature enriches an experiential connection to observation, contemplation and expression. The garden and landscape are never still; they are implicated with growth, decay, weather changes, degrees of light, sound and temperature and seasons of productivity. These dynamics reflect an individual's own changing nature, phases of development, interests and pursuits.

Art therapy in the landscape is a therapeutic medium suitable for all ages. It can offer a special appeal for children, but natural surroundings and materials equally inspire adults. The potential to roam, gather and assemble is an opportunity to utilise nature as a channel of communication and metaphor for the human condition.

Supervision is also available to art therapists, recognised by The Irish Association of Creative Arts Therapists and The British Association of Art Therapists.