Empowering personal growth and professional development through creativity, nature and belonging.

Personal Therapy for Therapy and Counselling Trainees

​​  Supporting your training

Embarking on a journey to become a counsellor or psychotherapist is both rewarding and challenging. Many advanced psychotherapy and counselling courses require personal therapy, and for good reasons. It’s essential for therapists to, not only develop self-awareness and good self-care habits, but also that they have worked on themselves before they can work with others as fully qualified therapists.

​Training in psychotherapy involves not just learning theories about the mind, human development, and relationships, but also understanding the impacts of trauma, neglect, and abuse. This can be intense and incredibly difficult; we cannot assimilate all this understanding without context. 
​It is only natural to understand this learning in our own life context. Having someone to help you navigate how this knowledge may or may not be applicable to yourself or those around you can make a significant difference.

With experience in offering therapy for MA Art Therapy and MA Music Therapy students, as well to other counselling courses, I understand how personal and academic development need to go hand in hand. Neglecting this link may lead to burnout or the development complex defence mechanisms that hinder yourself and even your future career.

​“Marta, with extraordinary care and compassion, helped me explore my anxiety and feelings. Through art making she helped me explore my anxiety, and where it comes from. This has helped me to have a better understanding of myself and most importantly be more compassionate to myself. She helped me fundamentally change the way I think.”
As an art therapy trainee, she provided a safe and Understanding space for me to explore my anxieties and the many highs and lows throughout my training. Marta truly understood my trainee experience and was a constant invaluable support through out this time.”
HC MA Art Therapy trainee

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​  Benefits of Personal Therapy for Trainees

In the therapy room, you’ll find a space to integrate the complex theories and concepts you’re learning in your training. It’s a place for healing and developing self-reflection, awareness and compassion, which are crucial as you grow into your new identity as a therapist or counsellor. Without these important foundations, you may not be able to complete your training or eventually maintain a professional career in the long run.

  How I Work with MA Therapy Students

Working with therapy and counselling trainees is one of my passions. I love to see and be part of the student development and to see the immense growth and transformation as they go through their training.
​Both the MA Art Therapy and Music Therapy courses at the University of Derby require students to engage in 70 hours of personal therapy over two years training, aligning with the academic schedule. As your therapist, and although I have to submit information about my practice to the Universities, the student’s personal therapy is completely independent from university. I am only asked to confirm the number of hours the trainee has engaged in therapy with me over their training time.
Typically, I work with trainees from the beginning of their course until they qualify, and sometimes even beyond that. However, I have also worked students who, for various reason, have needed to change therapists at different stages of their course training. A deeper and stronger therapeutic relationship develops over this time, and with this important to the therapeutic success. The therapeutic work can also be deeper, better internalised and longer lasting.
Because the student’s experience of the course and of their learning is so individual and personal, I only work with one student per cohort to ensure confidentiality and the individualised support. This also helps avoid potential conflict of boundaries, for example it allows me to attend exhibitions and performances without breaching privacy.

​Have you applied or are you considering a Master’s in Art or Music Therapy?

Get in touch to book an introductory meeting and discuss how we can work together. Don’t wait too long, especially near the start of the academic year.
If you are still considering a career as an art psychotherapist, get in touch. I am always happy to talk about the profession and how I work, giving you a better understanding of the profession and how it may be like to go through the training.