Our Therapeutic Approach
At Victoria Art Therapy we provide tailor-made, integrative, trauma-informed art therapy sessions. Each session is designed to be safe, meaningful, and aligned with your unique experience and preferred goals.
Evidence-based frameworks:
Our practice draws on humanistic, integrative and relational theories — supporting insight, resilience and reconnection with inner resources. The approaches we use include:
- Phenomenological (exploring the client’s lived experience)
- Psychodynamic (uncovering unconscious processes and relational patterns)
- Mindfulness (present-moment awareness and curiosity)
- Person-centred (respect, dignity, compassion)
- Trauma-informed practice (strengths-based, safety-oriented)
- Positive art therapy (combining positive psychology and art to mobilise strengths and flow)
- Acceptance & Commitment Art Therapy (using art to support psychological flexibility and values-based action)
- Narrative art therapy (externalising inner stories visually and integrating implicit/explicit memory)
- Somatic release and regulation
- EMDR Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing
Phenomenological
A phenomenological approach invites you to explore how you experience and make sense of your world. It centres on understanding your personal story and the moments that have shaped you. In this process, you are seen as the expert of your own life. Through gentle guidance and creative exploration in art therapy, your therapist supports you in uncovering themes, emotions, and meanings within your lived experiences—encouraging insight, growth, and a deeper connection to yourself.
Psychodynamic Approach
The psychodynamic approach in art therapy invites you to explore the deeper parts of yourself and how past experiences shape the way you feel, think, and behave today. It acknowledges the influence of early relationships and childhood experiences in forming patterns that may continue in your life. Through creative expression and gentle guidance, your therapist helps you uncover these connections, fostering insight, self-understanding, and personal growth.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a mental state of openness, awareness and focus which is achieved by pausing and paying attention to what is happening in the present moment. At Victoria Art Therapy we aim to guide the client into the present moment with an attitude of openness, curiosity and flexibility.
Person -Centred Approach
The person-centred approach in art therapy focuses on you as the expert of your own experience. It provides a safe, supportive, and non-judgmental space where you are free to explore your thoughts, feelings, and creativity at your own pace. Your therapist offers empathy, understanding, and genuine presence, helping you feel heard and valued. Through this approach, art becomes a tool for self-expression, reflection, and personal growth, supporting you to connect with your authentic self and your inner strengths.
Trauma informed Practise
Trauma informed practice is strength- based frameworks, grounded in an understanding of and responsiveness to trauma. The main focus surrounds the physical, psychological and emotional safety for everyone. This creates opportunities for the client to gain a sense of control and empowerment.We recognise the profound ways trauma affects mind, body and nervous system. Our practice integrates artmaking, sensory regulation, somatic awareness, and nervous-system-aware techniques. Research highlights that trauma is not only held in memory but in the body — through tension, dys-regulation or ‘stuckness’. Using art and somatic methods we support the body’s capacity to release stored emotional or physiological charge.
Positive Art Therapy
Positive art therapy combines the principles of positive psychology with the creative expression of art therapy. This approach focuses on your strengths, helping you engage fully in the creative process, experience flow, and cultivate positive emotions. Through art, you are supported to explore new perspectives, recognise your personal resources, and connect with what gives your life meaning and purpose. It’s a way to nurture well-being, resilience, and a deeper sense of fulfillment.
Acceptance and Commitment Art Therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Art Therapy (ACT) uses the creative process to gently guide you in opening up to all of your experiences, including difficult or uncomfortable feelings. This approach supports you in developing psychological flexibility, helping you respond to life with greater awareness and choice. Through art, you are encouraged to:
A= Actively accept your experience
C= Connect with ‘values’ that give your life direction
T= Take immediate action to do what matters and commit to those goals that align with your values.
Narrative Art Therapy
Narrative Art Therapy invites individuals to externalise their inner thoughts, emotions, and, experiences through creative storytelling. This process may unfold visually through imagery or symbol, or verbally through written and spoken expression. By integrating non-verbal, implicit memories held in the right hemisphere of the brain with the verbal and analytical functions of the left hemisphere, this approach supports the formation of explicit, coherent narratives. The result is a deepened understanding of one’s story and an enhanced sense of clarity and meaning.
Somatic release and regulation
We incorporate somatic-art making body-led mark-making, large-scale movements, sensory imagery, mapping felt-sense into art. These approaches give the body a language of its own and support the release of held emotions and nervous-system regulation. For example, art-therapy and somatic trauma literature emphasises how embodied art helps reconnect body and self, assist regulation, and release tension stored in the system. By drawing the felt-sense of what’s held in the body, clients can engage in “bottom-up” processing (through body/sensory) rather than purely “top-down” (through thought).
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR is an evidence-based approach that supports the processing and integration of distressing or traumatic experiences. Using bilateral stimulation—such as eye movements, tapping, or sound—this method helps the brain reprocess difficult memories, allowing emotional and bodily responses to move toward resolution and balance.
Lead therapist Madeleine Chelini is trained in EMDR, enabling the integration of symbolic, visual, and somatic processes within her art therapy practice. When combined with creative expression, EMDR can deepen access to inner imagery, emotion, and body awareness, facilitating the transformation of past experiences into adaptive beliefs and strengthened emotional regulation. This integrative approach bridges the expressive and clinical, fostering healing through both art and neurobiological processing.
Safe relational space
At the heart of this work is authentic connection. You are welcomed into a warm, compassionate, and non-judgmental space where you can feel truly seen, held, and supported. The therapeutic relationship is nurtured as a safe foundation for healing—where trust, empathy, and creative exploration allow meaningful change and growth to unfold.
Why These Evidence-Based Approaches Are Used:
- Trauma often remains unspoken; art and somatic methods provide alternatives to purely verbal talk therapy, offering pathways to expression and integration when words are insufficient.
- Integrating somatic and art-based methods helps regulate the nervous system, support embodiment and foster deeper healing.
- Combining EMDR, art therapy and multimodal frameworks provides flexibility and depth — allowing for adaptive tailoring to diverse needs.
Please contact us to discuss how we might work together.
Start your journey with us
We welcome you to engage in a creative, embodied, safe journey of healing and self-discovery.
This integrative and flexible approach allows each person to engage in art therapy in a way that feels authentic, meaningful, and deeply personal.