Questions people ask

No. This is the question we are asked most, and the answer is genuinely no.

Nothing you make is judged, marked, kept or shown to anyone. Plenty of people arrive saying they cannot draw. By the end of a session it has usually stopped mattering to them.

You arrive and we talk for a few minutes about how things have been. Then there is usually something to make: paint, clay, collage, a story, movement, whatever suits you that day.

You make it. We look at it together, and you say as much or as little about it as you want to.

The making is not the point and it is never assessed. The question is never what should you make. It is what needs to be expressed.

Most people come because something has stopped working and talking about it has not helped. What they tend to leave with is a way to say it that does not depend on finding the right words first, a clearer sense of what sets them off before it takes hold, and a few ways of steadying themselves that still work on a bad day.

The change people mention most often is being able to ask for what they need without apologising for it.

None of that arrives in one session, and we would rather say so than promise otherwise. It builds.

Then you don’t have to. That is much of the point of working through art. You can show something long before you can find words for it.

Talking is always welcome and never required. In group sessions, sharing is invited, never expected.

Yes. What happens in a session stays between us. In group sessions we say this out loud at the start, every time.

The one situation where this changes is if there is a serious risk of harm to you or to someone else.

Yes, and plenty of people do. A first session is partly about whether this suits you at all. There is no commitment to come back.

You are also welcome to message with questions first, and decide nothing.

No. Arts based therapy supports emotional wellbeing, and it sits alongside medical or psychiatric care rather than replacing it.

If you are already under the care of a doctor or psychiatrist, that continues. If something comes up in a session that needs medical attention, we will say so.

A child often cannot tell you what is wrong. They do not have the words yet, or they are frightened of the answer, or they do not want to worry you. What they can do is show you, through a drawing, a clay figure, a story that is apparently about somebody else.

Once it is out and on the table, it can be talked about. Children usually become easier to live with not because they have been corrected, but because something they were carrying alone has been shared.

It also gives them words for their own feelings, which is a thing they keep long after the sessions end.

Probably, yes. The children and teenagers who come here are usually doing one of a handful of things: going quiet and staying in their room, losing their temper over small things, panicking about exams, struggling with friendships or being left out, clinging more than they used to, sleeping badly, or refusing to go to school.

Underneath, it is often anxiety, low confidence, something that happened that they have not told anyone about, or simply the ordinary weight of growing up.

You do not need a diagnosis to come, and you do not need to know what is wrong. Working that out is part of what the sessions are for. Tell us what you have noticed and we will tell you honestly whether we think we can help.

It depends on the child and on their age. Some younger children settle faster with a parent nearby to begin with. Others say far more once they have the room to themselves. Neither is a problem, and it often changes as the work goes on.

We will always talk this through with you before a child’s first session.

You will always know how the work is going and what would help at home. What you will not get is a word-for-word account.

A child only opens up in a room they trust, and that trust does not survive everything being repeated afterwards. The exception is safety: if anything suggests your child is at risk, you will be told.

If that balance worries you, say so before the first session and we will agree together how it will work.

Common, and not a reason to give up. Most children arrive suspicious, teenagers especially, because they assume they are being taken somewhere to be fixed.

It helps to be straight with them: this is not a punishment, nobody is going to tell them what is wrong with them, and they will not be made to talk about anything.

If they still do not want to come after seeing it once, we would rather you did not force it. Message us and we will talk about what else might work.

Children from around six, adolescents, and adults. Individual sessions are planned around the person, whatever their age.

Workshops run in one age group at a time: children roughly 6 to 10, adolescents roughly 11 to 19, and a separate series for women.

No. Individual sessions are for adults of any gender, as well as for children and teenagers.

The group workshops running at the moment are a women’s series and two series for young people. Individual work carries no such limit.

An individual session runs from around an hour to two hours. Workshops run longer, and the length is always given along with the dates.

There is no set number. Some people come once, for something specific. Others come over a few months. We would rather work that out with you than sell you a package upfront.

It depends on the kind of session, so we would rather tell you directly than post a price list that does not fit your situation.

Send us a message and we will tell you straight away. There is no obligation, and nobody will chase you.

Sessions are by appointment only.

Message us with a rough idea of what suits you and we will find a time.

Gujarati, Hindi and English, whichever you are most at home in. People often move between them without noticing, and that is welcome here too.

Tell us which one suits your family when you message, and we will work in that.