My Approach
Art Therapy is a space for self-discovery, healing, and transformation. My approach is deeply rooted in the connection between creativity, the body, and the unconscious. I believe that art has the power to reveal what words cannot always express, allowing us to access deeper layers of emotion, intuition, and personal insight.
My work is inspired by nature, dreams, and the regenerative qualities of the creative imagination. My practice welcomes those seeking to reconnect with their creativity, navigate life transitions, or explore emotional healing through image-making and reflective dialogue.
Mirroring, Attunement & Empathic Presence
Drawing from influences of Jungian depth psychology, I work with image, metaphor, symbols, reflective dialogue and active imagination to help clients connect with their inner world. I also emphasise the importance of embodiment—engaging the senses and trusting the creative process to bring clarity, energy, and integration. Whether navigating life transitions, seeking deeper self-understanding, or wanting to reclaim your creative vitality, I offer a supportive, confidential, non-judgmental space where you can explore freely.
Art therapy is not about skill or perfection; it is about allowing what wants to emerge, embracing spontaneity, and developing a compassionate relationship with yourself. Through this process, we cultivate inner resources, resilience, and a renewed sense of possibility.
You don’t need to be an artist or good at art to begin. In fact, many of the people I work with haven’t touched art materials since childhood. What matters isn’t what the art looks like, but what it expresses, what it uncovers, what it opens.
In our sessions, we begin by arriving together—checking in with how you are, where you are, and what is calling for attention. From there, we may explore some somatic exercises, building a container in the body for the unconscious material. Resourcing through orienting with the felt sense, we move toward art making using a range of materials such as pastels, paint, collage, clay, or whatever feels right for you. The art can be spontaneous or guided, abstract or symbolic.
After creating, we take time to reflect—looking at the image as a mirror of the inner world, noticing what arises in the body, sensations, emotions, or memories. This dialogue with the image often brings insight, release, and connection to deeper layers of the self. I walk alongside you with care, curiosity, and deep respect for your inner process.
“Healing occurs then not only because the meaning or image is found, but because the process of life is given attention and empathic presence and a mirroring that touches whatever it is.”
Alchemy through Art and Mask Work
Jung’s alchemical process is a metaphor for the transformative process that can happen with embodied creative expression in art therapy when working with masks, clay, paint or other creative tools. When I use the term ‘transformative’ within my work, its meaning is comparable to Jung’s metaphor of the alchemical process.
Jung often emphasized that the psyche expresses itself primarily through images, symbols, and fantasies—especially in dreams, active imagination, and art. This idea is foundational to Jungian depth psychology.
“My approach is deeply rooted in the connection between the creative imagination, the body and the unconscious, bridging the unknown to the known through the embodied creative process we may arrive on new ground, revealing and integrating the emerging new life in the image into the possibility of being.”
SARAH BARGUS