Oscar's Picture

Oscar, my five year old son, made this drawing when he was four. He came home, handed me the drawing. “It’s a gift for you”. I asked him what it was, “It’s a monster” Later he said “That picture is me” recently he said it was his Daddy. Next week, who knows where he'll go with it.

I trained on the Art Psychotherapy MA at Goldsmith's University in London primarily to work with children and families. This has been a great foundation for the work I have been doing however the birth of my son and our subsequent relationship has profoundly affected my practice.

Not only has being a parent given me a live experience of child development but also and more importantly a better understanding of my own attachment relationships. As I observe Oscar's relationships with my parents I am reminded of the triangular relationship between client, image and therapist. This is integral to Art Psychotherapy. As art is a way of recognising oneself I no longer recognise the person I was before Oscar.

The love a parent feels for their child, the love we feel for our siblings, family, friends, lifelong partner, lover and self all relates to art psychotherapy. And art psychotherapy at its best and gives room for love to be present. In a letter to fellow psychoanalyst Carl Jung, Freud wrote that “Psychoanalysis is, in essence, a cure through love” (1906).

Katya Somer qualified as an Art Therapist in 2008 from Goldsmiths College, London. Having moved to Sheffield in 2012, Katya currently works as an Art Therapist at Bradford District Pupil Referral Unit where she works with 13-16 year olds excluded from mainstream education and as a Mental Health Practitioner in the Child and Adolescent Mental health Service in Rotherham. Alongside this work, she is an associate with the charity Art Therapy Yorkshire, offers sessional work in schools and has a small private practice.