Overall mark ...

This is a particular Assessment Report, which finalised my 1st year Live Art Work option, whilst I was attending the Contemporary Fine Art Degree at Sheffield Hallam University, Psalter Lane Campus, in 2006.  

On discovering and re-reading the Assessment Report some 12 years later, I have come to realise the significant role it has played in both my personal and professional journey.

Both the degree course and the live art option lecturer, Hester Reeve arrived at a time in my life where I had found that I could begin to express some of the internalised frustrations, which had built up inside me during my years of employed service within the NHS and eventually a dissolved marriage.  It was at this point in my life where I began to reclaim and re-engage with the art process.

It was through the support of Hester, where I continued to produce artwork, through expressing my internalised feelings.  This way of producing art became a natural cathartic process that ultimately led me to a therapeutic process.

The ‘Body in Trouble’ Live Art project which is also mentioned in this Assessment Report, allowed me to play and explore change.  It is now, some 12 years later where I once again find myself exploring change.  Since qualify as an Art Therapist and subsequently as a teacher, I have now reached a point in my life where I have gained a professional duality and ultimately I am faced with having my feet in 2 professional camps, which should be a positive position for me.  However, since both the mental health and educational services have experienced much change and funding cuts, job vacancies specifically for art therapists in education have dwindle.  Therefore, I construct my ‘Overall mark…’ once again by unearthing my strength and confidence to continue to practice in this adaptive profession as an Art Therapist.

Joanne Casey-Castley trained as an art therapist at The Northern Programme, Sheffield/Leeds Beckett University.  Completed in 2015 and graduated in 2016.  Has since qualified as a teacher and is applying her therapeutic approach to her work with both adults and young people.