It was an image I had made while supporting Dave in running an Art Therapy group in a Regional Secure Unit. Dave was the visiting Art Therapist and I was an Occupational Therapist working in the unit. This was also before we became a couple. Although I was the unit staff member Dave encouraged me to use the art materials alongside the group members. It was my first real understanding of Art Therapy and how the group members responded to the process.
Of course I did wonder what my image was about. I remember enjoying using good quality art materials and having fun with the colours and shapes. ‘Faces and Scarves’ was what I informally called it. I valued and liked my image enough to keep it and for a while it was even framed and on the wall in our home in the late 80's. But over the many years since then I believed it to be lost.
I shared my idea of what I would have chosen with Dave and you can imagine my delight when he searched through some old folders of art work and found it!
Just looking at it again made me smile and remember.
Now I think it symbolises the start of my relationship with Art Therapy in so many ways and represents the many connections with Art Therapists and Art Therapy over the years, some very good and some challenging, both inside and out of work.
So for me it is a very personal Art Therapy object
Julie Edwards (formerly Leeson) trained as an Occupational Therapist and started working in the NHS in 1981 and has mainly worked in and around mental health ever since. Julie first encountered Art Therapy in 1982 at Stanley Royd Hospital in Wakefield and since then has had a long standing relationship with the discipline, as both a colleague and a manager. On a personal note, she is married to an Art Therapist!
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