Art Therapy

Art therapy is a counselling-based support that invites people of all ages to explore and express their inner world through creative process. Using art-making, movement, and sensory experiences, sessions support expression, reflection, and body-based awareness — including feelings and sensations that can be hard to access through words alone.

Rather than focusing on outcomes or behaviour, art therapy offers a different kind of language. Images, colours, textures, sounds, and movement can help give form to experiences that feel confusing, overwhelming, or difficult to articulate. This creates space for curiosity and understanding to emerge at a pace that feels safe and respectful.

For children, art therapy and sensory play offer a natural and accessible way to communicate what’s happening inside. Many children express emotions through their bodies and play long before they can explain them verbally. Sessions honour each child’s unique way of expressing themselves, supporting emotional awareness and regulation within a calm, attuned environment.

Parents, caregivers, and families may also engage in art therapy as a way to strengthen connection, deepen understanding, and support emotional communication. Shared creative experiences can open up new ways of relating to one another, especially when words feel limited or charged.

Art therapy supports people — children, adults, and families — to relate differently to their emotions and experiences. The focus is on creating safety, meaning, and connection, allowing growth to unfold through relationship, creativity, and care.

RESOURCES

Important information

Rain & Me. Children’s Therapy offers arts therapy and counselling-based therapeutic supports. Art therapy and creative modalities are used as primary therapeutic processes within a counselling framework. Services are evidence-informed and may support functional goals such as emotional regulation, social engagement, communication, and coping skills, where appropriate. Therapeutic supports are tailored to individual needs and developed through collaborative care planning.

Therapeutic outcomes vary and cannot be guaranteed. Supports are selected based on individual goals, needs, and evidence-informed practice.

NDIS services are available where appropriate and when aligned with participant plans and funding approval. Rain & Me Children’s Therapy works with self-managed and plan-managed participants.

ART THERAPY FAQ’S (adults)

  • Art therapy can be helpful for people who may find it difficult to verbalise their feelings due to developmental, cognitive or other conditions, or experiences of trauma.

    Art therapy supports emotional regulation, expression, and relational engagement. It may be helpful alongside other professional supports but is not a diagnostic intervention.

    • Developing social skills

    • Supporting emotional regulation

    • Building fine and gross motor skills

    • Increased focus and attention

    • Identifying and expressing emotions

    • Building self-confidence

  • No, creating something beautiful or 'artistic' is not the aim of Art Therapy. It is a ‘bottom-up’ therapeutic approach that supports awareness and exploration of embodied experience, creativity, implicit memory, and expression.

  • Art classes teach foundational art techniques using different mediums; while Art Therapy is art-making that takes place within a safe, therapeutic relationship that encourages expression, regulation and integration.

  • Sessions usually begin with orientation into the space, this can be through breathwork or other simple somatic exercises. Your Art Therapist will then either guide you through a process of art-making - working with different materials to support therapeutic outcomes. Or sometimes, you or your child have a strong sense of what you would like to work with. In some sessions, play therapy is offered as an alternative.

  • No, an Art Therapist doesn't interpret your work but companions you or your child towards your own strengths-based meaning making. They may offer things into the space however ultimately only the creator of the art can reveal its truth in the moment.

  • Yes, all artwork made can be taken home. Your therapist may seek your consent to take photos for confidential clinical documentation purposes.

  • Counselling and art-based therapeutic supports may be funded through the NDIS for self-managed or plan-managed participants, where the supports align with the participant’s plan goals and are billed under appropriate therapeutic support categories.

    Funding decisions are made by the NDIS and depend on the individual participant’s plan and goals.

    NDIS agency-managed plans require services to be delivered by a registered NDIS provider.

ART THERAPY FAQ’S (CHILDREN)

  • Art therapy is a space where we get to use all different types of art materials, sometimes just to play with, make things with or explore with all of our senses! We always get choices around what we want to do! Sometimes we make different shapes with our bodies to help us feel safe or think about things differently.

  • Sometimes our thoughts and feelings can get all muddled up (like toys in a toy box!) Art therapy helps us organise and untangle our body sensations and feelings so that we can feel better. Making art also helps us tell stories about our feelings that can sometimes be tricky or we don’t know the words for. And some kids like it because it’s a time where their bodies feel calm.

  • Art therapy can be lots of fun because we get to use all kinds of art materials and do fun activities. But it’s not always fun...sometimes we have to do some boring stuff to help our bodies feel better. And sometimes we feel uncomfortable while we untangle when our feelings and body get all mixed up. When this happens sometimes our brain can say “this is boring” or “i wanna get out of here!”

  • We always want you to have choices and a say in what happens in art therapy. It’s important to us that you feel listened to and respected.

    Sometimes there are things we want to do, and sometimes there are things grown-ups choose because they believe they can help us feel better or safer — even if we’re not sure about them at first. Art therapy is one of those things. It’s not about being forced to do anything, and it’s okay to have mixed feelings about coming.

    Art therapy can help us understand and express our feelings, especially when they feel really big, confusing, scary, or stuck in our bodies. It can also help with relationships with friends and family, and help our bodies learn what to do when things feel overwhelming.

    It’s a bit like going to the doctor, but instead of looking after a sore tummy or a broken arm, we’re looking after our feelings and our emotional world. We take care of the things that live in our hearts — like our memories, how we see ourselves and other people, how safe we feel inside, and our confidence.

  • Some children like art therapy because they get to have one on one time with a parent/caregiver with Rain helping us with different activities. It can be nice to play with them without having to share their attention!

    Some children like having one on one time with the therapist. It makes their bodies feel calm and they like the art materials.

    Some children come because their parents/caregivers think it might help them with their big feelings. Sometimes grown-ups do sessions with our therapist too to learn about their own big feelings and how to help everyone’s bodies feel better.

  • At the beginning it can be exciting to have all these new art materials to explore and play with. Over time though it becomes less about just doing something new and more about expressing our feelings in different ways!

  • When our therapist is talking with a parent/caregiver, it’s never ‘dobbing’ (telling on someone) and we don’t talk about private things shared in sessions.

    Almost always we are talking about how can we best help children be their best selves. Sometimes that might mean making some changes at home or at school so we don’t overwhelmed. Sometimes it’s about helping our parents/caregivers listen to feelings differently. Sometimes it might be something that the grown-ups are worried about and need some new ideas around...two heads are better than one!

  • Our therapists are not exactly our friends but they are definitely friendly! They’re not here to tell you what to do or how to do it! They don’t say things to your parents that will get you into trouble. They’re not like the other grown ups in your lives. They have one goal: to make sure that you have everything we need to feel safe and supported. Sometimes they talk to the other grown-ups in our lives to make sure they have everything they need to help us feel the same!