TRANSPERSONAL ARTS IN THERAPY

Our transpersonal approach respects and encompasses historical/traditional culture and multicultural perspectives on body, soul and spirit. Key to our training is the awareness of how art and the human encounter can transform self and others in personal, cultural and spiritual ways.

In Arts in Therapy clients are offered hands on image making activities and dialogue. The therapist/counsellor initiates or supports a process of recovery, improvement or acceptance in the client’s condition. There is communication between the counsellor and the client throughout the processes with regard to the counselling/therapy itself and the impact on the client. A therapist works with either a group or in a one-to-one setting and provides a safe and secure environment for clients’ engagement in a creative personal process.

Students learn client-centred counselling techniques, case management, ethics, working with different populations, legal obligations and setting up a practice. Students also complete 100 days of supervised clinical experience.

We respect each individual’s search for meaning, and are respectful of the views and belief systems of our students. Tobias students are exposed to cognitive approaches to psychotherapy, as well as to experiential modes of healing engaging the full spectrum of human consciousness.

Tobias invests in a vision of a community tolerant of individuality, fostering counsellors and therapists who are able to validate and support meaning in their clients’ experiences.For such a community to be viable, students take on an attitude of personal responsibility for their own self development, so that they become models of exemplary practice for their clients.

Tobias seeks to become a model for how an educational institution can support the emergence of more ‘conscious’ individuals who aspire towards authenticity and who can build communities and be connected to their environment. Our goal is to foster a new generation of integrated practitioners and thereby bring psycho-spiritual work into the mainstream of therapeutic practice.

Tobias is founded upon the principle that both individual healing and collective evolution begin with an individual’s willingness to engage in self development involving the ‘whole’ person, encompassing body, mind, spirit and environment.

We believe that the programme is unique in both its content and methods of delivery. Much of the learning is experiential; theory is taught and embedded through artistic practice and group processes. The teaching emphasises the development of intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual awareness.

Our students leave with a compassion for self and others and the desire to serve in their communities.

COURSE DETAILS

Transpersonal Arts In Therapy Training

The Tobias Transpersonal Arts in Therapy training responds to a growing need for a holistic approach to the concepts and practices of arts in therapy. The course is grounded in Transpersonal Arts practice, that is rooted in image and metaphor that provides a sound and coherent foundation for therapeutic practice. The programme focuses on deepening the student’s proficiency in engaging through art and the human encounter for wellbeing, personal growth, and social change. Counselling is developed as an art, the conscious art of transformative meeting.

Our training offers distinctive curricula that unites a broad range of artistic, theoretical and experiential approaches into a whole journey. We believe art works through the human being’s senses to free and harmonise the dynamics of body, soul and spirit.

The shared orientation of the programme at Tobias is the developmental philosophy founded by Rudolf Steiner, known as Anthroposophy, a modern spiritual path that respects the freedom of each individual, through a holistic understanding of body, soul and spirit.

Students are invited to explore this approach in order to come to their own judgements about its validity and relevance. This is taught within a critical context including Psychodynamic and Humanistic theory and practice.

The student will be taught how to build and maintain relationships and how to contact and communicate with people within professional boundaries. The students will be able  to initiate, maintain and conclude a working relationship. the student is taught compliance with current government legislation and professional association regulations.

Where Can I Work

• Primary Care: independent practice; possible affiliation with a GP practice, therapy centre, health centre or psychotherapy practice.
• Mental health care: psychiatry, substance abuse recovery, psychotherapeutic clinic, prevention programme.
• Special Needs centres.
• Care of the elderly: geriatric nursing homes.
• Education and youth care: primary school, secondary school, college of further education, child therapy centre, special education.
• Terminal Care and bereavement.
• Prison service, probation, rehabilitation.
• Asylum centres and refugee work.
• Hospitals, hospices, respite centres.
• Convalescent homes, rehabilitation centres and facilities for those with acquired brain injury or physical impairment.

Tobias Transpersonal Arts in Therapy Training is a professional training, academically accredited by the City & Guilds at Level 7, Membership Level, (Masters equivalent). This award does not lead to registration as an Art Therapist with Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) in Britain. Those wishing to practice in the UK will need to practice under a different title (Transpersonal Arts Counsellor or Therapeutic Arts Practitioner) unless already registered. Our graduates are, however, eligible to apply for accreditation with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).

We are registered with the International Academy of Anthroposophic Arts Therapies Educations, iARTe, previously known as the European Academy for Anthroposophical Art Therapy. Our training applies the iARTe guidelines which are recognized by the Medical Section of the School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland.

Study Options

3 Year Full-time Training (Beginning September each year):

Year 1: Sept – Jul – attendance Monday and Tuesday 09:30-17:00 plus a 4/5 day intensive each term.

Year 2: Sept – Jul – attendance Monday and Tuesday, 09:30-17:00 plus one Placement Day each week.

Year 3: Sept – Jul  – Supervised clinical placement, dissertation writing and case studies. Mentoring, tutorials and supervision are conducted.  Assessment and Graduation period.

4 Year Part Time/Modular Training: (Click here for details.)

This format of the training consists of a blend of residential and online modules every year for four years.  It comprises of one residential module for two weeks during April each year and six two-day online modules spread throughout the remainder of each year.

This training is ideally suited to students residing outside of the UK but is also suited to UK students who have work and/or family commitments where this method of training would work best.

At these modules’ thoughts are transformed into imagination as inward experiences which renew the soul’s life of feeling and perception.

Please note that all entry and training requirements are the same for both the Full Time and Modular formats of this training.

COMPETENCIES

Upon completion of the training, each student

• Has a provisional theoretical model from which they can compare and understand how theory links to practice. Describes and notes themes and theory issues.
• Is able to demonstrate integration of the above and more genuine and insightful ways of responding to clients. Ability to invite and contain another person in an artistic activity with deeper level of emotional involvement. Greater awareness of self.
• Can monitor own capacity to carry a small case load (average of 3 clients a week). Can keep records and journals, can write process notes of sessions. Can make case presentations for supervision, can reflect on supervisory experiences and use them in sessions.
• Can build up a provisional body of theory as an effective working model, can reflect critically on own perspectives and practice with appropriate use of literature and resources.
• Can contain affect and respond in a creative way which requires greater reflexive capacity. Ability to move freely and support the client through a transformative process through the visual arts which may be challenging for both client and therapist.
• Has a researcher attitude of openness and is not defensive to peer or client reflections on self and process.
• Can write records, reports and journals with critical and reflexive ability, appropriately communicating clinical questions and ideas.
• Has built a body of theory as an effective working model. Reflects critically on own perspectives and practice with broad and relevant use of literature and resources.
• Can describe clinical work at different levels, and see and hold a range of meanings.
• Can raise insightful diagnostic and process questions. Can name process issues and dynamics in interpersonal and transpersonal terms. Can judge where supervision is most needed and has an initial internal supervisor integrated. Can invite and contain artistic processes which challenge and intensify psychological processes with security. Models an imaginal, phenomenological and non-judgemental attitude to the expressions of self. Is congruent and responsible for the context of the work.
• Can work with a mixed case load.
• Can write records, reports and journals with critical and reflexive ability appropriately communicating clinical questions and ideas.

Teaching Methods

Knowledge is developed through:
• Lectures
• Workshops
• Seminars
• Tutorials
• Reading
• Experiential Therapeutic Exercises (Experience of Art and Creativity)
• Simulated practice
• Observations

Intellectual Skills are developed through:
• Written Assignments
• Experiential group and exercises
• Group Discussion
• Journal Writing

Practical Skills are developed by:
• Arts in Therapy role play
• Experiential exercises
• Proficiency in artistic skills
• Recognise the significance of image elements in artistic works
• Reflecting on the Artistic Process
• Ability to use observational research methods

Clinical Placement and Supervision

100 Days of clinical placement is required. Supervision is a key aspect and will usually be provided by the placement institution. At Tobias we believe that a range of clinical experience is necessary in order to maximise the students’ employability prospects.

Personal Therapy

All students must have had personal therapy before commencing clinical placement. 40 hours of personal therapy is required over the duration of the training

Fees and Funding

FULL TIME TRAINING 2022 – 2025

Year 1:     Transpersonal Arts for Health & Wellbeing      £6300
Year 2:    Transpersonal Arts in Therapy                            £6540
Year 3:    Transpersonal Arts in Therapy                            £2640

PART TIME (Modular) TRAINING

Click here for Modular Costs.

Campus accommodation:

£70-£90 per week or £15.00 per night

Private single room sharing bathrooms and kitchen with other students. Residents share kitchen and bathroom cleaning and other small jobs. Rent is payable through holiday periods. Please reserve your room early if you want to live on campus. Rooms must be rented for at least a term and we require a month’s deposit upon reservation and one month’s notice period. The deposit will be refunded at the end of the rental period if the room is left clean and in good order.  Please bring your own towels. Bed linen is provided.

Financial support. Please contact the administrator for funding ideas.

Art materials

Estimated at £240 during the first year, and, once the basic materials have been bought, less in the second year. Mainly watercolours, brushes, boards, paper, pastels and drawing materials are required.

Additional student requirements:

Students are required to have a minimum of 40 hours of personal therapy (art therapy and counselling/psychotherapy) taken regularly throughout the duration of the course. 40 hours are required to be completed by the end of the training and can cost between £35-55 per hour.

Students are required to undertake 100 days of supervised clinical practice. One hour of supervision for every 6 hours of client contact time. This cost is mostly covered by the institution where the placement is undertaken.

Note: 

Accommodation, food, materials and travel are not included in the fees. Fees are subject to annual review and possible increase.

Apply / Entry Requirements

• Completion of our application form and necessary documentation if not already done for first year.
• A brief biography that outlines your historical relationship with art and your interest in helping others (Approximately 500 words.)
• Two references are requested – one academic and one professional. See form in application pack.
• You are encouraged to attend an interview preferably in person but we are able to do it via Skype or telephone.
• Have evidence of a good command of written and spoken English.
• Where English is not your first language you should have achieved an overall score of 6.5 in IELTS or at level B2 on the new European Levels Grid.
• Candidates should hold a first degree. Where no first degree has been obtained life experience may be taken into consideration.
• Candidates will be expected to provide a CV showing any experience of relevant working experience in an appropriate field such as education, health care or social services.
• Maturity and life experience are needed for this training and therefore the minimum entry age is 24 years old.
• In compliance with the terms of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, 1974, and mental health legislation for clinical placement and other similar areas of employment, applicants are required to provide a medical report and submit to an enhanced criminal record check when commencing placement.
• Candidates will be expected to provide evidence of previous experience of at least one year of relevant working experience in an appropriate field such as education, health or social care.

At interview Candidates are assessed on:

• Emotional Robustness
• Capacity to remain open to differences and compassion for self and others.
• Candidates will be expected to produce a folio of their recent artwork as evidence of engagement with the arts and the presence of a developing visual language.

Ready to apply? Download our application form here.

Telephone: +44 1342 313655

Email: info@tobiasart.org

or fill in the form below and we will send you details.

 

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