reflection

Having come to the end of Unit X and my placement at Start in Salford I think I have definitely been able to improve my existing skills in helping and teaching as well as learning new ones.

This has affected my practice I think because instead of wanting to be an independent practitioner/artist, I’d like to be like an artist in residence – rather than producing my own work independently, I think I would work best in an organisation rather like Start, using my own skills as a practitioner and designer to help others to learn and work with their own skills. What I love about Start is that art is used as a type of therapy, the organisation’s main aim is to help people with difficulties and personal issues to become more involved and open members of society, and I have seen this throughout my six weeks placement there. An example of this is that many of the volunteers there were once members, they started off as the people advised to attend by their doctors, and with Start’s help have been able to use their own experiences to help new members there. I enjoyed my time there so much that I'm going to continue volunteering over the summer, which will build my relationship with the centre even more, and gaining this type of experience is invaluable if I wish to continue this line of work after university.
I think if I was to redo this Unit X I would do some more reading around the topic of art therapy - as much as I have gained from personal experience with the subject, it would be good also to learn about the ideas and thoughts behind art therapy from others.

My own confidence has grown too. At the beginning of the unit I was quite nervous to get up and present my ideas to my peer group, but through working with the external organisations and with our presentations I think I've been able to improve my articulation skills and also learnt how to adapt how I speak and help others depending on their personal circumstances.