Presenting Problems

• Problems of ongoing illness with a somatised aspect related to the stressful conditions of a demanding job in Social Care. This role also linked to the client’s own difficult and troubled childhood history marked by abuse and emotional neglect.
• Persecutory, excessively self-demanding and punitive work ethic and split off internal world.
• Socially isolated.

CORE Score

• Therapy began in June 2011. CORE score issues improved from 3.5 in terms of wellbeing to 0.5 at the end of therapy. A significant improvement of 30 increments.
• In terms of risk the scores improved from 0.5 to 0.2 at the end of therapy.
• Overall questions were measured at 2.3 which reduced to 0.5 at the end of therapy. A significant improvement of 18 increments.

See qualitative comments section for what clients say about art therapy.

Presenting Problems

• A young woman who had developed Bi-Polar Affective Disorder with periods of hypomania and depression. She was receiving medication treatment and was well stabilised on Lithium. The patient reported not noticing any marked benefit from medication in terms of her depression but had done so regarding the mania.
• In terms of the family history there was depression on her maternal side of the family. There was some occasions of bullying during her school years but was able to defend herself appropriately and effectively where necessary. She did however report low self-esteem and a negative view of herself from being a teenager. She had occasionally induced vomiting or avoided food having been conscious of her weight since the age of 14.
• In terms of symptoms of depression she thought this began aged 17 and was prescribed antidepressants which she had a difficult reaction to. Aged 19 she began self-harming as well as having visual and auditory hallucinations. This seemed to coincide with the split from her boyfriend who was frequently violent and controlling towards her. Around that time she received some Cognitive Behavioural Therapy over 12 sessions.

CORE Score

• CORE score issues improved from 2.8 in terms of wellbeing to 0.8 at the last therapy session and 0.3 at follow up. A significant improvement of 25 increments.
• In terms of risk scores fell from 1.3 to 0 at the last session being maintained as such through to the six month follow up. A significant improvement of 13 increments.
• Overall questions were measured at 2.6 which reduced to 0.4 at the last therapy session and measured at 0.5 by the six month follow up post therapy appointment measure. A significant improvement of 21 increments.
• At the end of therapy this client reported her feelings as not totally resolved but more able to cope with her problems and able to talk about them with her partner and some trusted friends rather than avoid, minimise or split them off. She felt art therapy had helped more than she initially expected and was able to name and recognise her feelings before they grew to catastrophe point. She reports less instances of issues about her body or food and less guilty about things out of her control.
• At the beginning of therapy they reported massive mood swings; being hyper for days/weeks then low from her pre-teen / early teen years. She wanted to stop obsessing over things and have more control over her mood swings. She thought treatment might help in understanding her own thought processes. Some emotions however continue to take time to process and articulate.

Towards the end of therapy the client had been able to begin driving again having not had any psychotic symptoms for the previous two years. She also began planning to come off medication (having already reduced this) in order to have her first child.

See qualitative comments section for what clients say about art therapy.

Presenting Problems

• Difficulties with relationships and specific trauma in childhood.
• Dependency problems in current relationship and ambivalence.
• Feelings of shame around intimacy and suppressed anger.
• Current problems with eating.

CORE Score

• CORE score issues improved from 1.0 in terms of wellbeing to 0.8 at the follow up measure. A specific life event had occurred midway into therapy where there is a ‘spike’ in the graph.
• In terms of risk scores were at 0.2, increased slightly to 0.6 during therapy and reduced to 0 by the follow up measure.
• Overall questions were measured at 1.0 which reduced slightly to 0.8 by the follow up stage.

See qualitative comments section for what clients say about art therapy.

Presenting Problems

• Previous depression and subsequent difficult specific incident at work.
• Some autistic traits which make processing feelings more complicated for the client.
• Difficult attachments with parents, especially father in childhood due to an issue never fully addressed in the personal family history.

CORE Score

• CORE score issues improved from 3.0 in terms of wellbeing to 1.8 at the last therapy session. A significant improvement of 12 increments. Then getting worse at follow up March 2015.
• In terms of risk scores were at 0 at the start of therapy and remained so at the last session but then increased after therapy finished.
• Overall questions were measured at 1.7 which reduced to 1.5 by the final therapy session.

It is notable that all of the scores get worse at the follow up stage March 2015 which coincides with the time that this client had major surgery on her spine. Despite this she went on to became a co-leader of a local arts project in mental health services – a role which she continued to maintain 18 months later at the time of writing.

See qualitative comments section for what clients say about art therapy.

Co-produced interview recording by this client for their experience of art therapy.

Presenting Problems

• Attachment difficulties in childhood subsequent to being in foster care from aged 6 months.
• Ongoing and progressively debilitating physical problems.
• Depression and anxiety.
• Specific history / experience of abuse sustained abuse in previous relationship.
• Difficulties expressing feelings and social isolation.
• Entrenched pattern of negative self-image.
• Low sense of own value.

CORE Score

• CORE score issues improved from 2.8 to 1.0 at the last therapy session. A significant improvement of 18 increments.
• In terms of risk scores were at 0.8 when first measured and reduced to 0 by the final session. A significant improvement of 8 increments.
• Overall questions were measured at 2.9 which reduced to 0.9 by the final therapy session which represents a significant shift of 20 increments.

See qualitative comments section for what clients say about art therapy.

Presenting Problems

• Client struggling with depression and loss of meaning in life, prone to anxiety and feeling pessimistic about their own future.
• Unhappy marriage and work and feeling generally stuck and unfulfilled.
• Not liking or having respect for self, isolated from others, finding it difficult to assert self and make choices about their life and avoidance of social situations.
• Death of mother aged 4 followed by emotional and physical abuse / neglect in parental home by father.
• Asperger’s syndrome identified as possible underlying factor early in therapy.

CORE Score

• CORE score issues improved from 2.3 (first therapy session) in terms of wellbeing to 1.5 at the last therapy session. Representing a significant improvement of 8 points.
• In terms of risk scores were at 0.3 reducing to 0.2 by the last therapy session.
• Overall questions were measured at 1.6 which reduced to 0.9 by the final therapy session which represents a significant improvement of 7 increments.

• This client had previous support from NHS services beginning in 2000 through to 2003. They received individual Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Prior to CBT starting they had received 25 sessions of private counselling.
• There are five evaluation measure scores during this time period. This client in September 2000 (first referred into therapy services but before they met a therapist) rated their wellbeing as 2.8 initially, rising to 3.6 in January 2001, 3.5 in January 2002 (This is when the first therapy session for CBT began), 2.0 in March 2003 (the last therapy session) and 1.3 in September 2003 after therapy finished adding that the therapy they received still ‘helps a little and that they continue to use the techniques.’
• In terms of risk scores the self-rating was measured at 0.7 at the start and 0 at the last session remaining at 0 in September 2003.
• Overall scores were first measured at 2.4 and reduced to 1.3 by the last therapy session and reducing again to 1.1 at the follow up point in September 2003.

A six month follow up evaluation is due in the next couple of months at the time of writing.

See qualitative comments section for what clients say about art therapy.

Presenting Problems

• Severe depression and / or anxiety subsequent to loss of child at birth and subsequent grieving at point of therapy.
• Long standing problems regarding abusive and neglectful mother and loss of relationship with father in childhood.
• Subject to bullying at work and discrimination towards problems with dyslexia.
• Anxiety and stress brought on by financial situation.

CORE Score

• CORE score issues improved from 2.8 in terms of wellbeing to 1.8 at the last therapy session, improving to 0.5 at the six month follow up stage. A significant improvement of 23 increments.
• In terms of risk scores were at 0.3 at pre-assessment and reduced to 0 by the final session, increasing slightly to 0.2 at the six-twelve month follow up stage.
• Overall questions were measured at 2.1 which reduced to 1.1 by the final session, reducing to 0.5 at the follow up stage. This is a significant improvement of 16 increments.

See qualitative comments section for what clients say about art therapy.

Co-produced interview recording by this client for their experience of art therapy

Presenting Problems

• Sustained (specific) abuse throughout mid to late childhood (perpetrator successfully convicted several years prior to therapy).
• Neglect and emotional deprivation in childhood development.
• Depression and damaged family attachments/relationships.
• Recent severe stress and anxiety with associated medical condition.
• No trust in people leads to distancing self and isolation.
• Minimal self-esteem. Intimacy problems. Anxiety.

CORE Score

• The CORE plotline graph shows four dates where a measure of the presenting problems was taken. The October 2015 date is the last therapy session. A further outcome measure was completed six months after finishing therapy where the scores notably worsened.
• The client informed me that things had remained stable after therapy and her life was progressing well. One of her children no longer required counselling, she had got a part time job which she was enjoying but following the need for an operation she was then dismissed by work for ‘refusing to work beyond her contracted hours whilst recovering / sick.’
• Her partner was then diagnosed with a life threatening illness and she became his full time carer (having planned to go on holiday abroad together for the first time). Notably, despite the difficult events in this client’s life she added that she ‘no longer retired to bed like before, had sought help when she needed it (rather than isolate or void out the problems).’
• Overall she thought she had got the appropriate support she required which she could access when needed. She agreed that the CORE scores were linked to life events and that although they reflect an appropriate emotional response to things in her life these were not causing her to relapse into her problems in the way they were prior to coming to therapy.

See qualitative comments section for what clients say about art therapy.