I have always been involved in the arts.  This has included mural-painting, lead-light, mosaics, involvement in amateur theatre, play-writing, and creative and expressive writing.  So, Art Therapy was a natural choice for me.  In 1999, after I graduated as an Art Therapist from La Trobe Uni, I started a private Art Therapy practice, Healing Images.

 

From 2000 to 2012, I worked as an Art Therapist in hospices as well as a community-based palliative care service. This involved work at the hospital bedside as well as outreach work with terminally-ill or bereaved people and their families, the outreach work typically being around the kitchen table in their own homes.  I left working in palliative care to complete a Masters degree in Counselling & Psychotherapy and to concentrate on my private practice.

 

I am interested in the constitution of the self and how we cope with mystery, the unknown, uncertainty, unwanted change, anxiety, loss, grief, loneliness, stress and trauma, knowing from experience that post-traumatic growth can be life-changing.

 

My work is informed by psychodynamics, existential theory, sensorimotor approaches to psychotherapy, mindfulness, narrative theory, and the health benefits of self-expression through the arts, including expressive writing. I use psycho-education to promote understanding of 'why we are the way we are' and to normalise our shared human experience, what is known as the 'human condition'.  

 

I am constantly inspired by the personal growth I have witnessed when people have been able to confront their mortality, their suffering due to adversity, the often disturbing aftermath of childhood or other traumas, or the experience of unwanted change.

 

For me, helping people overcome difficulties and limitations resulting from past experiences to find they can free themselves to create more fulfilling lives is a great joy.

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David Champion