ABOUT TORI MCGRATH
MSc Art Psychotherapy from UU, Art Psychotherapist, HCPC Registered, BAAT Full Membership
Based in Belfast, Tori provides a compassionate space where children, teenagers, and adults can safely explore their emotions through art. As an HCPC-registered MSc Art Psychotherapist, Tori believes in art’s transformative power to foster healing, growth, and resilience.
For young people, Tori creates a nurturing, non-judgmental environment, empowering clients to express themselves and work through challenges such as ASD, ADHD, self-harm, bereavement, and behavioural difficulties. Her experience in schools, community centers, and group settings allows her to support young clients in building self-awareness and coping skills.
With adults, Tori offers art therapy for trauma, grief, eating disorders, anxiety, and mental health challenges. Using both directive and non-directive approaches, she provides a safe space to process complex emotions and explore aspects of identity and resilience.
Tori’s pluralistic approach tailors each session to the individual, creating a dynamic and personalised journey toward well-being. Reach out to begin a healing journey through art today.
£50 per session
How does it work?
In art therapy, clients attend weekly sessions. Art helps uncover personal meaning, especially during trauma when words may fall short. My client-centered, pluralistic approach adapts to your unique needs and goals. Learn more.
Who is it for?
Art therapy is a valuable resource for children, teenagers and adults facing challenges like grief, anxiety, and trauma. It uses creative expression and therapeutic support to help process emotions for any age group. Learn more.
Overview of Art Therapy
What is Art Therapy
Art therapy combines the use of art as the primary means of communication with ongoing conversations with an art therapist. Its primary goal is to alleviate distress and enhance social, emotional, and mental well-being by fostering self-discovery, self-compassion, and a sense of empowerment.
In the context of art therapy, you receive dedicated guidance from an art therapist, empowering you to use art as a medium to effectively express and articulate intricate emotions and thoughts. This approach is particularly valuable in the aftermath of challenging or traumatic experiences, which may prove difficult to convey verbally.
Working with young clients
Art therapy is a valuable resource for teenagers and young adults facing a diverse range of challenges, including bereavement, family breakdown, anxiety, low mood, low self-esteem, behavioral or social issues, as well as difficulties stemming from abuse, neglect, or trauma.
Extensive research consistently demonstrates that meaningful transformations take place through the physical engagement with art materials, the creation of significant art objects, the channeling of emotions into artwork, and the therapeutic communication facilitated by an art therapist.
This approach provides crucial support to young individuals grappling with developmental, emotional, and behavioral problems. By offering a safe and creative space, art therapy empowers them to explore their worries, concerns, and emotions under the expert guidance and assistance of a trained art therapist. It has proven to be highly effective, even in engaging the most resilient and challenging teenagers.
Benefits of Art Therapy
Engaging with art materials such as paint, oil pastels, clay, and fabrics, and creating a final artwork, holds incredible healing properties for our young individuals. It allows them to:
- Explore and share emotions
- Strengthen their sense of self
- Manage stress
- Work through problems
- Learn coping skills
- Uncover different aspects of their personalities
- Boost self-esteem
Through art therapy, our young people have the opportunity to express and understand their emotions, nurture their identity, cope with stress, address challenges, develop effective coping strategies, discover new dimensions of themselves, and enhance their self-esteem.
How does it work
The client participates in weekly sessions over a period of six weeks. Together, we assess the progress and decide collaboratively whether additional sessions would be beneficial. In art therapy, the emphasis is placed on the process of creating art, such as shapes, squiggles, pictures, collages, fabric, or clay, rather than solely focusing on the final product.
Your artwork serves as a vehicle for discovering personal meaning and its connections to your life. During times of trauma, our brain can enter a state of paralysis or hyper-alertness, accompanied by feelings of helplessness. Art, guided by a trained therapist, has the ability to transcend this state of uncertainty, where words alone may fall short. It assists in gaining a deeper understanding and making sense of emotions and mental well-being.
My therapeutic approach is pluralistic, which means I draw from a wide range of client-centered theories tailored to meet the unique needs of each individual. This ensures that the therapy is flexible and responsive, adapting to your specific requirements and goals.
Contact Us
Sessions will be held on Fridays in the Ballynafeigh Community Development Association Centre, 283 Ormeau Road, Belfast.
Local transport is 1 minute away and there are plenty of parking spacing in the adjacent residential areas.
You can contact me via
Email: tori.art.therapy@gmail.com
Tel: 07731989855
Business Hours
Sessions are available every Friday from 12am to 7pm. We can discuss alternative dates via email or phone.
- Mon – Tue
- Closed
- Wed – Thu
- 03:00 pm – 08:00 pm
- Friday
- 12:00 am – 08:00 pm
- Sat – Sun
- Closed
We need your consent to load the translations
We use a third-party service to translate the website content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details in the privacy policy and accept the service to view the translations.