A Change of Professional Identity

By the end of the month I will have a professional registration with the HCPC. This requires of me that I continue professional development (CPD).

What used to be a pursuit of joy in my personal life is now becoming something that can be validated within an art therapy arena as career development. This space is going to be the archive for this work, documenting exhibitions organised or visited as well as any courses and talks that I have attended.

Last week I attended my first British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT) meeting, we had a talk about using digital technology to record sessions with clients as well as some interesting discussions surrounding the ethics and storage of the work within clinical settings. This was a great opportunity to meet other art therapists in the region and find out how their practices differ.

Last week also saw the opening of the recent group show I am a part of. Below are images of the collage and photography work that I showed. This work is an ingoing exploration of objects and places found in the city, that are mostly derelict and discarded. I exhibited the work to give a sense of a fleeting mass, and have been contemplating where this work might go next. I am considering scale and adding a drawing element to the collage.

I have some other things in the back ground that I am working on; applications for the dream job as an art therapist; volunteering at Off The Record as therapist; a trip to Rampton prison to work alongside an art therapist for a day; mentalisation in art therapy training; a immanent studio space at spike island; working on publishing my dissertation and finally a trip to the bay of Bilboa to see the Bill Viola retrospective exhibition.

So I guess, post university life is not dull after all.

However the changing professional identity is strange, I'm used to being a support worker on a low wage, processing this change and getting used to being respected as a professional is a lot of mental work. Respecting myself as a professional and believing I can do a more intellectually involved work is being processed with each application I write and I send.