Jenna Tucker, Youth Art Therapy
art.of.becoming.co@gmail.com
@art.of.becoming.you
Hours
SATURDAYS 10:00am – 5:00pm
Offerings
NEW Youth 60 minute in-person/online session
$50-80 sliding scale
For clients 12-19 years of age. After we have had our consultation and legal guardian has signed the consent form.
This is an intro session where we will collaborate on needs, wants and goals and do some art making!
RETURNING Youth 75 minute in-person/online session
$50-80 sliding scale
For clients 12-19 years of age. We have had our intro session together and we begin to develop our therapeutic relationship and do creative activities depending on needs and goals.
Art therapy for youth
Common Client Needs
- Acceptance & respect
- Understanding & clarification
- Self-expression
- Emotional release or discharge
- A safe space to have fun and play
- Attention
- Opportunities to experience self-mastery
- Empathy and authenticity
- Unconditional positive regard
- Reframing
- To tell their story verbally and/or metaphorically
- Emotional/ behavioral regulation
Potential client goals
- Give expression to feelings, behaviors, beliefs, values, needs, and dreams through language and or symbolic play and art making
- Develop a positive and congruent self-image.
- Experience a safe relationship & environment: non-intrusive and full of potential.
- Improve communication and social skills.
- Experience pleasure and self-mastery through the play and art making
- Decrease symptoms of depression and anxiety
- Build on client strengths and resilience
What to expect in our sessions
If your child is interested in Art Therapy you can book a complimentary 30 minute consultation with me.
*Prior to starting sessions, there will be a contract and will require legal guardian to sign the contract before the first session.
Art therapy is a way of communicating your feelings and emotions through expressive modalities. It is a unique form of psychotherapy that combines talk therapy with creative expression. Self-expression through art making is an ancient and healing practice. You might think of crafts such as jewelry making or weaving, basket making, or ink dying, paper making, wood carving, cave painting etc. Or you might consider ritual, dancing, singing, cooking, examples of traditional healing practices.
Every art therapy session has a beginning, middle and end. Once we have had a consultation and decided what setting we will be working in, we will check in together making sure we have everything we need to begin our session.
I might offer a check in around feelings, metaphor play, or offer a grounding activity with natural materials- all can be accepted or declined depending on participants’ needs of the day. Going on a walk together is another way to check in together that can allow feelings and emotions to come to the surface.
Art making is always offered after we check in. No previous art making skills are required! We are focusing on our experience of making, rather than the end product. There will be options around art prompts and materials used depending on clients needs and goals. Some examples of art materials might be:
- beading/jewelery making
- slow/hand stitching
- drawing/colouring/painting
- collage with pre cut images/ cutting images to collage with
- collage poetry/ black out poetry
- natural material sculpture/collage/assemblage
- trash monsters/sculptures
- slime making
*If there is an art activity you want to try please let me know and we can learn together*
In the end of our session we might witness the art created and see if there are any words to accompany the experience. We might check in on our feelings, if they have changed, or if there were any new curiosities that popped up. Depending on the stage of the art making process, and desires, participants might take their artwork home, leave it in the clinic for me to keep safe, or decide on a way to safely and intentionally destroy the work.
Youth Art Therapy Goals & Outcomes
Connection to others and developing a sense of belonging
- To be listened to, witnessed, heard, and understood- vulnerability to be recognized and respected by self and others
- To grow a shared meaning and connection to community and culture
- To experience pleasure, to have fun and to relax
Expression of thoughts and feelings
- To express to and make sense of emotional, mental, and physical experiences
- To express difficult feelings and thoughts that may feel difficult to accept in a supportive and non-judgmental atmosphere; The art making process facilitates expression, containment, and acceptance of ambivalent feelings.
- To make sense of and build tolerance for being with confusion and chaos. The concrete, tangible artwork is often easier to discuss, than to speak directly to one’s feelings.
Self-mastery and self-empowerment
- To increase self-esteem and confidence through taking risks in creating art and mastering new creative skills.
- To take active creative responsibility in the therapeutic process. Participants are encouraged to make their own artistic choices and interpretations of their artwork, and through this experience they can begin to develop a trust in themselves and their creative capacities
Sense of self and self-esteem
- To develop a sense of purpose
- To be, and to feel accepted
About Jenna
My name is Jenna (she/her), I am a multidisciplinary artist and certified art therapist living on unceded lək̓ʷəŋən, Esquimalt, Songhees and Chekonin traditional territory. I identify as a white body settler with ancestry coming from the UK, Ireland, Czechia and Spain and has benefited coming to these lands while Indigenous people of turtle island endured genocide and colonialism that still exists in oppressive systems today. Entering the field of art therapy, one of my practices is learning how to come into better relationship with the land and community – I feel a responsibility to show up authentically, with love, compassion, and cultural humility.
I am an artist, cat mom, pickle loving lady who loves to be in her garden. Growing up I always was curious and that has propelled my experiences in life which eventually lead me to Camosun College and then Emily Carr University to complete my BFA in curating, sculpture and painting. A big shift occurred after the final year of university was cut short due to the pandemic. I am grateful now as I found art therapy which informs my own healing journey of acknowledging the lineages of violence that runs through my ancestry- both of harming others and being harmed. Finding and getting accepted into the Kutenai Art Therapy Institute was a life changing experience, I thank and credit my learning to all my teachers, supervisors and cohort.
In therapy talk I say I am relational, client led, trauma informed, and strengths-based highlighting our individual talents and our interconnectedness to the natural world. In everyday words that means I like to meet people where they are at, get to know and support people to be more of who they are, and I love to do it outside sometimes. It also means I celebrate people’s individual needs when it comes to safety and comfort. My practice is emergent! I am developing who I want to be as an art therapist, but am rooted in ecological, relational, intersectional and systems frameworks that acknowledge environmental and intergenerational impacts on our bodies. I work with people of all ages, but am passionate about collaborating with youth and being with them through this important period of growth. The setting is dependent on client needs, but no matter if we are outside, in the clinic or online, you can always expect art making and collaboration on how we want to use our time together.
I offer a pay-what-you can model rooted in mutual care and accessibility in an ongoing effort to decolonize my practice and meet the needs of people in my community. I am also interested in restorative justice work and co-facilitates a free art therapy group at Our Place Society community center for people that are systemically oppressed and struggle with housing security.
Pay-what-you can guidelines
Pay what you can(PWYC)/sliding scale pricing options are a way of contributing to economic justice. Sliding Scale/PWYC Pricing helps me to meet the needs of people in our community. The system (white supremacist capitalist ableist patriarchy) exploits workers and relies upon a hierarchy that leaves some people without enough to meet their basic needs.
If you can pay more, then not only are you paying for the services and offerings that we provide, you are also making it possible for someone with less economic wealth to experience these offerings and services If you have enough, then please pay what you can and perhaps choose
the mid-range of the sliding scale when you can and the low range of the scale when you are feeling financially insecure. Those who have
extended health benefits or coverage for the visit, then we encourage you to choose the higher end of the sliding scale.
My prices are $50-80 per session. Payment can be made before/after the session, or e-transferred to art.of.becoming.co@gmail.com
*PWYC builds trust with participants and fosters a sense of community by allowing people to access without fear of judgment. Thank you for participating and I look forward to working with you in the future.
Here are some links to the books I am inspired by and credit my learning too in case you want to learn more:
Dr Jennifer Mullan – Decolonizing Therapy
Dr Gabor Maté/ Daniel Maté – The myth of the normal
Dr. Resmaa Menakem – My Grandmothers Hands
Dr. Qing Li- Forest bathing