Hephzibah Kaplan

RATh

Art Therapist and Psychotherapy Supervisor

“following today's session S. has been really buoyant and happy and significantly more confident...it was like I was taking home a different child to the one I brought in to see you, in that she was really happy and seemed to be quite relieved. Thank you, once again, for all your help and support. I really appreciate it, and more importantly, S. is really benefiting from it”

Amina, parent of an 8yr old child with emotional problems plus phobias following divorce

Profile

Hephzibah Kaplan is a State Registered Art Therapist and Psychotherapy Supervisor. She is a member of BAAT (British Association of Art Therapists) and the Health Professions Council. Hephzibah is a specialist BAAT recognised Private Practitioner and Supervisor.

Her private practice includes seeing children, as well as adults. She is also a key supervisor for the charity Kids Company and works with their staff, many of whom are trainee or qualified arts therapists.

In addition to her private practice Hephzibah works as an art therapist at the Arbours Crisis Centre in North London. The Crisis Centre is a specialist home for severely distressed adults who otherwise might find themselves in traditional adult psychiatric units. At Arbours, Hephzibah also co-runs a Support Programme for community-based psychiatric patients.

For those clients who are keen to develop their self-expression and personal development through art, Hephzibah runs weekly workshops every Monday evening open to the general public. These have been running for over 10 years and are known as Art for the Heart workshops.

Hephzibah also runs teaching workshops in art therapy and her teaching has included:
• Foundation Year at the Centre for Counselling & Psychotherapy Education
• MA in Child & Family Therapy at the Centre for Counselling & Psychotherapy Education
• The Yorkshire Psychotherapy Group
• Kent Education Authority
• Grey London Advertising
• East London GP practice

For more information see www.art4theheart.com

Why I am a member of New Medicine Group?

New Medicine Group is a unique matrix of clinicians. We contribute to the multi-disciplinary assessment and diagnosis process, and then identify the optimum practitioner for ongoing treatment or intervention.

Private patients may choose a particular orientation or treatment, or indeed come to a practitioner who has been recommended, however being part of NMG allows for ongoing consultation and supervision with colleagues within agreed parameters of confidentiality.

I have been a practising as an art therapist for many years. I have worked with a whole range of client groups from the ‘worried well’ to those suffering with severe psychiatric difficulties. From young children with autism, to troubled adolescents, to adults in crisis, it is the range and complexities of these different clients that engage me in my work. Likewise, the New Medicine Group offers a clinical setting of different practitioners, with a wide range of skills who can provide a parallel and supportive matrix to the work.

Many practitioners in private practice will experience occasional professional isolation or loneliness and some ‘solve’ this problem by associations with other colleagues. However New Medicine Group is far more than this. It is a viable collegiate network of respect and support. Just as very few clients exist without their immediate or extended families, the New Medicine Group symbolises the extended family that holds the context for the one-to-one clinical work. This is an important parallel process in psychotherapeutic work.

Each of us have a specialist area of expertise which enriches understanding. My particular interest is in ‘medical art therapy’. How does physical illness, or difficulty impact on the psyche and one’s ability to ‘get on with life’? Clients with medical issues, be they stress-related or pathogenic in origin, may struggle with anxiety, frustration, and even angry feelings towards their illness. They may struggle to maintain healthy relationships with others. Other art therapy clients may find they have physical symptoms which are related to their psychological processes and it is through a collective holistic approach that they can be helped. The New Medicine Group has expertise in disease and illness which is enormously useful to psychotherapeutic work. Likewise, I am able to support my medical colleagues in thinking about psychological issues from my perspective related to a patient’s physical difficulties.

Having been part of many organisations and clinical structures I find the variety of clinical expertise and experience in NMG enriches my work, encouraging me to think ‘outside the box’ and be flexible in my clinical approach. Since joining this group I have been impressed at the calibre of professionals, their readiness to support and be supported, and their mature and holistic approach to health.