It’s A Privilege To Care
Excerpt from MS. READ ‘Life Without Limits’ Catalogue

Started in 1993, Calvary Life Ministries (CLM) is a non-profit counselling centre that offers its services (counselling, marriage & family counselling, pre-marital assessment, personality assessment, grief support group, ADHD/LD support group, confused passions support group, family support group) free of charge to the community. Counselling services (marital & pre-marital, relationship, family, depression, anxiety, grief, psychiatric consultation, etc.) are available to everyone regardless of race, colour, or creed. Among the counselling services available is counselling for children.

Diagnostic Art Therapy is the primary tool for counselling children. Children often don't have the language to describe what they are feeling and Art Therapy is very effective in helping them to express what they can't find the words for. It provides children with a safe, non-judgemental place to pour out their thoughts and feelings.

In a session of Art Therapy, children are left alone with a range of different materials: paint, crayons, colour pencils, glue, paper, clay, etc. The child can use any combination of the materials to create artwork, as the choice of materials used is also a form of expression. When the child has finished with the artwork, the therapist will take the child through talk therapy to resolve the issues brought to light.

People become inarticulate when their thoughts are disorganised. This is true particularly in children who also have not yet learnt the language to express themselves.

The pictures that the children draw, the sculptures and collages that they make, are all ways for them to communicate the wordless thoughts roiling about inside. Artwork allows the expression of what words cannot, and this is why Art Therapy is very effective in helping people of all ages explore emotions and beliefs, reduce stress, resolve problems and conflicts, and enhance overall sense of well-being.

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