Over the past 12 months, Chroma has been delivering a tri-modality arts therapies service in Pathfield School. It’s a provision for children with severe learning difficulties, profound and multiple learning difficulties, and autistic spectrum disorder.

Special partnership

Art psychotherapy, drama therapy and music therapy successfully support pupils’ needs in multiple areas: social, emotional and mental health; communication and interaction; cognition and learning; and physical and sensory. It is rare to have three art therapies delivered by multiple specialists to pupils within a single school, which makes this partnership all the more special.

To streamline the referral process for pupils to gain access to the therapies within the school, Chroma introduced a Single Point of Referral System.

This has created an opportunity for the team to make clinical decisions through a collaborative triage process. It also allows for the most appropriate modality of therapy to be offered (taking into account a range of factors, including the pupils’ needs, therapeutic approaches, and therapists’ clinical expertise).

The pupils’ voice

Giving pupils a voice from the start gives them a sense of choice and control. This can be crucial in establishing a therapeutic alliance between pupil and therapist, securing their engagement with the service and clinical outcomes.

Pupils accessing this arts therapies service have shown a range of positive outcomes. These include an increased ability to recognise, understand, manage and express emotions; reduced occurrence of aggressive, self-injurious and self-harming behaviours; increased self-esteem and self-confidence; increased feelings of safety and security; reduced levels of anxiety and stress; processed trauma, loss or grief; increased trust in relationships; developed healthier ways of relating; reduced depressive symptoms and improved mood; increased interaction with others and the environment; improved communication and language skills; developed play skills and successful transitions.

As a result of the partnership with Pathfield, Chroma has now expanded its specialist SEND Creative Arts Therapies service into two additional SEND schools with the SENTient Trust, to which Pathfield School belongs.

Find out more

For more information on Chroma’s work, go to www.wearechroma.com, call 0330 440 1838
or email: sayhello@wearechroma.com.