Ten Years of Social Art Therapy: A Reflection

A reflective evening and morning... Today marks ten years since Social Art Therapy Ltd (SA&T) was formally registered as a company, right here in Woolwich, South East London. She existed before that, in different forms and names — first as Simmons Art Therapy, and then as Social Art & Therapy, but it was a decade ago today that the formal step was taken. When registering the domain name, the “&” had to go — and so, Social Art Therapy became what it is today.

So — what have we done in this decade?
What’s coming next?
As always, the future is unknown. But what we do know is this:

Today, bookings open for the next round of EMDR & Art Therapy courses, and we’re excited to share something new: our dedicated course and resource site EMDRArtTherapy.org currently being developed by Zitian Harper.

Therapy, Supervision & Collective Work

Alongside training, SA&T has quietly continued its therapeutic and supervisory work. Over the past decade, Lee has delivered several thousand therapy sessions through SA&T, and clinical supervision as an EMDR Consultant, supporting therapists across:

• Freedom from Torture
• CARAS
• NHS teams & social services
• The Priory
• …and more

We’ve also delivered Vicarious Trauma and Self-Care training for:

• Doctors of the World
• Goldsmiths University
• King’s College London & Imperial College London
• Second Floor Studios and Arts
• …and other valued institutions and services

Each collaboration — and every client — has taught us something. It has been a deep privilege to support such a wide range of people, therapists, teams, and organisations.

 The Story of the EMDR & Art Therapy Course

The EMDR & Art Therapy course, has absorbed earlier courses in Vicarious Trauma and Resilience to one of the modules. It has maintained a gentle forward motion since the inaugural EMDR & Art Therapy course was designed and delivered by Lee Anna Simmons at SA&T, for the EMDR Association West Midlands Regional Group in 2018. Since then, the course has developed and adapted. Between 2019 and 2022, it was delivered through the British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT), both in-person and online, with each cohort fully booked at 25 participants.

In 2022, the course evolved into a more spacious and in-depth format delivered online via SA&T. This version was limited to 10 participants, spaced over three shorter live sessions plus a follow-up consultation, co-facilitated by EMDR and Art Therapists and designed to support deeper, reflective learning.

This version was also offered in collaboration with EMDR UK, BaDTh (British Association of Dramatherapists), and welcomed just over 100 participants with The EMDR UK Association. The course has been shaped and enriched by contributions from a number of generous and skilled colleagues, including: Vickie Le Sache, Kathy Ross, Sophia Hafslund and Chloé Smith.

Earlier this year the course was shared with therapists in Kosovo and Albania via EMDR Albania, with support from Ina Havaraj, trainee psychologist, mountain leader, and active member of the Guides Association of Albania. 

                       Above drawing L.A.Simmons (2025)

The below question was asked to chat GPT on 15th June 2025
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'Did 'Social Art Therapy' ever exist as a distinct movement or practice, outside of Social Art Therapy Ltd?’
'Although the term 'social art therapy' appeared briefly in late 1990s academic literature—most notably through the work of Judith Waldman and Susan Hogan—it was used conceptually, not as a formalised model or movement. There was no established training route, organisation, or widely practised methodology under that name. In that sense, Social Art Therapy Ltd was never intended to 'be' this theoretical construct. Yet over time, through its commitment to social justice, relational practice, and creativity rooted in lived experience, SA&T has organically become one of the few places where the principles of social art therapy have been actively realised. What was once an idea has found quiet, grounded expression in clinical work, supervision, and teaching across borders, systems, and communities.'
​

The last year sessions at the long term studio in SE London, UK,  drew to a close and SA&T hit the road with the project Van On Hill, looking for a new base where the strand of climbing therapy could further develop. Having the studio next to The Reach climbing was wonderful for the natural evolution of bringing climbing to trauma therapy work, but now it needs to be outside in nature.

The next base hasn't yet been decided and this week therapy intensives have been held in central Woolwich. However, the long standing clinic location alongside the Thames River (thames-sidestudios.co.uk), will host the next training in EMDR and Art Therapy and also a new course, sharing techniques from Climbing therapy sessions!

Though there is a sense of flow in this work, it isn't always easy. Social Art Therapy Ltd exists purely on the income generated from product sales and services, we have never received public funding or private donations; whilst collaborative, we haven't used volunteers and pay all of our freelancers. Admittedly thoughts of closing occasionally arise (particularly when it's time to pay our tax!), but the tide usually picks up and new projects seem to want to exist, so here we are. 

With thanks to the clients, colleagues, supervisors, students and participants; to the organisations, technical support, and to Toby Tiger, who is always part of the team in one way or another.

Here's to the next decade!

​ 💛

Hi there.. A couple of years passed! Back in London, I've been running the training 'EMDR & Art Therapy combined', here at Social Art Therapy Ltd (SA&T) and a condensed version for the EMDR Association UK online. These are now progressing in small groups via SA&T, the next one (May) is nearly ready to go:  EMD-Art 2024

There is a podcast on EMDR and Vicarious Trauma with EMDRIA , which was around the same time as an article was published with EMDR UK following the training  Vicarious Trauma, compassion fatigue and burnout, tools for EMDR Therapists . Some points shared in the training are also in the below youtube video, with subtitles allowing the  original audio to be used, complete with crashing waves.

I've been providing quite a lot of  supervision online and in-person at the London art studios. This is for all qualified EMDR therapists, mental health professionals and case workers, both individually and in groups. My EMDR Consultant accreditation was approved a couple of years ago, which has added another dimension and focus to this work.

Climbing therapy is firmly on the table, I've been providing that in South Wales, South Spain and good old  Woolwich.
There is an article about Climbing in Albania I wrote for UKC following on from the three articles in The Professional Mountaineer which were more based around wellbeing.

EMDR continues to evolve in a dynamic way; I value being part of this landscape, as more art comes in, attachment focused and Intergenerational EMDR develop, Internal Family Systems is increasingly integrated and methods for working with neurodiverse clients are continually developed, shared and honed.

The Flash technique has been developed to include blinks / blink technique, which I've found can be effective when combined with walking, below is an exploratory video, which I made just before contributing to a workshop on hill walking and mental health, with the  BMC and Mountain Medicine.

Another video on my youtube channel from around two years ago, introduced the first in depth training in EMDR & Art Therapy:

Some info. from the previous courses is here: www.socialarttherapy.com/emd-art-2022

It's been great to bring in some accomplished Arts Therapists skilled in using EMDR, to support these trainings, Vickie Le Sache, Kathy Ross, Sophia Hafslund and Chloe Smith have all been wonderful to have on board.

At EMDR UK I was happy to collaborate with Oliver Wright on the Vicarious Trauma training, then talking to Kim Howard at EMDRIA for the podcast. I also enjoyed working with Proactive Adventure on a team of outdoor instructors in Pembrokeshire, South Wales and with Adventure Oakhampton in Devon. I look forward to more coworking throughout 2024.

Last but not least: Intensives. I've been providing trauma therapy in substantial chunks of time, whereby clients can have around six months of therapy in the space of a week, and it works so beautifully. I am not alone in this, for there is a gathering body of  evidence in the effectiveness of working this way for healing trauma.

At SA&T I have been creating bespoke services for the intensives, designed with each client and including EMDR, Art Therapy, psychodynamic therapy, psychoeducation, EFT, rock climbing and yoga, as well as Toby Tiger. Toby is becoming an incredible therapy dog, helping in the studio sessions as well as at the crag for climbing therapy - where he guards the bags, usually by sitting on them.

More soon, or before 2026.

Here is the last of the series of contemplation and relaxation exercises! Now available on youtube:

You can see the collection / playlist on youtube here or listen to them on soundcloud here

There are three accompanying articles, first published in The Professional Mountaineer available here

Here in the U.K. it has been a relief to do some face to face work again. This was quite a small window, but valuable to use before we all moved online again, which happened yesterday, though not as law. I held a few climbing therapy sessions in London gyms, which went well and mean all of my insurances and memberships are up to date; I'm keen to hold more in the new year. I also held EMDR intensive sessions in the studio - three hours of attachment focused EMDR processing. In some cases - with certain clients - you can cover a lot of material this way, whilst still having time to share resources at the beginning and putting them into action at the end of sessions, to make sure clients feel O.K. when going out of the door. I wouldn't use this length of time online, it would be so intense! But in person though it can be difficult it is not such hard work as there is a sense of flow. In the past I have sometimes worked in this way, knowing the person is motivated and has the capacity to push through their trauma and get to the other side in a particular timeframe. Quite different to the usual weekly hour.

A lot of people are poorly at the moment with covid, everyone seems to know several people who are, so we are quite suddenly limiting our contact again, just when hope was in the air and people are tired; barely out of bubbles and now being told to retreat again. I feel for my clients who were making so much progress and trust they will use their resilience and resources to stay on track through to spring. I'm also thinking about learned helplessness, with the stop - start of covid restrictions over the last two years.

Personally I started a big painting using bilateral brushstrokes, that will be a freestanding structure, starting with a snow and ice vibe. Art therapists are required to have their own art practices (HCPC, BAAT), so there we are. Literally a license to paint! Nobody needs permission from anyone other than themselves to make a painting and if they do, unless a child in a math class perhaps, then maybe things could do with a bit of a shift. With so many closures of art and music venues, though I am fascinated by EMDR therapy, I am keeping the art aspect of my work very much alive.

Next spring I'll be running one of my EMDR & Art Therapy trainings for the British Association of Dramatherapists, which is a new partnership and links well with the mind-body aspect in EMDR trauma recovery. It will be online, which I am getting used to now. I haven't enjoyed the process as much as in person trainings, but it is helpful for reaching people and sharing information, ideas and techniques more widely than would otherwise be possible. Perhaps next time I will find a co-presenter - for my British Association of Art Therapists trainings.

The last few years I've been running EMDR and Art Therapies supervision groups; now a trainee EMDR Consultant I hope to soon take supervisees through the EMDR accreditation process, encouraging and supporting more Art Therapy and EMDR services to develop.