Morgan Libeau AThR
Registered Arts Therapist, ANZATA
I am an Arts Therapist offering individual and group work with children, teens and families.
I completed my Masters in Arts Therapy (Clinical) in 2008 at Whitecliffe College of Art and Design, Auckland and I am registered with the Australia and New Zealand Arts Therapy Association (ANZATA).
I work with an integrated approach utilizing art materials, symbols and sandtray, rhythm and creative writing. This allows me to tailor my sessions to the needs of the client as they change and develop. Children and young people like to shift from one form of creating to another, sometimes finishing what they are doing, sometimes not. Having an integrated approach allows clients to reassess and revisit creations and their personal process and progress.
Having worked for CYF and the Police for the last 22 years I have gathered expertise and experience on a number of different fronts including sexual abuse, family violence, grief and loss, safety education, group facilitation, training, supervision, crisis intervention and court education.
As a Forensic interviewer I have worked with children, young people and special needs adults who had alleged physical and sexual abuse or who had witnessed homicide and other serious crimes.
My experience in the forensic field has informed my practice as an Arts Therapist. As an interviewer You need to be able to engage children and enable them to feel you are safe enough for them to tell you their stories. That you will not be shocked or angry or upset by whatever content unfolds. And that you will be able to hold them through that process to the end.
The forensic process also advocates and practices open-ended questioning and invites free narrative. This facilitates people to tell their story in their OWN words. In the same way, Arts Therapy is about walking alongside a client as they make meaning of their artworks and thereby integrate their experiences.
In forensic work you are working not just with the child but also with whoever is there to support them through the process. It is crucial to be able to work with the child’s family, to communicate with them about their child’s needs and offer the necessary support, advocacy, advice and information to take the next steps that will enable a holistic healing process.
My belief in the need to advocate for children has led to the writing and publishing of five books for children on sexual abuse awareness education and healing, and preparation for child witnesses in court.
In addition to arts therapy I run personal safety workshops for children 7 to 12 years and teens 13 to 16. I utilize a psycho education programme with a focus on prevention. A mixture of physical techniques, mental strategies and verbal assertiveness are taught while drama, music, and art are also incorporated into the workshops.
I have been involved in talking with children for many years and I believe it is truly important for them to have their voices heard. However I have often felt frustrated that they are required to be so articulate in order to meet the needs of our adult systems and processes.
I love being an art therapist and watching children and young people utilise their creativity to make a narrative that makes sense to them. Watching them unfold out of themselves, finding another means of understanding themselves and being understood on their own terms. Words and explanations about feelings are often just too hard, to knotty and messy to express verbally let alone understand. Art therapy offers them the opportunity to unravel, untangle and unearth that which often has no words. I have seen the delight, the pride and the wonder that the experience of the art therapy process engenders.
For those who have been able to articulate details of events but are left with the feelings and for those who cannot find the words, I believe Art therapy provides a way, a safe path through the forest to the clearing. An opportunity to really get it out, whatever it is—on to paper, into clay, on a drum, in a song or a poem and deal with its visibility.
