Clare-Louise Leyland

BAAT Council Member 2009-2010

I have worked full time as a State-registered art therapist for the past six years, primarily with children and young people in schools and with adults in several Hospice and cancer care settings.  I am a BAAT recognised supervisor and a UKCP registered Gestalt psychotherapist. 

Since 2004, I have run a schools based therapeutic service.   Young Forrest is funded by the Big Lottery Fund and provides a holistic range of interventions at WHCM Forrest and in nine schools across Newham, Hackney and Waltham Forest.  The work is tailored to meet the individual needs of the children and young people, parents/carers and staff with whom we work in each setting and includes a variety of interventions – individual sessions; short term focused groups work; Emotional Literacy workshops; Parenting Groups; life coaching and counselling for staff and parents/carers.  We provide placements for up to nine trainees each year, from arts therapy trainings based in and around London.

Alongside this, I run art therapy workshops for women with breast cancer at The London Haven in Fulham and have a private practice providing individual therapy in Hampstead.  I teach regularly on BAAT Foundation Courses and CPD programmes and have been an associate editor of the International Journal of Art Therapy: Inscape, since May 2008.

I was fortunate to attend BAAT Council for two years as a representative of the Creative Response sub-group and last year was co-opted on to Council.  I have attended All Party Parliamentary Group meetings (Speech and Language Difficulties) on behalf of BAAT and am particularly interested in politics and the impact that changes in policy and legislation have had on our profession and the organisations in which we are working.