Leena Narsai-Latham

Over the past 8 years, I have gained experience of working as an art psychotherapist within a variety of school settings and within a specialist inpatient mental health service. I have provided assessments and treatment to children and adolescents who are experiencing mental health problems and emotional distress, and consultation with families, schools and other professionals involved in their care.

I have successfully run my own Yoga Studio and Meditation Centre over the past 3 years which included coordination of my own schedule with yoga teachers, sound therapist, dance therapist collaborating with international yoga teachers and hosting workshops tackling the latest health related issues.

This allowed me to create a safe space for people so they could connect with others especially during a time when the world was disconnected due to Covid19 having this space led to building a supportive community around self care, something I'm really proud of.

I have the empathy and natural ability in creating trusted relationships with teachers, clients and professionals. I have a natural calming presence which helps people feel calm and confident.

I have the respect, honesty and experience to keep accurate up to date records for clients, projects and understand work ethics of keeping information private and confidential.

I have experience in developing feedback forms / questionnaires and can analyse quantitative and qualitative data which can be summarised for reports, forecasting trends and market research.

As I am dyslexic, I voice record notes to myself. This helps me with note keeping, and I developed a process that works with my learning disability. Letters and updates are regularly sent to teams I work with, and I also like to have meetings or chats personally consistently with those involved.

Additional Skills which might interest you:

As an art therapist, I can adapt my skills to suit the individual needs of my client, incorporating my skills and experience for example when working with a teenager who has Cerebral Palsy, using feet and hands, wheelchair to create artwork, or creating a therapy session outdoors to explore thoughts and feeling through planting, willow weaving and gardening. Some spaces may not allow messy artwork, or a child may not feel free to express themselves indoors, again outdoors can be an alternative therapy room.

The core of my experience is with looked after children and children on the ‘at risk registrar’ which has given me the opportunity to work with SENCO’s, Learning Mentors, Social Workers, Speech and Language Therapist and Foster Careers to name a few.

I believe the importance in respecting an individual’s perspective and working together collaboratively to achieve the necessary result. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility;

I have had training with various organisations such as One Education and completed online training more recently through Hays Education. When clients disclose to me, I have followed the correct protocol and communicated with the Safeguarding leads. Having a sound relationship with all parties involved has given me a great foundation for my practice, also applying my own judgement to each case and taking the required actions and commitments when needed.

I have a good rapport with teachers, and staff in schools, and attend meetings with other external agencies when required. I have also been asked by children to accompany them into meetings when decisions about their care and future are being made. My presence has helped them feel calm and confident about their voice being heard, it is important to build up a trusting therapeutic relationship. Artwork made in sessions prior to challenging meetings, supports the child and has assisted them in situations where they would usually not have the courage to be part of consultations that affect their future. Some careers have welcomed Therapeutic sessions, others have felt that working on unsecure attachments from a child’s past is not good for the connection they have now, however inviting carers and the child or children to meet with me has demonstrated, that I am here to work with the support system in place, through continued therapy sessions and regular updates we achieve results.

I have sufficient knowledge of design packages such as Adobe InDesign, AutoCad. I designed and developed my own website for a Yoga and Meditation studio, I manage and run, supervising, and organising a team of health and wellness professional’s, which includes managing timetable, payroll, customer service, cleaning, as well as teaching classes.

Combining Art Therapy and my experience as a Yoga teacher using somatic movement, mindfulness and breathwork, has become a technique I use in practice, both during group work and in one-to-one sessions. I have used this method with Pakistani refugee children, who spoke very little English, I was able to use my limited understanding of Urdu them too, nevertheless I found that breathwork, movement combined with the art had good results.

I have been involved in developing Art for Health projects at events like the Health Mela’s in Bolton and Preston which bring awareness to diverse communities on the importance of Health and Wellbeing, this event is open to all

I am looking for an organisation where I am able to apply my experience and knowledge and have opportunities to learn and develop and progress my career in that organisation.

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