Bank Street Arts

Creative Hypnotherapy and the Self Portrait

The primary purpose of the programme is to work with volunteers who have had no formal training in the visual arts and don’t see themselves as either ‘artistic’ or ‘creative’. It will introduce them to the power of hypnosis and demonstrate how it can help them develop sufficient confidence in their untapped creative abilities to enable them to begin producing quality artwork based around themes that are relevant to their personal identities and to their wider understanding of the human condition. It will also work with volunteers who have been trained as artists but who have found themselves suffering from the visual arts equivalent of writer’s block to help them reestablish their ‘creative muse. Each volunteer will take part in a series of creative hypnotherapy sessions to:

• Assess the level of their creative ability, self-belief, potential as visual artists and their suitability as subjects for hypnosis
• Introduce them to a range of creative methodologies that might help them find personal expression through the visual arts
• Tailor hypnotherapy sessions to build both their confidence as creative people and their ability to use the visual arts as a means of effective personal expression
• Bring them together at least once for a group critique to compare their individual experiences of the programme
• Enable them to prepare artwork and documentation detailing their journey through the programme in readiness for an exhibition at Bank Street of the outcomes from the process
• Help them publish their experiences of the process to a wider audience outside creative arts disciplines, as well as to creative practitioners in general, and to specialists working in the field of hypnotherapy