Profile | Art Therapy in Singapore by Joanna Tan

	PROFILE

Joanna Tan is a pioneer in the field of art therapy in Singapore. She is an artist and a registered art therapist in private practice.

Working with adults and children she provides individual sessions for those wishing to address specific issues. She also facilitates art therapy groups, training workshops and retreats for various communities, institutions, respite centers and organizations in the public and private sectors. Regionally and internationally, she speaks and facilitates in art therapy conferences and seminars.

In addition to Art Therapy, Joanna has received training in the Creative Arts Therapies, Group work, Psycho-Spiritual work, Clinical Supervision and a variety of talk therapies. Her passion is to enable others to achieve a greater sense of personal well-being through the creative process. She believes that by expressing ourselves in painting, drawing, working with clay, movement or voice, we can gain insights into the way we see ourselves and the world, and so attain a higher level of self awareness and integration.

In 2006, she started Heartspace@St.Mary’s – an art therapy open studio provided by the parish of St. Mary of the Angels to serve the pastoral needs of the community. Heartspace has gained momentum over the years and an exhibition of artworks produced in the open studio is held annually.

Since she began painting again as an adult in 2001, Joanna has won 3 Art Awards in
Western Australia. Her work has been exhibited in several solo and group exhibitions in WA
and in Singapore. Joanna attained her Masters in Art Therapy in 2004 from Edith Cowen University in Western Australia.

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	BEGINNINGS

My first encounter with art therapy was in 2001. That was the year when I finally gave in to what had become a nagging urge to paint. The last time I painted was when I did art at A-levels but I could no longer ignore the inner prompting to create an image on canvas.

Without much thinking, I gathered ordinary eating utensils and laid them out on a red satin cloth. The chopsticks, the rice bowl, the spoon. A typical place setting for myself.

Taking a deep breath, I put my paintbrush to the canvas and began. I found that as I painted this ordinary image, I was led from my initial thoughts and feelings of elation and gratitude to unexpected pain and gradual acceptance.

The act of painting seemed to transform into an act of meditation - of my life and my purpose.
It made me wonder about the power of ‘image making’ - to ask, experience and discover some truth that is beyond my conscious grasp. By the time I finished the painting, I realised I had found a treasure that was mine yet not mine to keep.

Continuing to heed the inner promptings that had led me to begin painting again, I found myself in Australia, studying for a degree in what was then a little known field in Singapore.

It has been years since I began as a volunteer, studied in Australia and practiced as an art therapist but this first painting is still very special to me. The empty Chinese rice bowl has become a symbol of the state of living in the unknown that leads to the freedom to live in abundance. For me, it is in that emptiness that I am able to receive the fullness that awaits me. It is that emptiness that I find a wholeness that I have never known before.

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