Thomas Huebner

Art Psychotherapist, ddp practitioner, EMDR practitioner

I am an Art Therapist/Art Psychotherapist. I completed my 4-year full-time studies in Germany in 1999, just before moving to permanently live in the UK. I am a long-standing member of the British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT) and registered with the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC) since 2006.

Earlier in my career I have taught private art classes for adults and young people and led holiday and play schemes for the council before and while working for Social Services, in the Youth Offending Service and in Children’s homes, including a secure unit. Until 2020, I have been working in Education for many years, including Primary, Secondary and Special schools (incl. ASD/ADHD and EBD). I have been a member of a Multi-Agency Support Team and have been working in the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (NHS) for the last 15 years. I also have been leading a piloting Art Therapy project to introduce art therapy into main-stream schools and I was a founding director of Creative Arts Therapy Devon CIC.

My special interest lies in working with children and Young People who suffer complex or developmental trauma and attachment difficulties, including children living in foster care or who have been adopted. However, my extensive background in mental health allows me to work with a whole range of emotional and complex mental health issues.

In my therapeutic approach I embrace the intrinsic value and potential of each individual, whether children or adults, and their self-inherent capacity to heal. It is a unifying and compassionate approach that effectively responds to the person at the psychological, cognitive, affective and behavioural level, under consideration of the spiritual dimension of life. I use mindfulness and include family work and direct dyadic work with the child and their parents/carers if indicated. I am trained in DDP (level 2) and EMDR (Level 3, and Child & Adolescents Level 2 [advanced]) and can involve CBT, DBT, CFT and Solution Focused elements in my work.

As a trained Forest School Leader, I am enjoying combining the two disciplines in continuously evolving ways, which includes working outdoors with an emphasis on deeply connecting with nature. I have travelled extensively and I am involved with mindfulness practices and meditation for over 30 years. I love engaging in a number of outdoor activities and to spend time in nature. Together with his mum we are enjoying raising our 17 year old son; as a family we are living in rural Devon.