AURORA
Nurturing Health
Developing Resilience
LUT HERMANS
Founding member of Aurora Collective | Occupational Therapy, Belgium; School of Sculpture, Emerson College, UK; The Extra Lesson Training, TELI, Australia.
Member of the Asia Pacific Extra Lesson Association (APELA)
THE EXTRA LESSON® PROGRAMME
SCULPTURE THERAPY
CLAY FIELD THERAPY
About myself and my work:
When I started work as an occupational therapist at Iona Institute in Belgium in 1986, I worked with adults and young people with developmental delays and challenges. Working and living with them gave me 7 years of learning about the gifts and challenges they bring with them and has given me life-long friendships.
My question of how sculpture could be therapeutic, started there, which led me to do the sculpture training at Emerson College in England from 1993 till 1996. That training gave me a real understanding of the language of form and the power of the creative process.
When I came to New Zealand in 1997, I worked for several years as an artist while raising my daughter. In 2005 I started the training to become an Extra Lesson Practitioner, which brought me back to a deeper understanding of child development, and how we can help children to reach their full potential, academically, socially and emotionally.
What child development and sculpture have in common is that both are about taking hold of, inhabiting and transforming our three dimensional body and world. In my work I have the help of my little dog Louis, who most of the time sleeps in his basket and occasionally joins us in our play.
CONTACT:
027 748 1093
COST:
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1 hr session for Sculpture Therapy and the Extra Lesson® Programme is $55.
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The initial Extra Lesson® assessment (about 2.5 hrs), a written report and 1 hour meeting to discuss the findings is $450.
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Financial support available for those in need.
ADDRESS:
37 Pretoria Street, Lower Hutt
About The Extra Lesson® Programme
The Extra Lesson® Programme is an individualised developmental assessment and intervention programme to help children, teens and adults, with learning, emotional and social challenges.
Extra lesson works out of the understanding that the child’s developmental process of the first 7 years forms the foundation for academic and social skills in life. What we can outwardly observe in the different milestones in a child’s development, is an expression of the maturation of the neuro-physical structure of the human body. The integration of our senses of touch, wellbeing, movement and balance, are the base on which our sensory processing, our emotional, social and academic faculties rely.
All the developmental milestones give us a picture of how well the individual, the Self, has made the physical body, its home. The better we embody our instrument, our body, the more we can realise our full potential in the world.
When this development can follow the normal pattern: achieving all the milestones, integrating of primitive reflexes and midlines, sensory integration, etc., then learning becomes a natural faculty. When the child relates well to the three dimensional world, to his own body geography and spatial awareness of his surroundings, he is able to translate these orientations into the two dimensional world with the forms and directions of letters and numbers on paper. With a good sense of balance, we have a stable reference point from which to stand in the world and start to explore it and meet the other.
All this gives us the still and central reference point from which to orientate in space and time.
The Extra Lesson® programme enables the child to have a second chance at going through that development, and so catch up where it missed out on something or didn’t quite complete a certain part of the development, and so rebuild the foundations for learning, a balanced emotional life and healthy social skills.
To book a session or ask for further information, contact Lut on 027 748 1093 or at lut@imagostudio.co.nz
About Sculpture Therapy
In Sculpture therapy we work with the language of the three dimensional world, the language of form. Convex, concave and flat surfaces are for sculpture what the three primary colours are for painting. They each have their own qualities. With all the variations and combinations of these three gestures, we have endless possibilities to express ideas and feelings in form.
In its raw form clay, wood, stone… are pure matter, lifeless and at the mercy of gravity. It is only through our own doing, our own will, that we change that matter. We ‘trans-form’ it, bring it into levity, into a seemingly living state. We elevate it and make it ‘speak’ an idea.
Sculpture works with the sense of touch. The clay and water on our hands is a gentle way of stimulating this sense. Our skin, the organ for our sense of touch, tells us about the boundary between ourselves and the world, where I end and the world begins. When sculpting, we only ever work on the surface of our forms, on the boundary between what is on the inside of the form and the space around it, and so helps us to strengthen our own sense of boundary.
It helps us to gather and focus our attention. Both children and adults can benefit from this in a time when we are constantly drawn out into a world full of sense impressions and virtual realities. It gives us time to slow down.
Developing our inner sense of form, listening to the dialogue between the emerging form and sculptor, develops our senses of movement and balance. We constantly read our work, and sense where it is in proportion or not, where it needs adjusting till it ‘feels’ just right.
The creative process is in itself an opportunity to grow, learn and be transformed.
To book a session or ask for further information, contact Lut on 027 748 1093 or at lut@imagostudio.co.nz
About Clay Field Therapy
Being well attuned to ourselves and the world, means there is a smooth and fluid interaction between our actions and the sensory feedback that we get back from the world in which we act. For example: I push the clay, I feel a hardness and resistance, the clay doesn’t move as much as I want it, so I adjust my action and push harder, or vice versa, I reduce my force when the clay gives way too much, feels too soft.
This constant dance in finding balance between movement and sensory feedback, between doing and sensing, informs us in how we can be in the world. This all happens at an unconscious level, in the immediacy of the ‘now’, which happens too fast for our thinking to be part of it.
When that balance is disturbed or difficult to find, when the sensory feedback to our actions is too overwhelming or painful, our physical system goes into a state of survival in order to stop the sense of overwhelm. The imbalance that then occurs can go two ways: the child can withdraw and reduce the doing, in order to avoid the overwhelming sensory experience. Here we may see a child that shows a low muscle tone, only touches the clay/world, with the fingertips, delicately without making much impact, is anxious about meeting the world. The other possible reaction is that the sensory experience gets blocked, and movement continues without a regulating input from the senses. Here we see the ADHD picture, doing without coming to stillness and allow the senses to inform the doing. The restlessness of the talkative and fidgety child, the frustrated child who wants to do and achieve but keeps bumping up against failure.
The sense of Touch is the primary sense to develop that integration with the environment. It is the sense that brings us back to the boundary of our body. Our sense of Touch is the basis for our Sense of Self, of trust and knowing where the Self ends and the World, the other, begins.
With the Clay Field the child or adolescent sits in front of a tray which is filled with soft smooth clay and has a bowl of warm water and a sponge available. This basic set up allows for an immersive experience of that sense of Touch. The warm water can be reassuring, can be calming when the sensory feedback of the clay gets too much. Or the water can be added to the clay to make it soft and creamy.
We may see children in the beginning touching the clay very sensitively, with soft hands, a floppy back, aimlessly touching the clay. Or we may see white knuckled bent fingers, tight shoulders. Both of them might struggle to move the soft clay and instead experience it as hard and heavy. Gradually they will find their strength and will be able to move more and more clay, build stronger structures, and claim all the clay to be available and accessible to them. Their posture becomes upright and their whole free moving arms become engaged in the movement.
We may see children grabbing and building and getting lost in the actions in the clay field, and gradually coming to rest, being able to come to stillness and ‘feel’ the softness, the hardness, the weight, the resistance of the clay, often staying there for minutes at a time. That stillness can go hand in hand with a deep sigh, a deep breath, a physical innate experience of rest, and joy.
To find more information on the Clay Field you can visit the website of the Sensorimotor Institute by Cornelia Elbrecht: www.sensorimotorarttherapy.com/clay-field-therapy
To see some examples please klick on the links here below:
To book a session or ask for further information, contact Lut on 027 748 1093 or at lut@imagostudio.co.nz
Testimonials:
Referred to Lut with a variety of mental health complexities, I have found her to be sensitive, non-judgmental and accommodating to my needs. In addition, working with clay has been beneficial for me on multiple levels. I found the sessions to be grounding, connective and the catalyst of many insights and reflections.
I have found Lut to be an inspiring tutor who creates a safe environment of supportive companionship.
She brings a broad wealth of knowledge, skills and instructions and allows me to choose the direction and speed of our sessions. Throughout the year we have covered a range of techniques and sculpture styles, including small and large free flow sculpture creations, porcelain, moulding, glazing as well as more classic forms such as cups and broaches.
(26 years old)
M., 2016
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"It was so valuable to have Lut working with my son. She was able to provide him with the acceptance and gentle guidance to develop in a number of important areas. He came to enjoy the Extra Lesson exercises and we had such fun practicing these.
Through these he became more aware of his body in space and confident with his movements.
He also loved the opportunity to create and explore through art-painting and clay work. My son responded well to Lut's caring and thoughtful approach and the safe and respectful environment she provides. As a parent I found it so valuable to have Lut to discuss my son's specific challenges. Her insight and suggestions were really valuable and helpful as part of our journey. Thank you again Lut for all you did."
(7 year old boy)
Colleen, 2018
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“In Lut we finally found someone who saw and understood our son like nobody had before. She gently found his best way to go forwards using a variety of physical and artistic interventions. It was a great burst for his self-confidence. She got him so engaged that he happily did the exercises for her – every night, even the challenging ones. We could always talk to Lut about our worries and she openly shared her professional wisdom with us, which helped us see our son for who he is.
It was exactly what we needed and it helped. Thank you Lut!"
Martin and Doro, 2021
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Dear Lut,
I just wanted to acknowledge the difference you have made in our lives as a family.
I initially had L. come to see you due to our rapidly changing life circumstances.
I had just separated from his Dad who has severe mental illness, our family dog had just passed away, and we had to move out of our family home. So L. had experienced a lot of huge changes within a short period of time at the tender age of 6.
Due to these losses and instability, L. was experiencing BIG feelings. These included separation anxiety, anger, rage and general anxiety. He was unable to recognize these feelings, let along manage them. I have no family support here, and was finding parenting L. very difficult.
Through his work with clay and your experience and knowledge he is learning to ground himself, recognize his feelings and be still. He is learning how to sit with his feelings and process them. You have become a constant in his life. Someone he feels safe with, can be himself with, and above all, be a 7 year old child.
You are amazingly patient, insightful, caring and compassionate. Your approach is very holistic and gentle. He feels seen and valued by you. He is learning coping skills for life.
Through you I have been able to understand L. so much better and understand what he needs. This has helped us as a family.
I feel incredibly blessed to have you as part of our lives. Thank you.
Mel, 2022