Course Content
Organisation
A person centred pluralistic ethos
Our approach based on understanding that creativity is crucial. It promotes empathy, non-directivity, and self expression, self-understanding and of course creativity. It can be used with adults, children, couples, and groups.
Person-centred creative arts therapy models were first developed around 50 years ago, and are an effective, powerful and a deeply transformative therapeutic approach. Our pluralistic perspective also places the client at the heart of therapy, and our approach draws on a range of concepts to collaboratively work with clients to support the therapeutic creative process.
Presenter
Ani de la Prida is a psychotherapist, creative arts counsellor, supervisor and author who brings a person-centred, pluralistic approach to her work and a passion for working with creative arts in therapy. Ani has over 20 years’ experience working with groups, adults, children, and young people in a wide range of settings and as a person-centred counselling trainer.
Ani was a senior lecturer at the University of East London for several years, where she also did her master’s research on the use of digital media in therapy. Ani now teaches and delivers workshops at various colleges and universities and at APCCA Training where she delivers courses in the therapeutic use of creative arts with a dedicated international team of trainers.
Ani is the founder and director of the Association for Person Centred Creative Arts (APCCA) and editor of the APCCA journal The Art of Insight and since recently relocating to Spain, maintains a small private practice of clients and supervisees.
Recent publications include chapters on Person-Centred Creative Arts Therapies in The Tribes of the Person-Centred Nation (2024), and in The Handbook of Person-Centred Psychotherapy and Counselling (2024) and a chapter on demedicalised counselling and psychotherapy with children and young people in People not Pathology: freeing therapy from the medical model (2023).
Ani is co-author of The Pluralistic Therapy Primer (2023) and is currently writing Person-Centred Experiential Art Therapy: A contemporary pluralistic person-centred approach for counselling, psychotherapy and art therapy (due 2026).
Annie Garrigan is a Pluralistic Counsellor working at UHI Perth and with ESA Scotland. As an advocate of anti-oppressive practice, she has a keen interest on issues of race and intersectionality. Through recent exploration, she regained her passion for painting which was transformative and empowering. She now brings the practice of working therapeutically and collaboratively with creative arts to her support groups and clients.
“As a person-centred and creative arts counsellor and supervisor, I bring over a decade of experience working with diverse clients and supervisees across a range of settings. I maintain memberships with the BACP and NCPS, run a small private practice and hold therapeutic creative arts workshops with my wife, Charlotte, as Two Birds Therapy.
Currently, I am a full-time lecturer at Edge Hill University, teaching on the undergraduate counselling and psychotherapy programmes for the past five years, with previous experience at the University Centre at Blackburn College. In addition to teaching, I am external examiner at two other universities, and I supervise both undergraduate and postgraduate research projects. I am also in the final stages of my Professional Doctorate in Psychotherapy Studies at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), where my research focuses on the experiences of adopted adults.
I am a dedicated board member and tutor for the Association for Person-centred Creative Arts (APCCA), actively supporting its growth and development, and my passion lies in integrating creative arts within therapy, teaching, and research. Personal development in counsellor training and practice is close to my heart, and my ongoing involvement in conferences and encounter groups is central to my professional journey.
With APCCA co-hosting the 2025 PCE Symposium in Glasgow, I am really excited to co-create an inspiring and transformative weekend with all of you!”
