How to get started running online art therapy groups and workshops
Hi, I’m Mary-Helen (she/her). I’m a Transpersonal Art Therapist and Counsellor. I’ve worked in mental health and community organisations offering online therapeutic art groups and workshops. In 2022, I was a speaker at the Pathways to Practise conference and I presented about my journey of offering online workshops and groups. In this blog I’m going a bit more in depth with specific to getting started.
I’m a huge fan of offering online art therapy groups and workshops. In fact, that’s how I got started as a Transpersonal Art Therapist. When I was a student I was running in-person workshops as part of practicum and shared about the workshops on my Instagram. I had many requests from people overseas to run these workshops online. To be honest I was very hesitant in the beginning to run these workshops online. I worried about things like:
What if the experience is not as good as in person? What if the tech is too hard? Where do I even start? What if no one signs up?
Let me tell you about some of the the benefits to offering online:
It makes your offerings more accessible for participants outside of your local area and country.
It’s more flexible eg. less travel time for you and participants and you can choose a schedule that works for you.
It can be more private and confidential vs holding workshops in public spaces. And participants can have greater choice on how they show up in a space particularly if they experience social anxiety e.g. they can choose camera off and sharing via chat functions.
Cost effective as you don’t need to book rooms, supply materials, and cover costs of travel. And transporting materials, setting up space and packing down post-workshops is exhausting, so you’ll save some energy.
There’s a couple of things to consider when offering online art therapy groups and workshops.
Technical aspects:
Choose a video conferencing platform. I use a pro-zoom subscription as I’m super comfortable with zoom. There are lots of platforms to choose from eg Teams, GoogleMeet, Skype.
Fast internet speed is essential for streaming video/audio, particularly if you are in a household where other people are using streaming simultaneously.
Consider the audio visual aspects of delivering the workshop. Clear audio and video is important not only so people can hear and see you but also to build trust and safety with your participants. Also consider what participants need to see and hear during the workshop. Make sure you set yourself up in a space that is quiet and private where you won’t be interrupted or distracted. If you are demonstrating technique make sure it can be seen clearly on camera. If you are using visuals make sure you know how to share your screen. If you want to stream music make sure you’ve tested this out before your workshop. You can easily google all of these things but make sure you do a dry run and test it out before your workshop. There is nothing more stressful for you and discombobulating for participants when tech isn’t working as it should. Of course sometimes this will be out of your control, so remember to have a sense of humour.
Scheduling:
As mentioned before, one of the benefits of running workshops online is that it can work around your schedule. Ideally you’ll choose your workshop times based on when you are most energetic. For me, I have more energy in the mornings so this is my peak time to facilitate workshops. I do run night time workshops, but I notice my energy is not the same level.
You also want to consider your ideal participants schedule. Check out workshops similar to your offering and see what times they run. Another way is to use surveying eg create a survey and send it out via your mailing list and socials asking interested participants' what their preferences are.
Marketing:
How will your participants find out and sign up to your workshop?
Pick a ticketing system to help funnel and manage your signs up eg Eventbrite, Humantix, trybooking. Make sure you check the service fees for listing events on these platforms and incorporate them into your workshop cost. Another option is to set up a booking system on your website to manage signs up.Using a third party booking system e.g. Eventbrite does create another way for participants to discover your event.
AND don’t forget to prepare your participants for the workshop. This is the admin part of preparing workshops that is really important. Meaning you need to consider what efforts participants will need to make in order to be prepared to turn up to your workshop eg gather art materials, setting up their creation space and turning up at the right time!
Make sure your workshop listing highlights all of these things so your participants have as much information as they need, particularly if you are facilitating workshops that demonstrate techniques. Here’s some example from one of my workshops listings on Eventbrite:
4. Make sure you create reminders that prompt your workshop participants to turn up on time. Eventbrite offers at least 3 automated reminders that will be sent out to participants but you might like to manually send out your own email separately to catch the attention of your attendees and open up communication channels for anyone with questions.
5. Once you’ve listed your event make sure you post about it via email lists and social media so people can find out about it.
Tips for delivery the workshop:
Always check reminder emails have been sent out the day before your workshop.
Double check your links! Even after running over a hundred workshops online I still sometimes goof my zoom links!
Log onto your conferencing software early. Sometimes you’ll need to do software updates or restart your computer and if you leave it late to log on it causes unnecessary stress for you if you have to delay starting your session.
Enjoy the workshop! When I first started out I was so stressed and anxious about delivery workshops, so much that I didn’t even enjoy the process of delivering workshops. Anxiety is a very normal experience when facilitating workshops but don’t let it run the show. Make sure you prepare yourself with grounding techniques before you start your workshop so that you can attend to the energy of the group.
No one turned up or only one person turns up? I’ve had this happen many times! It's the nature of online AND in-person workshops for attendance to vary, life happens and people drop off particulary. No need to be embarrassed, you’ve turned up ready to hold a beautiful space for whoever has turned up, so focus on that and run the session as you would if you had a full workshop. If it's the case that you’ve had low sign ups for your workshop it might mean your marketing hasn’t been as successful in reach and you may need to review your approach. It totally sucks when this happens but don’t give up, keep turning up, keep trying.
So, that's the basics for getting started with running online workshops and groups. We’ve covered the basics of benefits, technical aspects, scheduling and marketing. There are lots of other things to consider too, but these are the bones of what you need to get going.
I hope this you found this blog helpful!
Mary-Helen
