Accessible Art Psychotherapy and Community Arts

Janel Ang is an art psychotherapist and community artist. With more than 10 years working in community arts serving populations in poverty or experiencing traumatic life circumstances, Janel is trained to provide trauma-informed care through creative mediums. Beyond verbal counselling, she is skilled in working with non-verbal populations such as children with special needs, children who have experienced early childhood trauma, patients in stroke rehabilitation, seniors with dementia and also their caregivers. Her interest and diverse skills in the arts range from photography, painting, videography and animation, and she is able to weave them dextrously into her therapy sessions and workshops, engaging clients in comfortably and meeting them where they are.

In her spare time, she volunteers on farms and loves being with animals. She hopes that she can bring joy to her clients by allowing to explore and be themselves through play.

Janel Ang
MA, AThR, ATR-BC
MA Art Therapy
LASALLE College of the Arts Singapore
(Goldsmiths, University of London, UK - validating institutional partner)
For Curriculum Vitae, click here
For further information, click here

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Sustainable Living Options 
Initiative
2022

On a quest to attain greater sustainability in life, I worked and lived on two farms, one in Meisterschwanden Switzerland and one in Khao Yai, Thailand. I adopted a plant-based lifestyle and learned how to cultivate my own vegetables for consumption. Here are some film photos that I took to document my experiences on the farm.

Therapeutic Animation 

Animation
2020-2021

The steps we take is a diaristic frame by frame animation comprising more than 2000 individual drawings made daily in a reflective practice during the art therapy programme. Inspired and expanding on concepts of longitudinal response art methods for self-care such as Abbe Miller’s El Duende One Canvas Process Painting, making this animation was a therapeutic practice to expand my capacity for long-term caregiving. With this novel self-sufficient care approach, I proffer a creative method for those in professions of care to sustain themselves amidst the prevalence of burnout and compassion fatigue.

Amidst the prevalent backdrop of burnout and compassion fatigue, how can those in professions of care sustain themselves with a creative self-care practice? Bye Bye Babu is a story touching on the loss of a childhood friend. Animation is a self-sufficient care technique that art therapists can pick up on their own to process challenging emotions, especially across sustained periods of time to sustain and expand capacity for long-term caregiving. My artistic exploration of creating frame by frame animation across longitudinal periods have revealed its therapeutic potential to support myself in my long-standing journey of working with clients, and in a personal capacity as a familial caregiver.

Watch the videos here:
The steps we take
Bye Bye Babu

St Luke’s Hospital Art Leisure Programme 

Initiative
2021-2022

The Leisure Programme is conducted weekly at St Luke's Hospital's Rehabilitation wards for patients. The experience allows them to express themselves, learn new skills and serves to improve their mood while during their hospital stay. The works are frequently documented in an online exhibition for their friends and family to view.

Recipes and Stories
Peranakan Museum

Photography
2021-2022

I was commissioned by the Peranakan Museum as part of the Digimuse selection to document diverse Peranakan recipes and stories on film for an online exhibition during the museum’s site renovation. The gastronomic stories delve into the home kitchens of different Peranakan personalities, who shared their recipes and intimate stories of food, family, and living traditions. To them, Peranakan food and cooking are a way of life, and a nostalgic link to their heritage and culture.

Digimuse Online

Online photo and stories exhibition