Angela Rackstraw is a trained and registered Art Psychotherapist with almost 20 years’ experience of working with both children and adults in this field. She completed her 2 year Post-grad Diploma in Art Therapy (now the MA course) at the University of Hertfordshire in 1995, and then went on to study for another 2 years, gaining her MA in Art Therapy, where she also studied Medical Anthropology. Before training as an Art Therapist, she was a nursing sister, with considerable paediatric experience.
Apart from her work at Red Cross Hospital (where she mainly works in the Burn’s Unit and Oncology ward), she has founded and runs an NGO which focuses on work with marginalised and traumatised women and children in various impoverished communities in and around Cape Town (www.cath.co.za). She often teaches Art Therapy Masters students in Ireland, and supervises foreign students from both Europe and Ireland in Cape Town, where she arranges various placement opportunities. She has also lectured at Lesley College in Cambridge, Boston in the USA, as part of their Expressive Therapies PhD programme.
In 2006 Angela was given a Community Service Award by Rotary in Cape Town, and in 2009 Angela was nominated as one of Ode Magazine’s top 25 Intelligent Optimists by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, both as a result of her work with marginalised communities.
Angela is currently in discussions with the MA Art Therapy training programme in Cork, Ireland, to formally collaborate so that their MA students can do part of their clinical placement here in South Africa, which will obviously benefit South African applicants in the future.
Angela’s particular area of interest in the field of her work, is working with children affected by trauma, loss / bereavement, and life-threatening illness. Angela also has a Private Practice in Rondebosch, where she sees clients of all ages. Here she also facilitates the creative journeys of others, regularly running morning or evening groups, for a duration of 8 weekly sessions.
(For relaxation she enjoys being creative on many levels, and spending time in nature with her animals and family.)
Please email her at angrack01@gmail.com for further information.