Relationship Building in Art Therapy Work with People in Existential Crises

University Continuing Education with Klaus Heilmann

Continuing education: Saturday, 26 September 2026 to Sunday, 27 September 2026

Sat: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Sun: 10:00 am – 1:00 pm

Relationship Building in Art Therapy Work with People in Existential Crises

This continuing education course offers an insight into visual creative work with people in existential crises. Art therapist and artist Klaus Heilmann reports on his many years of work at Cologne Prison, where he created a space for communication in the women’s unit. He places his work under the guiding principle of building trust and creating relationships, especially in areas and life situations where trust has been so deeply shaken that the question becomes: what remains? And what remains, or can be shaped, is the relationship.

The idea of “relationship as medicine” opens up paths and makes processes possible where, in times of crisis, often only hopelessness is visible.

Under the guidance of Klaus Heilmann, participants immerse themselves in working with relationship building in a visual context. Participants explore and discuss the role of the image as a communicative medium in making resources visible and also naming them. The aim is to open inner spaces that offer room for development even in apparent hopelessness and enable people to ease current existential experiences, reflect on past ones, and open inner spaces.

The method of the circular image is central here. Different levels of therapeutic creative work are presented. Using examples from group and individual settings, possibilities for art-therapeutic work with prisoners are presented and discussed together.

This seminar places great value on practical work; afterwards, methods of image discussion are tested using participants’ own works.

The value of each individual image and how it is handled are central.

 

Lecture, Wednesday, 08/07/2026 from 5:30-7:00 pm, online

Visual creative work as a form of expression for people in existential crises – in the context of women in prison.

Especially in prison, visual creative work is a way to communicate the unspeakable, to externalize it. Using examples from group and individual settings, an insight is given into the inner, often highly existential situation of imprisoned people. In this context, possibilities for art-therapeutic action (especially relationship building and forms of image discussion) are presented and then discussed.

Photos © Klaus Heilmann