A Barnsley woman is helping others turn their life around through art therapy drawing on her own experiences when she was at “rock bottom”.

Sarah Stevenson, 45, created her company, Drip Room Art, in one weekend after a difficult divorce in 2023 led to her being drawn to art, something she had previously studied, to express her emotions.

She had always wanted to make a career of her art but never felt confident enough to pursue it until this major life change.

Miss Stevenson said: “I would put my son to bed, sit with the baby monitor and just paint for hours,

“Throwing paint, mixing colours, letting everything out, it was the only way I could process what I was feeling.”

For her and her five-year-old boy, art was a way to heal, with habits such as, “What colour do you feel today?”, helping her son to express his emotions and to aid her understanding him.

To begin with, she found he would identify with colours such as blacks and reds, whereas now it is all “sunshine and rainbows”.

Now she wants to use her healing to help others, leading her to become a qualified art therapist.

Miss Stevenson has used Drip Room to host events, one-to-one sessions and even recently added ‘rage rooms’ to her repertoire.

On Sunday 26 April, she hosted her first rage room event, where a group of women were brought together to let it all out by throwing, splatting and flicking paint at blank canvases.

She hosted the event at Bumblebugs Photography studio in Barnsley in collaboration with founder, Kathryn Simpson.

When asked what made her willing to collaborate, Mrs Simpson said: “I met Sarah at a Mum’s in Business meeting a few moths ago and as soon as I met her I knew I had to do something to help her along the journey,

“Her story is heart-breaking and seeing her rebuild from nothing, with the sheer determination to succeed is something I want to support, she is inspirational to so many other women who have similar stories.”

Miss Stevenson has found that her creative methods allow people to open up more than standard communication would or, in some cases, work when communication cannot.

For example, she has been working with a mother and daughter who have escaped domestic violence, finding the seven-year-old girl finds it easiest to sketch when words fail her.

For Miss Stevenson, this company feels like what she was “brought on this earth” to do, leaving her with the belief that she went through all of her pain with the purpose of helping others learn how to deal with theirs.

Most recently, she has created ‘The Reset Pages‘, a daily workbook and accompanying app that can be found on her website.

The venture gives people daily tasks over a four-week period incorporating, journaling, and artsy challenges to push themselves out of their comfort zone, which Miss Stevenson has deliberately made accessible to those less creatively inclined.

She said: “Creativity does not have to be perfect and you don’t have to create a perfect picture; it’s about the expression and understanding the link between colours and emotions.”