Psychological therapies and Art Therapy: do they speak the same language, or is Creative Psychology a (new) professional field that can integrate the benefits of both?’
As a BPS member and fan of The Psychologist, I was pleasantly surprised to read Sue Holttum’s article...
We are living through a social paradox: mental health research has proved that social connection is crucial to wellbeing, yet during this pandemic social isolation is crucial to survival. Relationships are one of the most important aspects of our lives, but we can often...
In 2016, I co-founded Element, a social enterprise that produces creative arts projects with young people leaving the care system, and at-risk school students. Our work is heavily based on group delivery in physical spaces. As soon...
A wealth of evidence underscores the positive impact that arts and culture can have on our health, our individual and collective wellbeing, and our ability to live rich, meaningful lives. These affordances have come to the fore during the Covid-19 pandemic, with myriad arts...
As an artist, collage has always been my preferred medium of choice. Even when completing the first-year foundation of an MA Art Therapy course, I would use collage if I could get away with it. Perhaps that is why, after a somewhat circuitous career route, I...
My crossroad artwork reflects on how people take different directions in deciding how to take action in the face of ambiguity/uncertainty.
To quote Pliny the Edler, in his theory of natural history, the ‘one certainty is that nothing is certain’. And yet we...
The now universal condition of ‘social distancing’ will mean, for some, emotional withdrawal from people. But for some it will mean an endeavour to ‘stay together apart’: to reconnect with others, and the self as well. From an existential psychology perspective, drawing on...
Covid-19 became properly real for us here in the UK in March. As is normal with a situation like this, along with many others I noticed my anxiety levels rising. I began to think about the coping strategies I could use to help dampen down the anxiety. The thing that works...
Road to hell
Things did not start well. At primary school I was described as a ‘slow coach’ and bedevilled by mistakes in my written work (only labelled as dyslexia many years later). However, I did well in the 11+ exam and got into the local grammar...
Have you ever dreamt of stepping into a painting? To become completely immersed in the work before you, making reality around you fade into the new world created by the artist? In ‘Van Gogh – The Immersive Experience’ you can do just that, thanks to neat use of venues and...