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Best Practice
Picture a person searching for well-being support. Maybe they are lonely or at a loose end, bereaved or new in an area or in a country. Maybe they’re ill, anxious or depressed. Imagine this person...
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Out In The Sticks
Well-being hubs and community initiatives abound. Research constantly proves that feeling connected and spending time with other people are overwhelmingly positive for well-being and for overall...
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Recipe For Success?
Is there a recipe for what most helps wellbeing in a group setting? Is it ever possible to generalise about something so personal & individual? As I’ve led and facilitated a few different kinds of...
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In Performance
A group of women wearing flowing red from head to toe stand and strike dramatic poses in a silent tableau. Or they form a procession. Every change of facial expression can be clearly seen as they wear...
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Make A Mark
In its essence, art is all about the moment the pencil, pen or brush makes contact with the paper or canvas, and what happens there. Paul Klee famously compared art to taking a line for a walk. Is...
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Each And Every
As someone who draws or paints most days and works as a visual art for wellbeing practitioner, I would never have thought that writing would suddenly prove more helpful than visual art as an...
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Becoming
Gone are the days when children were supposed to be “seen and not heard”. But there are still many expectations and assumptions about childhood. Very different ones now. Children are supposed to be...
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Lost For Words
Creativity and art are central to my life, and as I share art for wellbeing with others, I see at first hand the impact it can have. Sometimes I share my own lived experience, how art helps me...
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Down Memory Lane
Memory – a word that packs a powerful punch. Nostalgic, bittersweet, or simply happy and unclouded, or painful, or dark, or everyday, or even drifting out of your grasp. Memory can desert us after...
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Confidence And Community
Hold a pen or pencil in your hand and draw a line on a sheet of paper. A simple act. How do you feel? Excited, wondering what image you might go on to create? Bored? Daunted? Is it full of...
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Slow Looking
How long would you spend looking at a painting on an art gallery wall? Or in a book, or online? Recent research found that the average person spends just a few seconds. Is that enough? Is it more...
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The Magic Of Music
Just one year, 1935, produced two of the most legendary musical superstars of all time. Elvis Presley was born in January 1935 and Luciano Pavarotti that October. One burst on to the music scene and...
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Glimpse Something Deeper
Over the last few weeks, one word has cropped up time and again as I’ve spoken with participants in my art for wellbeing activities. It’s something they say they’ve found very beneficial, or that they...
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Either/Or
Can wellbeing initiatives such as befriending, arts and crafts or gardening be just as beneficial as a talking therapy like CBT? On the one hand, demand is constant and CBT has boomed, within the NHS...
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Express Yourself
What do the words “comic book” or “graphic novel” conjure up for you? Do they awaken nostalgic memories of comic strips you enjoyed as a child, or do you read them here and now? Maybe you are...
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Changing Minds
What’s the first thought that comes into your mind when you hear the words creativity, the arts, music, dance, drama, art or craft? Do you think “wonderful, enriching, fun”? Or do you think “boring,...
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Communities That Care
Creativity plays an important part in many care homes – and so too does community. With care homes running varied activities most days, alongside the quizzes, outings and bingo there are lots of...
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Serendipity
Even the most reluctant gardener (or rambler) is more likely to venture out at this time of year. Many plants and flowers emerging, fresh leaves on the trees, roadside verges high with cow parsley....
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A Past That Endures
Creativity, art, music, might feel a world away from the very brutal realities of war: mud, death, rubble, bomb craters. 80 years on from VE Day, which saw many countries emerge from World War Two,...
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Earth Our Home
What is your first thought when you hear the word “earth”? Is Planet Earth somewhere you take for granted, a backdrop to your life that you assume will go on as it is? Can you still enjoy nature...
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