Category: News

  • Arts for the Blues training day

    Arts for the Blues training day

    16 January 2021 This weekend we had such an inspiring day with a wonderful group of therapists, counsellors, psychologists and psychiatrists, who together explored the creative possibilities for online delivery of the Arts for the Blues model.  We are so thankful to connect with everyone.  Here are some of the creative outputs from the day! …

  • Release of new publication!

    Release of new publication!

    The Arts for the Blues team are delighted to announce their third publication which presents the twelve session creative psychotherapy model for depression. This article details the approach taken by the team to inform the model and presents the eight key ingredients that underpin the therapy.  Omylinska-Thurston, J., Karkou, V., Parsons, A.S., Nair, K., Haslam,…

  • Arts for the Blues in Greece

    Arts for the Blues in Greece

    4th January 2020, Thessaloniki This January, Vicky led an experimental workshop and seminar based on the Arts for the Blues approach. Participants included arts psychotherapists (dance, drama, arts and music) as well as primarily verbal psychotherapists and psychologists. The day focused on the contribution of the arts to the treatment of depression and experiential work…

  • BADth annual conference 2019

    BADth annual conference 2019

    British Association of Dramatherapists 6-8th September 2019, Chester The Arts for the Blues team presented this autumn at the annual BADth conference. The British Association of Dramatherapists (BADth) is the professional body for Dramatherapists in the United Kingdom. Dramatherapy has as its main focus the intentional use of healing aspects of drama and theatre as the therapeutic…

  • Research centre for arts and wellbeing

    Research centre for arts and wellbeing

    The Arts for the Blues research project is led by Professor Vicky Karkou, Director of the newly established Research Centre for Arts and Wellbeing, at Edge Hill University. The purpose of the centre is to engage with impactful interdisciplinary research on the contribution of the arts towards the wellbeing of people across the life span,…

  • Creative therapies conference

    Creative therapies conference

    25th October 2019, University of Salford Ailsa Parsons and Dr Linda Dubrow-Marshall, both members of the Arts for the Blues project, presented and delivered an experiential workshop at the first ever Creative Therapies Conference at Salford University. This full day event celebrated and explored how creativity can be used therapeutically through every age of life.…

  • IMEC International Meaning Conference

    IMEC International Meaning Conference

    London, 12-14th July 2019 This Saturday, Dr Joanna Omylinska-Thurston and Prof Vicky Karkou are presenting Arts for the Blues : A Creative Psychological Intervention for Depression, at the IMEC International Meaning Conference; a bi-annual international conference in the UK for practitioners and researchers who focus at meaning in life and at helping people to live a meaningful life despite life’s challenges http://www.meaning.org.uk…

  • Division of counselling psychology annual conference

    Division of counselling psychology annual conference

    Cardiff, July 2019 Dr Joanna Omylinska-Thurston, Dr Scott Thurston and Dr Linda Dubrow-Marshall from the Arts for the Blues team, recently presented an update of our work at the annual conference, which each year attracts academics and practitioners working in around the field of psychology. https://www.bps.org.uk/events/division-counselling-psychology-annual-conference-2019 The Division of Counselling Psychology Annual Conference exists to provide…

  • Journal article published

    Journal article published

    Arts for the blues – a new creative psychological therapy for depression British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 9th July 2019 The Arts for the Blues team have just had their second journal article published for this project. This paper presents an interdisciplinary synthesis of key active ingredients in psychological treatment for depression, from both talking therapies, and…

  • BACP 2019 conference presentation

    The Arts for the Blues team have been in Belfast this week presenting at the 25th Annual Research Conference of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. We received some excellent and encouraging feedback from our attendees and thoroughly enjoyed the conference as participants. For an abstract of the paper we presented see below bacp-research-conference-2019-abstracts