Category: News

  • Together Un/Tethered, an Arts for the Blues immersive performance

    Together Un/Tethered, an Arts for the Blues immersive performance

    Sneak a peak at our Arts Council-funded project, Together Un/Tethered. Participants and artists joined a therapeutically informed Arts for the Blues group at the Liverpool Lighthouse and used their experiences to create this immersive performance. Interweaving movement, spoken word, innovative soundscape, projection and live cellist, Together Un/tethered explores themes of separation, connection, new possibilities and…

  • Watch the highlights from our scaling up Arts for the Blues project

    Watch the highlights from our scaling up Arts for the Blues project

    Creative dialogue with Community – Video Watch our short video report on our stakeholder and training days as part of our AHRC grant to develop a strategy for scaling up arts-based interventions. We held two stakeholders events for 43 stakeholders from healthcare, cultural, community and local authorities settings. We also evaluated four training days with…

  • New publication – Bringing creative psychotherapies to primary NHS mental health services in the UK

    New publication – Bringing creative psychotherapies to primary NHS mental health services in the UK

    Bringing creative psychotherapies to primary NHS Mental Health Services in the UK: A feasibility study on patient and staff experiences of arts for the blues workshops delivered at Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services. Download our most recent article which discusses a feasibility study undertaken with patients and staff in an IAPT (Improving Access…

  • A new strategy for scaling up place-based arts initiatives that support mental health and wellbeing

    A new strategy for scaling up place-based arts initiatives that support mental health and wellbeing

    Last year Arts for the Blues received AHRC grant to develop a strategy for scaling up arts-based interventions across North West using Arts for the Blues as an example. To develop the strategy we held two stakeholders events for 43 stakeholders from healthcare, cultural, community and local authorities settings. We also evaluated four training days…

  • New open access publication

    New open access publication

    Our most recent article discusses a feasibility study undertaken with patients and staff in an IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) service. This article is open access and you can find it here: Karkou, V., Omylinska-Thurston, J., Parsons, A.S., Lewis, J., Dubrow-Marshall, L.,  Thurston, S. (2022). Bringing creative psychotherapies to primary NHS Mental Health Services in…

  • Arts for the blues project wins funding to tackle depression through arts

    Arts for the blues project wins funding to tackle depression through arts

    A pioneering project led by Edge Hill University and developed in collaboration with the University of Salford, which uses the arts to tackle depression, has been awarded new funding to scale up across the North West of England.  Arts for the Blues is a collaborative research project between artists, therapists, universities, NHS trusts and cultural…

  • Arts for the Blues training

    Arts for the Blues training

    As part of the scaling up project funded by UKRI AHRC, we are offering Arts for the Blues training at Edge Hill University and University of Salford. This training is nearly full but do watch out for more training in the future.  To keep in touch and to find out about future trainings, email artswell@edgehill.ac.uk 

  • Arts for the Blues film

    Arts for the Blues film

    A film about the Arts for the Blues project was included as part of the Healing Arts Symposium hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in New York. It was the only example from the UK and it was screened on 14th November 2021. The event was in partnership…

  • Arts for the Blues and NICE consultation

    Arts for the Blues and NICE consultation

    The Arts for the Blues project has recently published an article ‘Arts for the Blues: The development of a new evidence-based creative group psychotherapy for depression’ which has been selected for inclusion in a new special virtual issue of Counselling and Psychotherapy Research to coincide with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) consultation on…

  • Student training event

    Student training event

    17th April 2021 (online) We spent a wonderful training day with counselling and psychotherapy students from both masters and undergraduate programmes at the University of Salford and Edge Hill University. We also had lecturers from both universities attending both in a support and participation capacity, alongwith invited mental health practitioners.  Today was the first of…