News & Updates

Keep up to date with our latest news and events.

Latest News

  • Break

    Break

    ‘Break’ is a creative synthesis of research completed with clinical staff working in one of the largest physical NHS Trusts in the North West of England participating in an intervention that has adapted the Arts for the Blues into a multi-levelled creative psychological package aiming to support the wellbeing of healthcare workers. The piece was created…

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  • 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…

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  • 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…

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  • 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…

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  • 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…

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  • 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…

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Events

  • 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.…

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  • E-arts for covid blues: online workshop

    E-arts for covid blues: online workshop

    ESRC Festival of Social Science Tuesday 10 November 2020 Covid-19 and lockdown have affected people psychologically in different ways such as struggling with stress, anxiety, depression and loss. In response, the Arts for the Blues team are offering a free online creative psychological therapeutic session for working with these problems, as part of the ESRC…

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  • 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…

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Research Announcements