Keep up to date with our latest news and events.
Latest News
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Final call for June training
We have a few places left for our June training and booking is now open for November: 13 and 14 June 2025IN-PERSON TRAININGEdge Hill University (booked via Edge Hill Uni) 1 November 2025IN-PERSON TASTER DAYUniversity of Salford (booked via Uni of Salford) Edge Hill shop University of Salford shop Please also see here for further…
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Arts for the Blues at the House of Lords
Vicky Karkou has appeared at Children and Young People’s Mental Health Roundtable at the House of Lords on 3rd June, hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Creative Health and the National Centre for Creative Health. Vicky spoke to the group about the Arts for the Blues project and the work of the broader follow-up…
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Arts for the Blues in Riga
The Arts for the Blues team have presented their work in Riga, Latvia at the 7th European Dramatherapy Conference, also the 2nd International Dramatherapy Conference on the 2 and 3 May. The theme of the conference this year was ‘Human and Nature in Dramatherapy’. This was an incredibly well-attended and diverse conference with around 250…
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Next Arts for the Blues therapy group at the University of Salford
We are proud to announce the next Arts for the Blues therapy group will be delivered at the University of Salford starting on Feb 11th 2025. The group will run every Tuesday morning 10-11:30am for 12 weeks, concluding on 29 April 2025. The group, which has limited places, will take place face to face on…
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Arts for the Blues training in Kathmandu
In collaboration with researchers at Queen Mary University, London, we delivered Arts for the Blues training to therapists based in Kathmandu, Nepal on 9 December. Some lovely photos of the event in the gallery below!
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Arts for the Blues nominated for a Knowledge Exchange Award!
We are delighted to announce that Arts for the Blues has been nominated for a Knowledge Exchange award. This relates to how our training programme is helping to spread creative practice in therapy in the NHS, and in a plethora of charities, schools, health and cultural organisations in the UK and overseas. We couldn’t do…
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Events
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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…
Research Announcements
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Arts for the Blues: The development of a new evidence-based creative group psychotherapy for depression
Omylinska-Thurston, J., Karkou, V., Parsons, A.S., Nair, K., Haslam, S., Dubrow-Marshall, L., Lewis, J., Thurston, S. (2020). The development of Arts for the Blues – the new creative therapy for depression. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research. (IF 0.50) Read the full article here.
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Scaling up place-based arts initiatives that support mental health and wellbeing. Research-informed strategic commitments and recommendations using Arts for the Blues as a case example
Scaling up report with foreword from Dr Nils Fietje, WHO Arts and health: Karkou V, Omylinska-Thurston J, Thurston S. Clark B, Perris E. Kaehne A and Pearson M (2023) Scaling up place-based arts initiatives that support mental health and wellbeing Research-informed strategic commitments and recommendations using the Arts for the Blues as a case example.…
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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)
Karkou, V., Omylinska-Thurston, J., Parsons, A., Nair, K., Starkey, J., Haslam, S., Thurston, S., & Marshall, L. D. (2022). 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. Counselling…