News & Updates

Keep up to date with our latest news and events.

Latest News

  • 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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  • 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…

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  • 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 

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  • 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…

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Events

  • 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…

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  • 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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Research Announcements

  • 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…

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  • 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,…

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