Therapeutic Arts
Creative Wellbeing

Creative work can be deeply rewarding, but it can also bring particular pressures. Students and creative practitioners are frequently asked to produce work that is personal, original and visible and then place it in front of others for feedback, assessment or critique. Alongside deadlines and workload, there can be comparison, perfectionism, creative blocks, uncertainty about the future and the pressure to continually generate new ideas.

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I offer workshops for universities, art and design schools and creative organisations that create space to look at these experiences differently. Combining therapeutic insight with creative and reflective approaches, sessions help participants develop greater awareness of how they work, what affects their confidence and creativity, and what can support a more sustainable relationship with their practice.

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Understanding the person behind the creative work

Creative education understandably concentrates on developing ideas, skills and professional practice. But the emotional experience of being a creative person can receive much less attention. A difficult critique can feel much bigger than feedback about a piece of work. Comparison can undermine confidence. Perfectionism can make it difficult to begin or finish. Periods when ideas aren't coming can quickly become questions about ability or identity.

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For some students and practitioners, neurodivergence can add another layer: intense periods of focus alongside overwhelm, difficulties with organisation or initiation, sensitivity to criticism, fluctuating energy or difficulty working within conventional structures.

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These workshops give participants an opportunity to recognise and reflect on these patterns without pathologising the creative process or prescribing one correct way of working.

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Workshop themes

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The Creative Self: Confidence, Comparison & Criticism

A workshop exploring what happens when the work we make becomes closely connected with how we see ourselves.

Participants consider experiences such as comparison, criticism, self-doubt and the pressure to produce something “good”, while exploring ways of separating the value of the individual from the response to a particular piece of work.

Creative and reflective exercises encourage greater awareness, perspective and confidence in navigating feedback and creative uncertainty.

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Creative Blocks, Perfectionism & Getting Started

Why can making become difficult precisely when something matters to us?

This workshop looks at some of the patterns that can sit underneath procrastination, avoidance and perfectionism in creative practice. Rather than treating a creative block simply as a lack of ideas, participants explore their own working patterns and experiment with ways of creating movement when they feel stuck.

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Neurodivergence & the Creative Process

A reflective workshop exploring some of the ways neurodivergence can interact with creative practice.

Themes can include attention, motivation, sensory experience, emotional intensity, periods of hyperfocus, overwhelm, organisation and responses to feedback.

 

Rather than presenting one model of how a neurodivergent creative person works, the session encourages participants to recognise their individual patterns, strengths and support needs.

 

The workshop is educational and reflective and does not provide assessment or diagnosis.

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Sustaining a Creative Practice

Creative development is not only about generating ideas. It also requires finding ways to continue working through uncertainty, rejection, changing motivation and the inevitable periods when confidence fluctuates.

This workshop invites participants to examine what helps -and what disrupts - their own creative process.

 

It can be particularly useful for students approaching graduation or creative practitioners navigating the transition between education and professional practice.

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Bespoke workshops and programmes

Workshops can be delivered individually or developed into a short series around the needs of a particular course, department or creative community. Themes can also be adapted around areas such as transition into professional practice, creative confidence, overwhelm, reflective practice, connection within a cohort or preparing students for the psychological realities of developing a sustainable creative career.

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I am happy to work with course leaders, student wellbeing teams and programme organisers to develop something appropriate for a particular group.

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Why I offer this work

My own professional life has developed across both therapeutic practice and the arts.

I originally trained in Art Therapy and have worked therapeutically with people for more than 25 years. I later completed an MA in Glass (Sculpture) and developed a parallel career as a contemporary artist and educator.

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I therefore know creative practice not only from a therapeutic perspective, but from inside the experience of making, exhibiting, teaching and continuing to develop a creative practice over many years.

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It is this combination of therapeutic experience, teaching and active creative practice that informs these workshops.

 

A psychologically informed but accessible approach

These sessions are workshops, not group therapy. Participants are not required to disclose personal experiences or discuss their artwork psychologically. Exercises are designed to allow different levels of participation and reflection, and no particular level of artistic ability is required. The aim is to create a thoughtful, engaging environment in which creative people can better understand themselves and develop ways of working that feel more sustainable.

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Discuss a workshop

If you are responsible for a university course, art or design programme, student wellbeing initiative or creative organisation, I would be happy to discuss what your students or creative community are currently experiencing.

Workshops can be adapted to different group sizes, timeframes and contexts and can be delivered as one-off sessions or as part of a wider programme.