Mental Health Matters (2021-2022)

Between 5th November 2021 - 21st January 2022, I worked with Mental Health Matters to facilitate 8, two-part therapeutic art sessions, once a week at the Bridgend facility. Mental Health Matters is a charity organisation that provides mental health support for individuals and communities. For more information about Mental Health Matters, click the underlined Mental Health Matters underneath "Organisation".

In collaboration with Mental health Matters and the participants' interests, the aims were to provide a non-judgmental environment to experiment with a variety of person-centered art activities, develop a sense of community through social engagement, encourage positive self-reflection, and create permanent artwork for the facility.

To ensure that the activities were person-centered during the first session I created a art mood board for participants to respond to, allowing them to write or tick off activities they would find interesting. Alongside, the mood board, I gave participants an end of session questionnaire to receive on-going feedback and suggestions for activities they would like to explore further. In the second part of the session, I ran a Social Butterfly Session where participants would use coloured tissue paper and felt-tips to create butterflies for the outside wings. On the inside of the wings, participants were asked to write their interests that was shared in an end-of-session discussion.
From participants responses from the mood board and end-of-session questionnaires each week, I facilitated the following sessions;

-A Hero Figure illustration sessions and Mindfulness Colouring in Session

- Landscape Watercolour Painting Session and Bead Threading Session

- Auto-Photography Session and a Glitter Jar Making Session

- Collage Mask-Making Session and Acrylic Sponge Painting Session

- Continuous Line Drawing Session and Abstract Watercolour Blob Session

- Acrylic Painting Animal Session and Our Stars Session

- Preparing and Exhibiting Art Session.

Click the center of the image to view descriptions of the photos taken. Most of the participant's outcomes were taken from the last session, as these were the outcomes they felt comfortable showing.