COATS has been privileged to run a variety of outdoor therapeutic and social engagement groups since it was founded in 2012. Below is a summary of what we have been up:
PROJECTS:
PUBLICATIONS:
Environmental Arts Therapy - The Wild Frontiers of the Heart
Edited By Ian Siddons Heginworth, Gary Nash
Chapter contribution:
Creating connections: Introducing environmental arts therapy into London’s green spaces
Environmental arts therapy encourages human connection to nature, to others and between the internal and external world through myth, metaphor and art-making.
In my chapter this process is contextualised within the wider ecology of an urban clientele’s relationship to the natural world. Facilitating connections in a therapeutic setting is considered through the process of projection.
Consideration is given to the synthesis of the theoretical models of Environmental Arts Therapy and Five Ways to Wellbeing which underpin the Community Outdoor Art Therapy Service (COATS).
An exploration of three COATS therapeutic workshops are provided as illustrations.
Natural Hysteria - Coping with Nature's destruction, Poems of a rhyming couplet construction
The poems deal with a variety of pressing issues ranging from the political to the very human, exploring the ecological dilemmas we face on a daily basis. Delivered in an accessible, light-hearted style, they still deliver a powerful message.
Natural Hysteria’s fiery birth occurred during the summer of 2022 heatwave (illustrated on the front cover). Natural hysteria started as a desire to process my eco-anxiety and resulted in a collection of fourteen illustrated poems. Each poem comes with a link to the research that informed their creation.
For more information or to get your copy, please visit: www.naturalhysteria.co.uk
‘A qualitative evaluation of an outdoor art therapies group’ (International Journal of Art Therapy vol.29, 2024 - issue 2).
Tim Wright, Verity Blakeman, Tanya Andrew & Sarah Labovitch.
The arts therapies are generally provided in indoor settings but in recent years there has been a growth of outdoor provision. This is done in order to make use of the beneficial effects of natural environments, the experience of which becomes a source of sensory, aesthetic and psychological stimulation and thus an active element in the therapy. There is a growing literature on this type of provision but there is a lack of systematic investigation, including regarding provision for adults with mental health problems.
This article reports on a qualitative evaluation of an outdoor arts therapies group for individuals with mental health problems in the UK National Health Service. The group met weekly in a carefully chosen, local green space in the outer zone of a large city. The location and the structure of sessions were designed to enable participants to safely explore personal thoughts and feelings in this public space.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17454832.2023.2229893
PROJECTS:
- Co-created and facilitated CPD workshop The Emergent Therapist: building confidence and professional identity in recent art therapy graduates
- Facilitated outdoor art making workshops for Key Stage 2 School Children
- Created and Implemented series of therapeutic Outdoor Art making workshops for local community garden. These included adult and family days.
- Commissioned by City & Hackney Mind to provide series of Adult wellbeing Outdoor Art & Nature Workshops
- Commissioned by City & Hackney Mind to provide series of Autumn Adult Outdoor wellbeing Art & Nature Workshops
- Series of four seasonal outdoor workshops for an adult mental health arts studio.
- Co-created and implemented pilot project of series of weekly outdoors art therapy groups in green space in Hackney for adults with anxiety & depression
- Roehampton University: Working Without Walls. Experiential outdoor art therapy workshop for MA Art Therapy trainees.
- Outdoor CPD Workshop. Created and facilitated one-day outdoor workshop for end-of-life art therapy professionals
- Prior Park School, Bath. Presentation: The Social Media Ape. Creation and delivery of psycho-educational talk on how evolutionary psychology can inform young peoples’ understanding of their relationship with social media.
- Goldsmiths University: Nature Nurture Group. Talk to students on the foundation course for Art Therapy about outdoor art therapy, including an experiential outdoors workshop.
- June 2024, Wiltshire. Outdoor workshop for school therapists wishing to take their practice outdoors.
- June 2024. EAT therapist’s workshop, North London. Exploring the psychology of walking through green and urban landscapes.
PUBLICATIONS:
Environmental Arts Therapy - The Wild Frontiers of the Heart
Edited By Ian Siddons Heginworth, Gary Nash
Chapter contribution:
Creating connections: Introducing environmental arts therapy into London’s green spaces
Environmental arts therapy encourages human connection to nature, to others and between the internal and external world through myth, metaphor and art-making.
In my chapter this process is contextualised within the wider ecology of an urban clientele’s relationship to the natural world. Facilitating connections in a therapeutic setting is considered through the process of projection.
Consideration is given to the synthesis of the theoretical models of Environmental Arts Therapy and Five Ways to Wellbeing which underpin the Community Outdoor Art Therapy Service (COATS).
An exploration of three COATS therapeutic workshops are provided as illustrations.
Natural Hysteria - Coping with Nature's destruction, Poems of a rhyming couplet construction
The poems deal with a variety of pressing issues ranging from the political to the very human, exploring the ecological dilemmas we face on a daily basis. Delivered in an accessible, light-hearted style, they still deliver a powerful message.
Natural Hysteria’s fiery birth occurred during the summer of 2022 heatwave (illustrated on the front cover). Natural hysteria started as a desire to process my eco-anxiety and resulted in a collection of fourteen illustrated poems. Each poem comes with a link to the research that informed their creation.
For more information or to get your copy, please visit: www.naturalhysteria.co.uk
‘A qualitative evaluation of an outdoor art therapies group’ (International Journal of Art Therapy vol.29, 2024 - issue 2).
Tim Wright, Verity Blakeman, Tanya Andrew & Sarah Labovitch.
The arts therapies are generally provided in indoor settings but in recent years there has been a growth of outdoor provision. This is done in order to make use of the beneficial effects of natural environments, the experience of which becomes a source of sensory, aesthetic and psychological stimulation and thus an active element in the therapy. There is a growing literature on this type of provision but there is a lack of systematic investigation, including regarding provision for adults with mental health problems.
This article reports on a qualitative evaluation of an outdoor arts therapies group for individuals with mental health problems in the UK National Health Service. The group met weekly in a carefully chosen, local green space in the outer zone of a large city. The location and the structure of sessions were designed to enable participants to safely explore personal thoughts and feelings in this public space.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17454832.2023.2229893
