I'm taking a short break over April. In the meantime, I want you to send me your creative health story!

Do you have a creative health story you'd like to share which could inspire other people? Send me an audio recording, no more than 5 minutes long, about how you're engaging with creativity for health or wellbeing to include on the podcast. Or write it down in no more that 750 words and I may read it out.

Tell me about you and what you do:

Your name (anonymous is fine too), maybe where you live, your age, your gender, your ethnicity, your job, anything else interesting about you (all optional).

Describe what creative activities you do and the impact they have on your health or wellbeing.

You don't have to be professionally trained and your creative activity can be anything from cooking and gardening through to dance, writing, body art and everything in between. Anything creative!

Record your story on your phone (e.g. Voice Memos on iPhone or Voice Recorder app on Android) and send it via email with the subject 'My Creative Health Story' to: laura@creative-health.co.uk

By sending me your audio recording and images you agree for them to be edited and published in part or full on my website, podcast, socials or part of an associated project.

Creative Health Stories website

@creativehealthstories

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Mark Kilbey is former police officer and detective who retired from the force after 20 years through mental ill-health after which followed a long period of mental illness including suicide attempts. He set up the peer-led mental health charity Take Off to support people in similar situations. Sarah Winn is a theatre maker who works with young offenders, vulnerable adults and diverse communities . After the loss of her cousin by suicide, Sarah set out to create a piece of verbatim theatre to highlight the issues around male mental health and suicide.

In this episode Mark and Sarah share their own stories and how they came together to make the play called 'No one Here Is Me', the impact of the process and the performance, and how the process has forged an incredible friendship between them.

*** Please note, the episode includes discussions around severe mental illness and suicide ***

Links:

Take Off

No one Here Is Me

Portrait Theatre

Wellbeing in the Arts

Socials:

@sarahwinnactor

@dreamwinn

@TakeOff_charity

If you're struggling with your own mental health, or you're having suicidal thoughts, or you know someone else who is, please seek help.

Places you can contact include:

Mind - Seeking help for a mental health problem

National Suicide Prevention helpline: Call 0800 689 5652

SOS Silence of Suicide Call 0300 1020 505

Samaritans Call 116 123

Childline (under 19s) Call 0800 1111

If you fear for someone's immediate safety, guide them to Accident and Emergency or dial 999 for immediate assistance

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Amal Lad is a GP and musician from Birmingham who has made a career out of exploring the intersection between art and medicine. His ability to reveal the connection between music and well-being has been recognised by the BBC and TEDxNHS, as well as countless listeners around the globe. He is the host of the Creative Medicine podcast, which also explores how people use creativity to improve health and wellbeing. Along with being a GP and podcast host Amal composes and releases his own music and is studying for a Masters in Performing Arts Medicine at UCL.

Our conversation covers 'self medicating', the role of a GP and the challenges faced in general practice and the wider NHS, along with Amal's own passion for the healing power of music and the arts. He's a super motivated and compassionate human being.

Please consider supporting the making of this podcast via Patreon

Links:

Website: https://www.amallad.com

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/amal-lad

Socials:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/amalladmusic

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amal.lad

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/AmalLadMusic

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amal.lad.music

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/AmalLadMusic

@creativehealthstories

Edited by @podcastpenny

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christopher Bailey is the Arts and Health Lead at the World Health Organization and a co-founder of the Jameel Arts and Health Lab.  

Educated at Columbia and Oxford Universities as well as the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, after a career as a professional actor and playwright, Christopher worked at the Rockefeller Foundation before joining the WHO.

Christopher has also performed original pieces such as Stage 4: Cancer and the Imagination, and The Vanishing Point: A journey into Blindness and Perception.

Our conversation covers Christopher’s journey to his current role (which he created), philosophy, theatre, and how arts and health fit into the aims of the WHO. We talk about the effects of art from neuroscience, public health, and preventative perspectives, along with the effects of awe, shock and wonder and the deep aesthetic experience. 

We cover the UK’s influence in this field but also the lack of investment. Christopher shares how the WHO influences health policy around the world to be inclusive of the arts and lets us in on his own creative health world.

Please consider supporting the making of this podcast via Patreon

Links

WHO Arts and Health

Jameel Arts & Health Lab

Creative Brain Week

Healing Arts Scotland

NeuroArts Blueprint

Daisy Fancourt

Socials

Christopher’s LinkedIn

@baileychristophet

@creativehealthpod

Podcast Patreon

Edited by @podcastpenny

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kiran 'Kiz' Manley is the UK’s first Hip Hop Therapist. In 2012 she set up Hip Hop HEALS, a mental health social enterprise that spreads knowledge and research about Trauma-Informed Hip Hop. She hosts and produces her own podcast called 'Glowwiththeflow' on therapeutic Hip Hop, offering radical solutions to homelessness and mental ill health. The work stems from her own lived experiences of loss and grief and she now uses this to amplify the voices of others and people powered change to improve health systems. Kiz also works as the ‘Lived Experience and Programme

Coordinator’ at UCL for a big research programme called Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities. 

***Please note, in this episode Kiz discusses the loss of her sister in a car crash and the resulting grief and acute trauma responses. She also talks about the loss of her father, how grief is dealt with differently in different cultures and the inequities in the health system faced by global majority people in the UK***

Our conversation covers the whole spectrum of emotions - grief and sadness, but also lots of humour, frustration, happiness and joy.

Links:

Hip Hop HEALS

Kiz shared her experiences in a new book 'Music for Inclusion and Healing in Schools and Beyond'

Kiz’s own podcast is Glowitheflow and you can watch podcast footage here

Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities programme

Socials:

@hiphophealsuk

Kiz/Kiran's LinkedIn

This episode was edited by Penny Bell @podcastpenny

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sian Stevenson is Creative Director of Moving Memory Dance Theatre Company. Sian has worked in theatre, opera and participatory arts for over 30 years. She has extensive experience in applied theatre, with specialist knowledge in movement, inclusivity, and disability. Her  work with Moving Memory is focused on the creation and promotion of a distinctive, movement-based, peer-led, collaborative, creative practice which enables people (especially women aged 50+) to tell their own stories and express their individual identity.

In this episode Sian discusses her own rebellious and DIY journey into theatre and performance, teaching, and working freelance. She explains how she learnt that ‘showing off is actually just showing yourself’ and the importance of being allowed to ‘play.’ We talk about why Moving Memory exists; about challenging ageism in society, the fear of getting older and, sharing and celebrating the stories, experiences and creativity of older people through performance.

Links:

Moving Memory Dance Theatre Company

Sian’s LinkedIn

Socials:

@moving_memory

This episode was edited by Penny Bell @podcastpenny

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Daniel Fulvio is currently Deputy Director of Audiences (Community) at Rambert contemporary dance company, where he leads the learning and participation programme. Prior to Rambert Daniel’s roles have included leading the participation programme at Camden People’s Theatre and a producer of innovative, new queer performance projects with Opening Doors London and The Albany. He’s also been an award-winning journalist featured in the Guardian and the Times and was Deputy Editor of Attitude magazine. 

In this episode Daniel discusses his experiences of bullying at school and how art and performing saved him from this. He describes how as a queer kid growing up in the 90s, who didn't feel like he fitted in, he used art and culture as a form of escapism. 

Daniel also discusses the loss of his brother by suicide as a trigger for helping others through creativity. 

We go on to discuss why creativity and expression is important for LGBTQ+ people as a form of empowerment, confidence, creating community and the sharing of ideas with like-minded people. 

We chat about the importance of dance, not just for physical health but also for self-expression and connecting through culture. He discusses the work of Rambert, making contemporary dance accessible and practitioner wellbeing. We also chat about Rambert’s pilot work with Greater Manchester Combined Authority on a movement project to support physical development and gross motor skills in early years. 

We finish with Daniel sharing the ways he supports his own wellbeing which enables him to continue supporting others. 

Links: 

Rambert – contemporary dance company 

Greater Manchester Creative Health Strategy 

Socials:

@rambertdance 

@daniel_fulvio 

Daniel’s LinkedIn 

This episode was edited by Penny Bell @podcastpenny

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.