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All Outputs (16)

Conference Report: Poetry & Care (2024)
Journal Article
Nissel, J., Thurston, S., Fitzsimons, M., & Spence, S. (in press). Conference Report: Poetry & Care. Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry, 15(1), https://doi.org/10.16995/bip.11688

The following multi-authored report provides an account of the Poetry & Care conference held at the University of Plymouth, 7-8 September 2023. Many thanks to the organisers: Anthony Caleshu, Mandy Bloomfield, and Russell Evans

Developing a strategy to scale up place-based arts initiatives that support mental health and wellbeing: A realist evaluation of ‘Arts for the Blues’ (2024)
Journal Article
Karkou, V., Omylinska-Thurston, J., Thurston, S., Clark, R., Perris, E., Kaehne, A., & Pearson, M. (in press). Developing a strategy to scale up place-based arts initiatives that support mental health and wellbeing: A realist evaluation of ‘Arts for the Blues’. PloS one, 19(1), e0296178. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296178

Place-based arts initiatives are regarded as rooted in local need and as having capacity to engage local assets. However, many place-based arts initiatives remain poorly funded and short-lived, receiving little attention on how to scale up and sustai... Read More about Developing a strategy to scale up place-based arts initiatives that support mental health and wellbeing: A realist evaluation of ‘Arts for the Blues’.

Dancing the Blues: An interdisciplinary collaboration between artists and therapists (2023)
Journal Article
Thurston, S., Griffin, J., Davismoon, S., Omylinska-Thurston, J., & Karkou, V. (2023). Dancing the Blues: An interdisciplinary collaboration between artists and therapists. Journal of Applied Arts and Health, 14(2), 159-174. https://doi.org/10.1386/jaah_00107_1

Creative practice differs widely across the contexts of artistic performance and therapy. In this article the authors describe a novel example of how the otherwise separate fields of choreographic practices and dance movement psychotherapy (DMP) have... Read More about Dancing the Blues: An interdisciplinary collaboration between artists and therapists.

The importance of psychological flow in a creative, embodied and enactive psychological therapy approach (Arts for the Blues) (2022)
Journal Article
Parsons, A., Dubrow-Marshall, L., Turner, R., Thurston, S., Starkey, J., Omylinska-Thurston, J., & Karkou, V. (2022). The importance of psychological flow in a creative, embodied and enactive psychological therapy approach (Arts for the Blues). Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/17432979.2022.2130431

Psychological flow can be experienced in various occupational, recreational and creative domains and may confer increased well-being. Yet, very few studies have examined flow as a potential feature of creative arts therapies – particularly therapies... Read More about The importance of psychological flow in a creative, embodied and enactive psychological therapy approach (Arts for the Blues).

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 (2022)
Journal Article
Karkou, V., Omylinska-Thurston, J., Parsons, A., Thurston, S., Dubrow-Marshall, L., Nair, K., …Haslam, S. (2022). 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. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12544

There have been several arguments for the need to generate evidence-based creative forms of psychological interventions in Improving Access to Psychological Services (IAPT), the main primary mental health provider in hospitals in England, UK. In th... Read More about 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.

The dance and movement work of Jennifer Pike Cobbing : economies of effort and vitality dynamics (2021)
Journal Article
Thurston, S. (2021). The dance and movement work of Jennifer Pike Cobbing : economies of effort and vitality dynamics. Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry, 13(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.16995/bip.3401

Jennifer Pike (1920-2016) was a major artist whose practice traversed the disciplines of painting, drawing, sculpture, textiles, ceramics, photography, jewellery-making, poetry and performance. Although a fuller appreciation of the scale and range of... Read More about The dance and movement work of Jennifer Pike Cobbing : economies of effort and vitality dynamics.

Reflections on offering a therapeutic creative arts intervention with cult survivors : a collective biography (2020)
Journal Article
Parsons, A., Kefalogianni, M., Dubrow-Marshall, L., Turner, R., Ingleton, H., Omylinska-Thurston, J., …Karkou, V. (2020). Reflections on offering a therapeutic creative arts intervention with cult survivors : a collective biography

A new, evidence-based, multimodal, and creative psychological therapy, Arts for the Blues, was piloted with survivors of cultic abuse in a workshop within a conference setting. The five facilitators, who occupied diverse roles and perspectives w... Read More about Reflections on offering a therapeutic creative arts intervention with cult survivors : a collective biography.

Arts for the Blues : the development of a new evidence-based creative group psychotherapy for depression (2020)
Journal Article
Omylinska-Thurston, J., Karkou, V., Parsons, A., Nair, K., Starkey, J., Dubrow-Marshall, L., …Sharma, S. (2021). Arts for the Blues : the development of a new evidence-based creative group psychotherapy for depression. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 21(3), 597-607. https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12373

Introduction: Depression affects many adults in the UK, often resulting in referral to primary care mental health services (e.g. Improving Access to Psychological Therapies, IAPT). CBT is the main modality for depression within IAPT, with other ap... Read More about Arts for the Blues : the development of a new evidence-based creative group psychotherapy for depression.

Flowing towards freedom with multimodal creative therapy : the healing power of therapeutic arts for ex cult-members (2020)
Journal Article
Parsons, A., Turner, R., Ingleton, H., Kefalogianni, M., Omylinska-Thurston, J., Karkou, V., …Dubrow-Marshall, L. (2021). Flowing towards freedom with multimodal creative therapy : the healing power of therapeutic arts for ex cult-members. Arts in Psychotherapy, 72, 101743. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2020.101743

Creative arts can play an important role for cult survivors in surviving, transcending and healing from their past realities. Flow – an empowering state of mind-body integration and skilful, intuitive action while engaged in a challenging yet enjoyab... Read More about Flowing towards freedom with multimodal creative therapy : the healing power of therapeutic arts for ex cult-members.

Arts for the blues – a new creative psychological therapy for depression (2019)
Journal Article
Parsons, A., Omylinska-Thurston, J., Karkou, V., Harlow, J., Haslam, S., Hobson, J., …Griffin, J. (2020). Arts for the blues – a new creative psychological therapy for depression. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 48(1), 5-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2019.1633459

Routinely prescribed psychological therapies for depression are not always effective. Arts therapies, particularly Dance Movement Psychotherapy, may offer additional therapeutic mechanisms for depression. Therefore, client-reported helpful factors fr... Read More about Arts for the blues – a new creative psychological therapy for depression.

Arts for the Blues – a new creative psychological therapy for depression: a pilot workshop report (2019)
Journal Article
Haslam, S., Parsons, A., Omylinska-Thurston, J., Nair, K., Harlow, J., Lewis, J., …Karkou, V. (2019). Arts for the Blues – a new creative psychological therapy for depression: a pilot workshop report. Perspectives in Public Health, 139(3), 137-146. https://doi.org/10.1177/1757913919826599

Introduction: Research over the last decade has identified both strengths and limitations in the use of routinely prescribed psychological therapies for depression. More recently, a focus on creative art therapies, and 'art on prescription' are deve... Read More about Arts for the Blues – a new creative psychological therapy for depression: a pilot workshop report.

Vital signs : poetry, movement and the writing body (2017)
Journal Article
Thurston, S., & Slee, S. (2017). Vital signs : poetry, movement and the writing body. Choreographic Practices, 8(1), 9-25. https://doi.org/10.1386/chor.8.1.9_1

This article outlines a collaborative enquiry between a dancer and a poet. It considers some past and present collaborations between poets and dancers before framing the authors’ interest in the traditions of North American Post-modern dance and Euro... Read More about Vital signs : poetry, movement and the writing body.

Contemporary innovative poetry by women in the UK : Revoicing in the work of Holly Pester, SL Mendoza and Sophie Robinson (2015)
Journal Article
Thurston, S. (2015). Contemporary innovative poetry by women in the UK : Revoicing in the work of Holly Pester, SL Mendoza and Sophie Robinson. Contemporary Women's Writing, 9(1), 53-72. https://doi.org/10.1093/cww/vpu035

Until recently women’s position on the British innovative poetry scene has been difficult to say the least, often risking being “doubly excluded,” as an anonymous writer is quoted in the introduction to Maggie O’Sullivan’s crucial 1996 anthology Out... Read More about Contemporary innovative poetry by women in the UK : Revoicing in the work of Holly Pester, SL Mendoza and Sophie Robinson.

Innovative poetry in Britain today (2010)
Journal Article
Thurston, S. (2010). Innovative poetry in Britain today. Revista canaria de estudios ingleses, 15-30

Innovative Poetry in Britain has undergone considerable change in how it is published and read in recent years. This article examines Richard Caddel and Peter Quartermain’s 1998 introduction to their anthology OTHER: British and Irish Poetry since 19... Read More about Innovative poetry in Britain today.