Centre for Applied Health Research

Arts for the Blues – an evidence based creative psychological therapy

The Arts for the Blues is a creative arts-based group intervention for depression, low mood and anxiety, developed as a collaboration between psychology, counselling and arts practitioners at the University of Salford and Edge Hill University. It is an evidence-based model for delivering creative psychotherapies with adults and children. The Arts for the Blues was originally designed to address the needs of primary mental health service patients and offers an alternative to current provision in NHS Talking Therapies services.  Over the last eight years, the research team has developed Arts for the Blues and piloted it within the IAPT services, with cult survivors, in schools with children with emotional and behavioural difficulties as well as developing an online version, creative dance performances and exploring how to scale up the initiative. 

Further information is available from https://artsfortheblues.com/

Funders:

AHRC/UKRI

Arts Council England

Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group

Team

Joanna Omylinska-Thurston

Scott Thurston

Vicky Karkou (Edgehill University)

WHO event at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 2021.
‘Scale up health inequality prevention and intervention strategies’.

Collaborative, immersive therapeutic performance co-created by artists and participants in an Arts for the Blues therapy programme, in which the artists themselves participated. The performance (Together Un/Tethered) was toured in the North West of the UK and reflected the experiences of the group.

PUBLICATIONS

Parsons, A. S.,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.https://doi.org/10.1080/17432979.2022.2130431

Thurston, S., Griffin, J., Davismoon, S., Omylinska-Thurston, J., & Karkou, V. (2022). Dancing the Blues: An interdisciplinary collaboration between artists and therapists. Journal of Applied Arts & Health. https://doi.org/10.1386/jaah_00107_1

Karkou, V., Omylinska-Thurston, J., Parsons, A., Nair, K., Starkey, J., Haslam, S., Thurston, S., & Marshall, L. D. (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, 22, 616– 628. https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12544 (IP 1.75)

Farish-Edwards, F., Parsons, A. S., Starkey, J., Dubrow-Marshall, L., Thurston, S. D., Omylinska-Thurston, J., & Karkou, V. (2022). Digitising Creative Psychological Therapy: Arts for the Blues (A4B). In J. Prescott (Ed.), Digital Innovations for Mental Health Support (pp. 1-17). IGI Global. http://doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-7991-6.ch001 

Omylinska-Thurston, J., Karkou, V., Parsons, A.S., Nair, K., Haslam, S., Dubrow-Marshall, L., Lewis, J., Thurston, S. (2020). The development of Arts for the Blues – the new creative therapy for depression. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research https://doi.org/10.1177/1757913919826599 (IF 0.50)

Parsons, A., Turner, R., Ingleton, H., Kefalogianni, M., Dubrow- Marshall, L., Omylinska-Thurston, J.,Karkou, V., Thurston, S. (2020) Flowing towards freedom with multimodal creative therapy: The healing power of therapeutic arts for ex cult-members. The Arts in Psychotherapy.  

Parsons, A., Kefalogianni, M., Dubrow-Marshall, L., Turner, R., Ingleton, H., Omylinska-Thurston, J., Thurston, S., and Karkou, V. (2020). Reflections on Offering a Therapeutic Creative Arts Intervention with Cult Survivors: A Collective Biography. International Journal of Coercion, Abuse and Manipulation. 

Parsons, A. S., Omylinska-Thurston, J., Karkou, V., Harlow, J., Haslam, S., Hobson, J., Nair, K., Dubrow-Marshall, L., Thurston, S.  and Griffin, J.  (2019). Arts for the Blues – a new creative psychological therapy for depression. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling.  https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2019.1633459

Haslam, S., Parsons, A.S., Omylinska-Thurston, J., Nair, K., Harlow, J., Lewis, J., Dubrow- Marshall, L., Thurston, S., Griffin, J., Karkou, V. (2019) Arts for the Blues – a new creative psychological therapy for depression – pilot study. Perspectives in Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1177/1757913919826599