Research articles

Insight into the History of Music Therapy 
https://samsfans.org/history-music-therapy/
 
A career in Music Therapy 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=736ubPebPzY&feature=emb_logo
 
Music Therapy Project - India 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQuLR0gz_K8
 
Where to train to become a Music Therapist 
https://courses.uwe.ac.uk/B99942/music-therapy

Since 2016 BCAT's development within arts in health has been tremendous. We went from delivering 2/3 random workshops a month to delivering over 847 workshops between April 2019 and March 2020.

Over the years we have delivered some amazing projects - a computer gaming project with Leonard Cheshire for autistic adults, a Christmas show with adults with learning difficulties, an art exhibition for children carers, seen STARZ and STEP ON develop beyond what we expected within our libraries - all such positive news and such benefit to the wellbeing of our communities. 

BCAT will continue to offer free arts in health workshops as long as we have the funding to do so as it is important to us that accessible services support wellbeing as much as possible. 

Unfortunately COVID 19 has put the breaks on any community based work. Our major concern is that we keep people safe. As our community work is so dependent on others in the community, we will wait to hear from them before we kick start our services. It is such a shame that the momentum we had built has paused, but we are determined to come back even stronger when it is safe to do so. 

Below are a series of articles and research based articles around arts in health and wellbeing. 

5 articles
Arts Council of Wales: The power of the arts for health and wellbeing
Together, artists and clinicians can make a huge difference.
https://arts.wales/our-impact/how-we-reach-wider-audiences/arts-and-health
 
Sudat Kumar: past BCAT work experience - MA Practical Project Documentary - Importance of Music in Mental Health featuring BCAT STEP ON 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=61&v=2XaBkbyxImo&feature=emb_title
 
National Centre for Early Music  
Using Creative Arts for Health and Wellbeing – a training Day for GPs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQkPyQStXoc
 
National Alliance Arts in Health and Wellbeing
https://www.artshealthandwellbeing.org.uk/what-is-arts-in-health/national-alliance-arts-health-and-wellbeing

Art Therapy is a form of Psychotherapy that crosses boundaries of language, communication, age and culture. No previous art skills are required for art therapy to be of benefit. There is no wrong way to make art in art therapy and I have worked with people from the age of 3 – 102 so far. 

I became an art therapist after a period of ill health in my late teens and again in my early twenties that led me to discover and have Art Therapy for myself. I was so impressed by the fusion of creative and emotional energy that was the essence of art therapy that I realised, this was what I wanted to be. It was a meandering path to becoming one but in 1992, age 31, I qualified with a Post Graduate diploma from Sheffield University. Back home in my little attic flat in Birmingham I felt exhausted for the first 6 months and it was only while watching breakfast TV one day, when I heard a news item that stated  we needed more mental health professionals in prisons that I thought ”ah, is that me”.  A quick check of the diploma on the mantelpiece and I was straight on the phone to the local prison, Winson Green.  Within months I was running my first Art Therapy group in the hospital wing.

​I stumbled upon BCAT when I gate crashed their open day just as the founder, Angela, was planting a tree. I was invited to set up the first BCAT Art Therapy  room at Lindsworth School and the first clients arrived in February 1994. It was an exciting time, connecting to people from other disciplines and beginning to find my own way of working. 

I became Head of Art Therapy in 1996, the same year I started running Experiential courses for the public at BCAT.  That role no longer exists, due to BCAT restructuring but I am still here, offering sessional art therapy for them. During Lockdown I set up a series of Zoom seminars/talks for the Art Therapy team and its been a very productive period. Much of my work is still currently online, working via Zoom or skype or other video media but gradually we are beginning to open up to face to face work again and to get back in schools  but making sure we are Covid 19 safe.

Art Therapy is different each time as each person brings a unique experience of the world with them. I can’t imagine ever getting tired of it. I have worked around the world, in Kazakhstan, Denmark, France and New Zealand doing Art therapy at some point. I currently work with adults and children, in 1:1 or group sessions, run courses for the public, hold my own caseload with BCAT and privately, and offer Supervision to students in training and therapists in practice.  I  can be contacted via BCAT.

Julie Buxton has an MA Creative Writing, Post Graduate Diploma in Art Therapy, Is HCPC Registered, a BAAT Approved Supervisor, has a Telephone counselling certificate, Certificate in solution Focussed Therapy,  and much more. She is currently training as a Mindfulness Teacher and painting pictures of the sea. 

As an artist, my love for cultures, travel and the arts led and inspired me to work in Tanzania, Thailand, Bosnia, Hungary, and Croatia, exploring social, economic, class, ethnicity, and gender topics. I have witnessed the power of the arts to; transform, unite, empower, heal, give internal and external insight, and to educate. 

Art is a universal language that surpasses verbal dialects, culture, religion, race, classes, and gender. It can explore and communicate difficult subjects to challenge our views and ourselves.  As they say, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ and it is these reasons I was led to study Art Psychotherapy. With every client-patient experience I provided culturally sensitive personalized art therapy, both directive and non-directive experiences to meet each of my clients and group’s needs. Art therapy enables individuals to tell their stories, express often traumatic and difficult emotions through their artwork, when words are not enough. 

I feel and am privileged to go on the journey with them and be a witness to their story and transformation. 

It has not been easy for anyone over the last few months. What a strange time in modern history we are facing! In hundreds of years people will look back at this period and talk about it, just as we do when we talk about historic events. To actually live through one major historic significant event may be enough for anyone to cope with, so lets hope that COVID19 is put to bed very soon so we can all get on with our lives. 

BCAT has been able to use this period to really focus on changing the way we work. Most of it through necessity as we face challenges we never thought we would ever face. But lets be positive - we were one of the lucky charities to be able to obtain a grant to support us at least until December. We have been able to use this time to really refocus BCAT and its services - at the heart of this is always the clients and our communities. But change needs to come within in every situation, so we will be implementing some major changes over the next few months. Including increasing our staff, increasing our service offer and streamlining our administrative work. 

Part of this is a real focus on social media so i give you.........lots of planned articles from now on, themed and researched on different elements of mental health, arts therapies and arts in health. It has been a big learning curve but it will be worth it if we are able to spread our message further. 

BCAT TV will be launching September 1st - a channel dedicated to therapeutic arts for children. How exciting - we would never have been able to do that without this time to focus!

​So read on and enjoy!

Related articles 

Creative Arts Therapy and Expressive Arts Therapy
Here is a basic guide to creative, brain-wise approaches to therapy.
Psychology Today (article)
 
What is arts in health? (article)
National Alliance of Arts in Health and Wellbeing
 
37 Art Therapy Techniques For De-Stressing This Season (article)
Huffington Post