Art therapist on the go

Hello Love (taken from their website) It was a rainy day and I was walking up and down Old street trying to find a cosy, nice spot to sit down and enjoy my coffee break. Suddenly I came across this funky, colourful shop named "Hello Love" . I walked in without paying too much attention to my surroundings and went straight to the coffee stand. After a few sips and a few minutes of looking around,   my curiosity had overcome my weather grumpiness   and I came to the realisation that I was in a multi-purpose event space.   The space was supporting people with cancer diagnosis, in recovery or/and in remission. I, myself, have a complicated relationship with cancer, sickness and death. My dear grandpa passed away when I was 7 years old from lung cancer and I can still feel the gap and nostalgia that his memory elicits. A few years ago, one of my best friends, confined in me that she was diagnosed a year before, went through chemotherapy and was

Dare We Laugh With our patients? - Day Workshop Image by  Art Therapy Centre London One day, being bombarded from the constant ads on social media, I came across a Conference announcement that was taking place right up my street. “Beyond the Joke: Comedy and Psychoanalysis” I had made a promise to myself a long time ago that I would battle my fear of rejection and shame (focus on this fear it reappears in the juicy part) and that I will raise my hand and my voice in occasions such as this one. The conference was exhilarating (that’s a different story though). One of the talks was about taboos and stigma around Psychoanalysts and their portrayal in cinema and comedy.   Working   at an NHS Mental Health Unit Ward and having kept a log of the humorous encounters I had experienced, I was wondering how do we respond and handle humour in the workplace. I use humour as a therapeutic tool with my patients in a safe space but I have noticed that other staff members use h