With a significant rise in the number of referrals and reporting of domestic violence incidents, the dangers faced by victims have become increasingly apparent during lockdown. Highlighting the voices of those who have been victims of domestic violence, writer Safaa Benson-Effiom, alongside a team consisting of Director Lucy Dear, Producer Cheryl Ndione and supported by Wellbeing Practitioner Lou Platt present All in Your Head, a one woman show based on real accounts. Ahead of the production, Lou tells us more about her process of supporting the cast and creative team, her journey pursuing a career supporting mental health within the arts and how she views wellbeing support being implemented more so within the creative process of productions moving forward.

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Recognising the need for an accessible resource to support with mental health online, Minderful, meaning “nurturing a good state of mental fitness”, is a website comprised of ‘blocks’ and ‘block routines’, features that allow for users to create their very own personalised wellness routines. Currently available to access, Minderful tell us more about the website’s creation, the website’s focus on ‘mental fitness’ and what their hopes for the resource are moving forward.

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Starting off as a podcast in 2018, Industry Minds currently offers a space for creatives to discuss issues relating to mental health. An important outlet and resource contributing to the mental health conversation, the charity also offer low cost and free counselling sessions led by counsellor Mary Burch BEM, as well as running The Industry Mind Awards – an initiative acknowledging the work of those raising awareness of mental health in the arts. Having supported the industry during a difficult year, co-founders Scarlett Maltman and Cathy Read tell us more about the charity’s work.

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Placing collaboration at the centre of what they do, Intercultural Roots are a network of 120 practitioner-scholars connected to communities and universities in over 26 countries, committed to the sharing of embodied practice and applying research gained within their practice. Currently adapting to the effects of the pandemic on collaborative practice by hosting sessions online, Intercultural Roots have introduced the Ripples Project, an initiative encouraging anyone online to respond to the question ‘What matters to you?’, with the first edition having taken place on World Mental Health Day (Saturday 10th October 2020), the 2nd due to take place on Saturday 24th October 2020. Ahead of the 2nd edition – Executive Director Dr Alex Boyd and fellow practitioner-scholars Dr Andrea Maciel and Alice Motta tell us more about the initiative and the organisation.

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What is great about theatre is that it serves multiple purposes: education, entertainment, inspiration, idealism, catharsis… the list is endless. Theatre is an important asset socially, not just to passively watch, but also, to actively part take in. Drama Therapy is a strand of drama coined over 100 years ago (Psychodrama) having been refined and developed in the 1970s. Newly trained freelance Drama Therapist Alex Ioannou talks more about the job role.

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