June 1, 2025:
You certainly sprang into action in the past month as we received some fantastic entries following our theme prompt – and plenty of other great creative sparks, not necessarily related to spring, too!
The stunning pictures to the right and below were taken by Miss Cox, who is supported by our East Hampshire service. I particularly love the one of the birds flocking over the calm, still water at sunset – such contrast in the colours. Which one is your favourite?
It’s great to see the different creative group activities that are taking place in Waythrough services, too. Using a mood colour wheel to inspire a creative colour palette and think about moods, thoughts & feelings generated some fantastic pieces of art sent in by Vicki Cutts from Together: Devon, which also feature below, as do some lovely offerings from Suzy King’s garden in Hampshire!
And what a great idea from Tessa Dunkley, at Holder House in Abingdon, creating individual vision boards with the people she supports. From personal experience, getting thoughts and ideas out of my head and onto paper can so often help to crystallise them and help them make sense, giving me a goal to aim towards.
As you’ll see from our latest offerings, the theme is just a prompt, and if your service is running creative activities, or if there are individual clients or staff members who wish to share their sparks, do get in touch!
– David Mitchell, RF Create.
This month we heard from Vicki Cutts, a support worker with Together: Devon, who has been running neuro-graphic art workshops to help people unwind and encourage those who feel less “arty” to create pieces of art (see below).
“We get people to focus on a thought/feeling and use the mood colour wheel to inspire their colour palette. The idea behind our creative sessions is to create a mixed media collage based on all areas of Recovery, with the view to displaying in public spaces, allowing others to learn through art what recovery is like.”
“Hopefully this will open up conversations and encourage others to treat people in recovery differently.”
Spring
He holds the bud tight for such a long time,
until everyone is quiet in their seats.
He holds it up –
his fingers improvised from light,
his nails as clean and sharp as the wind –
Deftly he peels back the bud
then stops –
to be sure they are watching,
to be sure he is holding their breath –
then tugs gently on the pale tissue
until it comes,
green, translucent, fresh –
unfolding into the sensational breeze
bringing the crowd to their feet
– DOD, Wiltshire
Suzy King works in the Enhanced Support Project (ESP) in East Hampshire and after a long day at work this is how she relaxes in her beautiful garden.
“I have a lovely client who has recently inspired me to start planting vegetables and she said I have inspired her to make a cactus area in her garden.”
“I drew this picture of my manager’s cat using pencil and pastels. I learnt how to do this at my trauma art therapy.” – Sara, Braeside.
“During our recent community meeting at Holder House we created individual vision boards. We discussed how the saying ‘ seeing is believing ‘ makes sense because with daily reminders and prompts that are there as soon as we awake, it triggers thoughts of things we want to aim for and achieve without us even realizing. This can only be a positive thing as life events can often get in the way of the visions we have for ourselves.
“The types of visions we had for ourselves were: learning to drive, addressing negative habits, exercising more, meeting someone special, organising paperwork, taking a course, finding a job, rebuilding family relationships, organising finances.
“It also helped the residents to realise that they are all individuals with completely different vision boards but also do have a lot of wishes in common. ” Tessa Dunkley, Holder House.
Love these pics from East Hampshire sent in by Community Links Advisor Kat Carter
And previously…..
April 9, 2025:
Are you all enjoying the wall-to-wall sunshine we’ve been enjoying here in Weston Super Mare since that long winter finally ended? It’s certainly put a spring in my step, aptly, and long may it continue.
It would be fantastic to see how the changing of the season – from the cold, grey winter to longer days, brighter skies and new possibilities – brings out the creativity in the people we support, and our Waythrough staff. So, whether it’s in prose, poetry, pictures, crafts, sounds or even food & drink, we’d love to see/hear it and feature it on these pages.
You might even be a keen gardener, or taking part in a gardening project with your service?
We were delighted to hear this month from Tessa Dunkley, a recovery worker at our Holder House service in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, about a ‘plant rehab’ project being run there, pictures of which you can see opposite.
Local people and businesses donate plants that are damaged or dying; 90% of the time they blossom and thrive until they are strong enough to move onto a permanent place in the Holder House garden. Residents find this rewarding and therapeutic and understand that with care attention and time they are also able to heal and feel positive about the future.
Also this week, a musical offering from a resident in our North Somerset service, and some fantastic photos from Together – Devon featuring a visit to a North Devon assisted therapy session with ponies, goats and alpacas as part of Togethers Flourish in Nature project. Fantastic!
– David Mitchell, RF Create.
Thanks to Adam Hart from Together – Devon for these pictures from the North Devon Alpaca-assisted therapy session as part of their Flourish in Nature project. We particularly love the pic on the left – what a shot!
A resident of our Braeside service in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, loves to sing and finds it very therapeutic – listen here:
From the monthly creative writing competitions at Holder House, Abingdon – some wonderful writing here, click on each image to read it in full, and for even more, why not visit Holder House’s tab under Re-Create: Places?
