Developing accessible, innovative and effective approaches for arts psychotherapies and arts and health practices.
Arts psychotherapists and arts and health approaches use a range of mediums, including, visual art, body movement, music and drama to help bridge talking, feeling and the ways that we interact. Building on evidence and advances in research in arts, mental health and wellbeing, we support models and practices to be applied in accessible, inclusive and safe ways that are conscious of the social, political and cultural contexts within which they are employed. To do this we engage and lead research projects and provide translatory training programmes with the knowledge of technical aspects of implementation supported by our leading clinicans.
ICAPT was established in 2011 to build upon the excellence of arts psychotherapies and arts and health clinical knowledges and to offer training for evidence and innovative models more widely. The aim of the centre is to provide an inclusive and effective engagement for patients where interventions are guided but not prescriptive and are informed by the latest research without losing the intuition and innovation for which arts psychotherapists offer.
The priorities of the centre are to:
- Offer trainings that utilise knowledges from mentalisation-based therapies, interpersonal and interventions for psychosis
- Develop clinical research and quality improvement projects for arts psychotherapies.
- Develop dialogues with service users about how we can be more sensitive and inclusive to cultural, social and political situations.
- Build an international community
This is the first centre of its kind, accessible to all arts psychotherapists with a focus on innovation and evidence-based practice and will help to offer a way forward for arts psychotherapists developing, innovating and refining clinical methods verbally and non-verbally for specific clinical populations.
To become a trainer, to co-produce events or to learn more about our partnership with Brunel University, please contact icapt.cnwl@nhs.net
Introduction to Formulation through Trauma-Informed Approaches (TIA) in Arts Psychotherapies: Shifting Perspectives from 'What is Wrong with You?' to 'What Has Happened to You?'
When: 26 March 2025
Where: Argo House, 180 Kilburn Park Road, London, NW6 5FA
Time: 9.30am to 4.30pm
Presenters: Gill Lock (Art Psychotherapist), Carol Jaffier (Dance Movement Psychotherapist) and Roslyn Urquhart (Art Psychotherapist)
More information and booking link to follow soon.
Advanced Mentalization Based Arts Psychotherapies (MBAP) Practitioner Skills Training Day: Working with Neurodiversity and Embodied Mentalization
The training will centre on working with neurodiversity and embodied mentalization. The topics to be covered include:
- The necessity of neurodiversity-informed practice
- Flexibility in mentalization-based arts psychotherapies
- Honouring and affirming differences
- Case discussions
- Developing relational mentalizing and movement based interventions
- Theory and practice in working with gendered and racialised bodies
Date: Monday 30 September
Time: 9:30am to 4:30pm
Presenters: Natalie Chesterman (Art Psychotherapist), and Dr Erene Kaptani (Dramatherapist)
Click here to find out more.
Mentalization Based Arts Therapies - 2 day Training
When: 23 and 24 January 2024
Where: In person
Time: 9.30am to 4.30pm (both days)
Presenters: Oliver Campbell, Natalie Chesterman, Kawori Iguchi, Mario Eugster and Dominik Havsteen-Franklin.
This training is now closed and new dates will be available soon. In the meantime, if you would like to book this training for your team or service, please contact Jenni de knoop.
Arts Therapies Clinical Supervision Fundamentals
This course is suitable for people who are new to supervising or are thinking to supervise in the future. Bookings for this will open soon.
When: 7 December 2023
Where: Online
Time: 9.15am to 1.30pm
Presenters: Dominik Havsteen-Franklin, Diane Eagles and Mario Eugster
This training is now closed and new dates will be available soon. In the meantime, if you would like to book this training for your team or service, please contact Jenni de knoop.
"Beyond Crisis: The Role of the Arts in Transforming Society for Our Futures"
Hosted by Brunel University and ICAPT. This is a series of monthly lectures starting from October 2022 and running through until July 2024. They will take place on the third Tuesday of every month (apart from December) and the venue will be CNWL Trust HQ (350 Euston Road, Regent's Place, London, NW1 3AX).
'Art Therapies - Beyond Crisis' seminar series
Seminar 5 - 'Inclusivity, Healing, and Transformative Arts Pedagogies: Transversing Boundaries'
We invite you to join this thought-provoking seminar to explore the synergy between diverse academic fields and art psychotherapy practices, and to witness the unfolding of art as a potent medium for healing and social change.
Event Question: "How do the methodologies of art psychotherapy pedagogies, as taught by Brunel University, facilitate healing and foster social inclusion?"
Date and time: 22 April 2024 - 6pm to 8.30pm UK
Address: Online and also in person at Brunel University, Gaskell Building Room 048 or online
*This is a hybrid event and free for CNWL staff to attend. Please contact Davide (davide.puddu1@nhs.net) or Jenni (jenni.de-knoop@nhs.net) for the complimentary booking code.
Presenters:
- Dominik Havsteen-Franklin, Co-Chair, Consultant in Arts Psychotherapies CNWL NHS, Professor of Practice in Arts Therapies at Brunel University, Art Psychotherapist
- Liliana Montoya De La Cruz - Art Psychotherapist, Visual Artist and Art Educator, Programme Lead for the MA in Art Psychotherapy at Brunel University
- Daniel Stolfi - Drama Therapist and Medical Anthropologist, Module Lead for the Anthropology & Aesthetics Module at Brunel University.
- Alice Myles - Art Psychotherapist, Lecturer on the MA Art Psychotherapy at Brunel University.
Read the full information and confirmed speakers.
Book your place on the Step Up website.
Why train with us?
ICAPT offers training to advance practice in leading areas of evidence and practice based approaches to treatment and care. Our programmes focus on:
- Learning from, through and across the arts modalities
- Making sense of practice and outcomes
- Using research to inform clinical development
- Engaging with cultures to inform good practices
The ICAPT team is led by clinical leads and managers who have demonstrated clinical advances, often in collaboration with people with lived experience, in art psychotherapy, music therapy, dance movement psychotherapy and dramatherapy. The programme is attended by arts therapists and healthcare professionals from a range of backgrounds and offers an opportunity to provide a multi-modal learning environment.
If you are intending to work in a health setting which involves the treatment of severe mental health disorders or you are already working in a healthcare setting, we believe that these training programmes would be of benefit to you to develop practice in relationship to cultures and evidences.
For any enquiries contact us at icapt.cnwl@nhs.net
The first Research Forum for arts psychotherapies was held on 23 July 2013. We provided a space for exploring research, ideas, methodologies and ambitions. The afternoon offered discussion about contexts and ways of seeing research about arts psychotherapies.
- What does good research practice mean?
- How can we develop and investigate meaningful and impactful research questions?
- How can research help clinicians to improve their practice in the field?
As part of CNWL, ICAPT aspires actively to link with empirically informed methods of arts psychotherapies practice that promote treatment, recovery and inclusion for the patient in mental health settings.
The Early Career Research Group will evolve to create stronger connections between researchers and arts psychotherapists (often dual role) as well as informing the research progress of our work with the Horizons Project.
The group focuses on training needs, the international and cultural context, service user involvement and outcomes studies.
It aims to help establish an ongoing network with active researchers, those in the early days of ambitious projects and those that are considering further research. Within CNWL, we have been involved in developing randomised controlled trials, outcome measures and qualitative research.
This work is supported by a range of academics working with our partner Brunel University London.
ICAPT promotes high quality research in arts psychotherapies. To that end, we have created a research knowledge base; a repository of information that we hope will be useful to both new and experienced researchers in the field of arts psychotherapies.
Currently, two sections have been implemented:
- Research projects, service evaluations and clinical audits: knowing the distinction between a research project, service evaluation and clinical audit can can help you to determine whether your study is research
- Database of PhDs in arts psychotherapies: a list of PhD-level research theses completed (or underway) in the field of arts psychotherapies, primarily from the UK but also from other countries
Future additions will include:
- Current research projects: research projects in arts psychotherapies in the UK and abroad to showcase the kinds of research that are happening and to offer an opportunity for collaboration
- Research methodologies: a brief overview of research methodologies used in arts psychotherapies, including quantitative, qualitative and mixed methodologies
More information
For more details or to become a member, contact Dominik Havsteen-Franklin or Claire Grant by email: icapt.cnwl@nhs.net.
Dominik Havsteen-Franklin
Consultant in Arts Psychotherapies
Dominik Havsteen-Franklin (1972) is an internationally established, British Art Therapist and Clinical Academic who investigates and develops innovative models of arts-based intervention in health care that use body movement and visual image making. He is employed as Professor of Practice in Arts Therapies at Brunel University London and as a Consultant in Arts Psychotherapies for CNWL NHS Foundation Trust. He also a founder and Vice President for European Federation of Art Therapy.
He has an extensive portfolio of research collaborations including working with East London NHS Foundation Trust (London), University of Hertfordshire on the Horizons Project, Imperial College, Fred’s Company (London), Weill University (Qatar), Roehampton University (London), Sp(i)eel Arts Collective (South Africa). His research has focused primarily on intervention development to impact on health conditions such as art therapy for complex depression, mentalization based art psychotherapy for emotionally unstable personality disorder and developing psychosocial practice in South Africa.
Research in progress includes using art therapy in museums in Qatar, Arts Therapies for heterogenous groups in mental health, and neuro studies of change process in arts therapies. His major project at present is focusing on healthcare worker team development.
The results and background to completed projects have been published in wide range of peer reviewed journals, for example recent publications include:
- Havsteen-Franklin, D., Cooper, J., & Anas, S. (2023). Developing a logic model to support creative education and wellbeing in higher education. Cogent Education, 10(1), 2214877.
- Havsteen-Franklin, D., de Knoop, J., Agtarap, T., Hackett, S., & Haeyen, S. (2023). Evaluation of an arts therapies approach to team development for non-acute healthcare teams in low control and high-pressure environments. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 83, 102003.
- Havsteen-Franklin, D., Swanepoel, M., Jones, J., & Conradie, U. (2021). Families and Collective Futures: Developing a Programme Logic Model for Arts-Based Psychosocial Practice with South African Rural Communities.
- Carr, C., Feldtkeller, B., French, J., Havsteen-Franklin, D., Huet, V., Karkou, V., ... & Sandford, S. (2021). What makes us the same? What makes us different? Development of a shared model and manual of group therapy practice across art therapy, dance movement therapy and music therapy within community mental health care. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 101747.
- Havsteen-Franklin, D. (2021). On Seeing What We Expect to See: Mentalizing Trauma and Narratives in Art Therapy Supervision. In J. West (Ed.), Using Image and Narrative in Therapy for Trauma, Addiction and Recovery. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
- Havsteen-Franklin, D., Tjasink, M., Winter Kottler, Grant, C., Kumari V., (2020) Arts-based Interventions for Professionals in Caring Roles During and After Crisis: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Front. Psychol. | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.589744
- Havsteen-Franklin, D., & Grant, C. (2020). A Narrative Account of an Arts Psychotherapies Service Response to the COVID-19 Crisis: Challenges and Recommendations. In A. Odunlade, D. Rawcliffe, K. Acott, M. Rioga, M. Mosoeunyane, R. Kemp, C. Murdoch, D. Sines, & R. Doran (Eds.), Living with Fear: Reflections on COVID-19. Independent Publishing Network
- Havsteen-Franklin, D., Patsou, M., Somaini, G., & Altamirano, J. C. (2020). Reimagining Attachment Traumas: Perspectives on Using Image-Making in Psychoeducation for People with Borderline Personality Disorder. In Neurological and Mental Disorders. IntechOpen.
Jenni de Knoop
Jenni de Knoop is a dance movement psychotherapist, UKCP, ADMP, working for CNWL NHS Foundation Trust as a clinician in adult psychiatric rehabilitation and as the practice lead for the CaRE Project (creative team development) and the International Centre for Arts Psychotherapies Training (ICAPT) training and development lead. Jenni is a visiting lecturer at the University of Roehampton on the Dance Movement Psychotherapy Masters programme and works in private practice and as a clinical supervisor and reflective practice facilitator. Jenni is passionate about enabling people to inhabit their unique bodies with creativity, respect and compassion and in supporting teams to work better together.
