This collaborative study has developed a new evidence-based integrative model of group psychotherapy that uses creative methods.

This study is co-led by Edge Hill University and University of Salford. It includes academics and practitioners from a range of disciplines including arts psychotherapies, health and social care, performing arts, as well as NHS-based counsellors, psychologists and psychotherapists from Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.

The therapy is primarily for people with a diagnosis of depression. It originally emerged from work in Improving Access to Psychological Treatment (IAPT) services in the NHS.

The therapy is currently being offered as both twelve-session packages or as one-off experimental sessions. Plans are underway to submit a bid for NIHR funding for a larger multi-site trial.

Research has shown that dance movement psychotherapy can be used for stress reduction, disease prevention, and mood management as well as, as a treatment tool across specific psychiatric conditions, including depression and anxiety.

Researchers have typically assessed psychological outcomes through randomised controlled trials that rely extensively on observational or self-reported measures without triangulating any impact of this intervention with one’s neurophysiology. There is therefore a need for combining research approaches that bring together physiological and neurophysiological data with observational and self-reported data.

By combining contemporary neuroscience with common approaches to researching dance movement psychotherapy, we may be able to establish if kinaesthetic empathy does indeed improve one’s mood, and whether mindful movement improves body awareness and one’s ability to listen to internal body signals.  We may also be able to clarify the mechanisms of dance movement psychotherapy, disentangling the specific cognitive, emotional, social or physical mechanisms targeted through this intervention.

Principle Investigator: Dr Valentina Cazzato

Invetigator: Dr Stergios Makris

Co-Investigator: Professor Vicky Karkou

Developing out of improvisations between a dance/choreographer, a poet and a musician, these concepts were translated to movement, text and sounds and back again.

This study shared key findings from systematic reviews, surveys and case studies in dance movement psychotherapy and related fields, in the treatment of depression. The dissemination took the form of performative material with the piece ‘Getting Out Of My Own Way’, which explored four key concepts from the research in the effectiveness of dance movement psychotherapy: embodiment, relationality, movement metaphor and narrative. Developing out of improvisations between a dance/choreographer, a poet and a musician, these concepts were translated to movement, text and sounds and back again.

The largest NIHR funded study in the arts therapy in the UK.

The largest NIHR funded study in the arts therapy in the UK involving a multi centre randomised controlled trial of group arts therapies compared to group talking therapies in community mental health care.

A sixteen week therapeutic dance programme dedicated to women who are in recovery from breast cancer, led by Edge Hill University.

Edge Hill University led the UK pilot of this project at Merseyside Dance Initiative Liverpool. This consisted of a sixteen week therapeutic dance programme designed for women who are in recovery from breast cancer, aiming to support both their physical and psychological health.

The participants were introduced to a range of dance styles over the course of the sessions, including bachata, merengue, cha-cha-cha, salsa, rumba, and tango. In total, over 60 women between the ages of 30-65 were enrolled from five European countries: Italy, Bulgaria, Lithuania, the Netherlands and the UK.

Edge Hill also hosted a free training weekend for dancers and exercise professionals who were interested in delivering the programme independently.

Co-researcher: Prof Vicky Karkou

44 workshops on black history and culture attended by a multitude of prison staff and prisoners to develop and evaluate a black cultural awareness course.

This grant was awarded to enable further dissemination of the research undertaken by Dr Sally-Ann Ashton’s MPhil in Criminological Research and during the AHRC Knowledge Transfer Fellowship.

The project included:

• 44 workshops on black history and culture (attended by 134 members of prison staff and 494 prisoners across 8 prisons)
• the development and evaluation of a Black Cultural Awareness course for prison staff and prisoners at a category C prison in South East England
• a review of the equalities procedures at a category C prison in Nottinghamshire
• the implementation of regulations.

ERSC Impact Acceleration Report

Collaborating Institutions: University of Cambridge

Principal Investigator: Dr Sally-Ann Ashton

African-centred resources for prisoners and staff

AHRC Knowledge Transfer fellowship 

Collaborating institutions: University of Cambridge, HM Prisons Manchester and Edmunds Hill

Principle investigator: Dr Sally-Ann Ashton

An annual cultural investment scheme overseen by Wakefield Council’s Culture Team in conjunction with the Health Improvement team.

Culture Cures looks to support arts and cultural projects that strive towards between health and wellbeing outcomes.

The 2017/18 programme ran arts projects across three specific areas targeting issues around school readiness, intergenerational friendships and community building, encouraging participants to feel a sense of pride and connection with their neighbourhoods.

Principal investigator: Prof Owen Evans

Dr Kim Wiltshire launched online writing sessions for NHS staff in the hopes of bettering mental health during Covid-19.

A pilot creative project to encourage positive mental health among NHS staff is being trialled by an Edge Hill University academic and partners.

Dr Kim Wiltshire launched online writing sessions for NHS staff as part of a new response to supporting local hospital trusts during and after Covid-19. Participants have so far ranged from A&E doctors, nurses, midwives and pharmacists. They have been creating short stories and poems exploring their experiences either during the pandemic or within their medical field.

The unique stories crafted within these workshops formed a part of a Lime exhibition at Manchester Royal Infinitary in 2021.

A piece of multimedia theatre that would explore the effect of the availability and mainstreaming of Internet pornography might be having on the lives of young people.

Project XXX was a four year creative project funded by the Arts Council England and Lime Arts, the aim of which was to create a piece of multimedia theatre that would explore the effect of the availability and mainstreaming of Internet pornography might be having on the lives of young people.

Across 2011 and 2012, Dr Kim Wiltshire (writer and lecturer at Edge Hill University) and Paul Hine (multimedia theatre maker) worked across the North West, running workshops and discussing these issues with young people. This soon became a multimedia play. In January 2012, The Octagon Theatre, Bolton, assisted them in presenting a rehearsed reading of the play, and later that year audiences were invited to two performances.

An article published in the Journal of Applied Arts and Health in 2015 explored the creation process and the outcomes and findings of the piece.