Episode 24

Using art and objects to learn wellbeing skills and improve mental health with Louise Thompson

Today I’m really excited to be chatting to Louise Thompson - a museums and wellbeing consultant as well as the health and wellbeing manager at Manchester Art Gallery for the past 9 years. We’re talking how about art and objects can be used to learn wellbeing skills and improve mental health.

Louise has over 12 years experience of arts and health practice and is hugely passionate about using culture and creativity to improve people’s wellbeing.

We discuss:

Louise’s work and some of the wonderful projects she’s worked on recently - the Becoming a Mum art therapy project during lockdown and the pioneering Mindful Museum at Manchester Art Gallery.
how artworks can create a sense of community and how art and cultural collections can make us feel less alone and more connected.
how attitudes to mental health have changed over the past few years and how museums, art and objects can play a role in improving wellbeing and mental health
mindfulness and the particular type of mindfulness that informs Louise’s work - trauma-sensitive mindfulness - and how cultural institutions are brilliantly placed to teach mindfulness in a trauma-sensitive way.

Louise shares so much value in our chat - make sure you listen to the whole episode to catch it all!