Category: Weekly Sessions

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Create Your Recovery at Home

Are you breaking free from your addictions?

Are you in recovery from problems with alcohol or other substances?

Are you ready to recover your more creative side?

Our new online art club could be just what you are looking for.

Create Your Recovery is for people in recovery from alcohol dependency or other substance misuse, and has been partly funded by The National Lottery.

This new Facebook live-stream event takes place on Fridays, 10.00am until 11.00am, starting on Friday 3rd April 2020.

We used to run these art groups at Harbour Drug & Alcohol Services, Hyde Park House, Mutley, Plymouth, and asked for a donation of £2.00 per session. However, the new online art group will be free, (with an option to donate if you want to, and if you can afford to.)

We start with a “check in”, and ten minutes of guided mindfulness meditation. Then we do an easy art project and chat.  Read more: What Happens at The Club?

We started running a mindfulness art club at Harbour on February 14th 2020 on a Friday. We didn’t specifically choose a Friday but this seems to work well as it is a calming space just before the weekend.

Attendance has been steady.  The simplicity of the sessions works well for this client group. Not needing to be able to sit and do a full meditation session or be any good at art. The art offers an informal space to chat, get support and relax with no agenda or expectation.

The combination of art and mindfulness helps clients to explore difficult emotions without realising they are doing it. It is a gentle way of accessing thoughts and feelings and learning to process them which is really important for drug and alcohol users and those in recovery. It is early days for this group at Harbour but I am hoping in the future to build on its success.

Jocella Peck, Harbour Drug and Alcohol Services, Plymouth

How to Join the Online Art Club

Update 25/05/20

We have made the decision to temporarily stop our Friday group, until we can safely return to The Harbour Centre.

We would like to invite all Harbour clients to join in with our two other groups instead. We run these sessions as Zoom meetings, which we stream to Facebook Live on Mondays and Wednesdays at 10am, at www.facebook.com/mindfulartclub These sessions are free, and can help anyone who struggles with mental health difficulties, or social isolation, to feel happier, calmer and more socially connected.

We look forward to seeing you back at The Harbour Centre when the UK government offers guidance for how community groups can meet again safely.

Not ready to join the group? That’s OK. Grab some free mindful colouring pages here.

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[Video] Art Club Creates Social Connections

Trainee counsellor, Susy Putnam, interviewed Emma and Peggy from Mindful Art Club, just days before the UK went into social distancing measures, because of the Corona Virus, in March 2020. Susy asked,

  • Why did you start mindful art club?
  • Do you have any stories that you could share about how it has benefited an individual?
  • Could you tell us why mindful art club, why not just an art club?
  • Can you just talk us through what a session would look like?
  • What is, ‘Taking your pen for a walk’?!

  • Like our Facebook page.
  • Set your notifications to join when we go live.

Now Emma and I would love to hear from you. What would you like to see and do in an online mindful art session? Tell us in the comments below.

Emma and I really want to know your thoughts around this, so that we can continue to support people during this time of social isolation.

Sending you lovely thoughts and a virtual hug from us both.

Peggy and Emma.

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Free: Online Art Group

Are you feeling anxious?

Are you socially isolated?

Want to feel connected again?

We are now running Mindful Art Club as an online live Facebook event, three times a week on Mondays at 10am and Wednesdays at 10am. On Fridays we are running a group called Create Your Recovery.

We’re all isolated together.

Peggy
  • Visit our Facebook page at 10.00 am
  • You will need a pen, felt tips, some paper and a cup of tea or coffee
  • Watch our live Facebook video and join in with the group by typing your comments below the video

We felt we were there with you.

Adele

As always with Mindful Art Club, there is no talent required. Just a willingness to have a go and have fun. We look forward to seeing you at the next online live group.

Feeling much calmer.

Coralie
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Corona Virus Notice

Week beginning 16th March 2020 – All Mindful Art Clubs are currently running as normal.  The situation will be reviewed again on Friday 20th March 2020. Next week we may move to running online groups. Please watch emails for updates.

Update: 18th March 2020 – Friday’s group at The Harbour Centre is cancelled for the foreseeable future. Current social distancing advice is to avoid social activities, such as going to pubs, restaurants, theatres and cinemas.

Update: 20th March 2020 – All of our groups have been moved to Facebook live events. Read more: Free online art group.

Peggy and Emma

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A Scrapbook of Our Real Life Adventures

So much has happened to us this month, dear reader, that I thought I’d just give you a visual collage of the highlights of our first official month in business.

  • We created and signed a Small Charity Constitution, which makes Mindful Art Club a legal organisation that can accept charitable contributions, and eventually it will pay it’s staff! (Peggy and Emma).
  • We made bunting to celebrate the launch of our business.
  • We started to ask people how the art club has helped them, so that we can gather evidence to get charitable funding.
  • We started a regular art group at The Harbour Centre, thanks to National Lottery funding.
  • We were interviewed on BBC Radio and Ferndale Community Radio
  • We were featured in The Plymouth Chronicle
  • Peggy passed her exam and received a Certificate in Counselling Level 2
  • We made gratitude hearts on Valentines Day
  • We made origami bookmarks and greeting cards
  • We tried Qi Gong as a kind of moving mindfulness exercise; the group at The Brook quite enjoyed this.
  • We visited a farm in Cornwall to plan a Mindful Art Retreat for this summer.

That is a lot of happenings in one month! What sort of adventures will happen to us in March 2020? Leave us a comment below if you have any suggestions of what you would like to see next at Mindful Art Club.

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Get Support: Improve Your Life!

Yesterday Emma and I enjoyed visiting The Mannamead Wellbeing Hub; part of a network of neighbourhood hubs, connecting the local community to information and activities that support their wellbeing. They also work in partnership with a range of organisations in the city who can provide additional health and wellbeing support.

You probably already know that being more involved in your community can be good for you, and that joining a group or club and connecting with others can improve your life. But it’s not always easy to know where to go, or how to get started. The Community Advisor at the hub can help.

Wellbeing Hubs Aims

  • To improve the health and wellbeing outcomes for local people
  • To reduce inequalities in health and wellbeing
  • To improve people’s experience of care 
  • To improve the sustainability of the health and wellbeing system

Community Advisor

The Community Advisor is based at the Mannamead Wellbing Hub and provides advice and support to local residents in Mannamead, Higher Compton, Hartley, Peverell, Mutley and Eggbuckland (south of the parkway) to help them engage in the community and to improve their wellbeing. Support can be provided in the following way;

  • One to one advice sessions
  • Identifying and achieving wellbeing goals
  • Connecting to activities and services in the community (like Mindful Art Club.)

If you want to be referred to the Community Advisor fill out a quick form on their website.

If you want to try Mindful Art Club just come along to one of our drop-in sessions. No need to book.

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New Group: At Harbour Centre

Thanks to the #NationalLottery Community Fund we were able to launch a mindful art club at The Harbour Drug & Alcohol Treatment Service yesterday.

Peggy, Emma and Julie Howes, (Harbour).

We started with a “check in”, and ten minutes of guided mindfulness meditation. Then we helped ourselves to coffee and tea (included). For the rest of the session we did an easy art project and had a chat. All art materials were provided.  Read more: What Happens at The Club?

To see the kind of art work we create have a look at our Facebook page. The idea is to focus on having fun, rather than judging your artistic ability.

Create Your Recovery is for people in recovery from alcohol dependency or other substance misuse, and is offered at the reduced rate of £2.00 per session, thanks to our funding from The National Lottery.

This new class takes place on Fridays, 1.00pm – 2.30pm.

At: Harbour Drug & Alcohol Services, Hyde Park House, Mutley Plymouth, Devon, PL4 6LF

Cost: £2.00 per session.

Not ready to come to a class in person? That’s OK. Grab some free mindful colouring pages here.



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Art Club Wins #NationalLottery Funding

We are  pleased to announce we have won some #NationalLottery funding to deliver mindful art classes to those in recovery from addiction. This will allow us to offer weekly classes at the reduced rate of £2.00 per session at The Harbour Centre, starting 14th February2020.

Harbour are keen to invite people working a 12 step program to these sessions, to encourage their service users to try fellowship meetings.

Fridays

Harbour Drug & Alcohol Services, Hyde Park House, Mutley Plymouth, Devon, PL4 6LF

Create Your Recovery – This session is for people in recovery from substance dependency, offered at the reduced rate of £2.00 per session.

Fridays, 1.00pm – 2.30pm Starting Friday 14th February 2020

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New: Create Your Recovery!

Are you breaking free from your addictions?

Are you in recovery from substance misuse?

Ready to recover your more creative side?

Our new Mindful Art Club could be just what you are looking for.

Create Your Recovery is for people in recovery from alcohol dependency or other substance misuse, and is offered at the reduced rate of £2.00 per session.

This new class takes place on Fridays, 1.00pm – 2.30pm, starting on Friday 14th February 2020.

At: Harbour Drug & Alcohol Services, Hyde Park House, Mutley Plymouth, Devon, PL4 6LF

Cost: £2.00 per session.

We start with a “check in”, and ten minutes of guided mindfulness meditation. Then we do an easy art project and chat. All art materials are provided.  Read more: What Happens at The Club?

Not ready to come to a class in person? That’s OK. Grab some free mindful colouring pages here.

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