CASWA’s Therapeutic Thursdays
We started therapeutic Thursday’s on our social media platforms as a way to help bring therapeutic activities to our working week as well as a way to get the wider community to engage with therapeutic activities which is particularly valuable in the current climate with COVID19 affecting a lot of peoples mental health. Isolation plays a huge role in how someone is feeling within themselves and to be able to provide simple activities which may help lessen that isolated feeling is really important. Even as a team we have been isolated from each other these past few months and as many have said a Zoom call isn’t the same as having a chat by the kettle on your tea break.
“Therapeutic Thursdays has been a great way to connect with my CASWA colleagues during Covid-19. We haven’t seen each other for months, but we set up a wee WhatsApp group where we share our creations and this has really helped to feel connected.”
Taking some time during our working week to be creative and allow ourselves to reflect on our week so far and also allowed for us to experience the value of the therapeutic work which so many of us do with our service users.
“I use art and crafts a lot in my work with children and young people, but this has really helped me to more fully understand the therapeutic role that creativity can play and I will be incorporating this much more into my work.”
Our Therapeutic Thursdays:
- Zentangles – You can find a tutorial link here. We all enjoyed this one! Taking five minutes out of our busy day to just breathe and clear our minds.
- Colouring in – Adult colouring as become very popular with lots of adult colouring books being widely available in most newsagents and online. As well and thousands of free printables available from sites like – https://www.art-is-fun.com/free-adult-coloring-pages
- Drawing/Sketching – our staff took some time to draw, sketch and doodle there are a number of different tutorials on YouTube.
- Photography – Photography is so easy for everyone to access these day with the majority of people having access to a camera on their mobiles. We found exploring nature in our own gardens for unique patterns and wildlife relaxing and enjoyable.
- Decoupage – a creative way to upcycle or add our own style to everyday objects.
- Clay – Air drying or oven baked Clay provides for lots of opportunities to be creative, out staff made their own Crochet hooks and decorated bottles.
- Crochet and Knitting – with a number of our staff already doing this hobby some of the others decided to try and learn as well.
The Final Therapeutic Thursday was to decorate a Feather for our Feather Mural which we are organizing as part of our 15year anniversary celebrations. Unfortunately COVID19 has gotten in the way of these celebrations.
However we would like to invite members of the public to decorate some feathers to add to our mural. You can access the template here. There is an example of some of our feathers in the Gallery below.
“I absolutely love therapeutic Thursdays, I look forward to them every Thursday. I enjoy taking time out of my day each Thursday to try out all the different activities. I find it very relaxing and refreshing, it helps me to practice being mindful and living in the moment“
