It's all about the journey! An online museum-based recovery-oriented art psychotherapy group

ABSTRACT

Background:

Whilst there is evidence of the value of museums for art psychotherapy, evidence about online groups to improve mental health recovery is still scarce. The aim was to assess the impact on mental health recovery of an online museum-based recovery-oriented art psychotherapy group.

Context:

The group was designed to help adults under the care of a UK community mental health team with their journey of mental health recovery.

Approach:

The group consisted of six, weekly online sessions and used the collections of two local museums. Quantitative outcome measures and qualitative feedback were used to evaluate the group.

Outcomes:

Five women participated in the group, and four in the evaluation. Generic wellbeing after each session was rated 4 out of 5. Participants scored higher in the Questionnaire about the Process of Recovery (33.25 vs. 42) and a Visual Numerical Recovery Scale (3 vs. 3.25) after participating in the group. Feeling supported was what participants liked most and found most helpful, and they liked the short duration of the group least. Half found the online setting preferable to face-to-face, and all felt that the museum focus was inspirational, and enjoyed the artmaking. Participants gained a better understanding of their recovery journey and were able to express their emotions better.

Conclusions:

This group contributed towards participants’ mental health recovery and the museum focus was valued by them.

Implications for research:

The evaluation findings encourage further exploration of this way of working.

Plain-language summary

This article reports on the evaluation of an online art psychotherapy group for adults who were under the care of a UK National Health Service community mental health team. The group aimed to help participants to move on in their recovery journeys, and used photographs and videos of objects and artworks from two local museums as inspiration. Participants completed questionnaires and gave written feedback which was used to assess changes before and after participating in the group, and to find out how the participants felt about the group.

The group consisted of six sessions, once a week. Five women participated in it, and four of these contributed towards the evaluation. Participants' sense of wellbeing after each session was high, and recovery scores improved after participating in the group. They valued feeling supported most of all, but wanted the group to have been longer. Half of them liked working online better than face-to-face, and all found the museum objects helpful and enjoyed the artmaking. All group members reported that the group helped them to understand their recovery journey and express their emotions better.

In conclusion, this group contributed towards participants’ mental health recovery and the museum focus was valued by them. The evaluation findings suggest that it would be worth researching this way of working.

KEYWORDS:

• Art psychotherapy
• group psychotherapy
• internet-based intervention
• mental health recovery
• museums
• nursing
• online therapy

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all the group members for taking part and for contributing to our learning as facilitators.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data openly available in a public repository that issues datasets with DOIs.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III and by the European Social Fund (ESF) 2014–2020 ‘The ESF invests in your future’ under Grant Río Hortega (CM20-00177).

Notes on contributors

Jessica Marian Goodman-Casanova

Jessica Marian Goodman-Casanova is a Spanish Mental Health Nurse from the Regional University Hospital of Málaga and a Researcher member of the Biomedical Research Institute of Malaga. Her doctoral thesis is on the impact of museum-based art therapy in mental health recovery in the University of Alcalá and she has undertaken a three-month international internship at Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust with Art Psychotherapist and researcher Ali Coles. She is first author of various scientific papers in high impact journals and received worldwide recognition as one of t100 Outstanding Women Nurse And Midwife Leaders by the World Health Organization in 2020. She is also a second year Art Therapy trainee from the Autónoma University of Madrid. She is an active volunteer for the Spanish Association of Mental Health Nursing, Grupo 40+, and is a member of the Challenger Committee of Nursing Now.

Ali Coles

Ali Coles is an Art Psychotherapist for Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust, working as part of the Complex Psychological Interventions team in adult community mental health service in Gloucestershire. She works with clients with severe and enduring psychological difficulties, both individually and within groups. She previously worked in the museum sector and has an MA in Museum and Gallery Management. She has a particular interest in the use of museums, galleries and other cultural and environmental resources in Art Psychotherapy, and co-founded the British Association of Art Therapists Museums and Galleries Special Interest Group (http://www.atmag.org). She is also a Visiting Lecturer in Art Psychotherapy at the University of South Wales.

Daniel Cuesta-Lozano

Daniel Cuesta-Lozano, mental health nurse and docent, and Fermin Mayoral-Cleries, psychiatrist and research coordinator of the Biomedical Research Institute of Malaga, have supervised this research as directors of the doctoral thesis of Jessica Marian Goodman-Casanova.