Art and Mindfullness classes combined at Weston Park new business.
We venture to the old stables at Weston Park where we catch up with anew business run by a lady with a wealth of educational experience within art and working with SEND children. She offers art classes for everyone and uses it to also explore the therapeutic nature it can have.
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00:00 Here at Arts and Minds Therapeutic Centre at the glorious Western Park.
00:04 And what's your name madam?
00:06 Rachel Brown.
00:06 Hello Rachel. So a fantastic setup you've got here. I mean the room looks amazing.
00:11 This is all your artwork as well isn't it?
00:13 Yes it is. It's my lovely, safe, beautiful space that I come to every day at Western Park.
00:19 And just fill us in. So what do you do exactly then?
00:22 You were an art teacher in traditional venues such as schools.
00:28 Now you're here at Western Park. Just fill us in on what you do.
00:31 So when I turned 50 I felt that I really wasn't doing all the things that I really wanted to do
00:36 and I had so much more to give. So I'd been doing some art teaching obviously for a long period of
00:41 time for 30 years and then also doing some life coaching. And it's through my life coaching that
00:46 I started to do some life coaching on myself. Starting with looking at this the Live Your
00:52 Values deck which unpicked all of the most important things in my life. Things that mattered
00:59 to me most and things that perhaps didn't matter so much. And then using the Japanese philosophy
01:05 of Ikigai which really helps you unpick where you want to go in your life. The things that you're
01:10 good at. The things that you could do to help other people. Things that you could make money
01:14 from. And that helped me create the Arts and Minds Therapeutic Centre which is services for schools,
01:20 services for children, services for adults and services for the community and corporate
01:26 businesses as well. Doing everything from art workshops to supporting with behaviour, anxiety
01:34 and giving people an opportunity to get away from the stresses of life and come and spend some
01:40 tranquil time here with me. And you were saying the Ikigai, that's something you're planning on
01:45 taking to Year 11 kind of workshops and just trying to teach youngsters and children who hear
01:52 so much anxiety amongst them. Just teach them about tools I guess. Tools for navigating their
01:59 way through life. Yes often these Year 11s go to careers events and they get to see all of the
02:04 different things that they could possibly go into which is fantastic. But I'm finding at the moment
02:09 there's a lot of children that lack aspiration. They don't know where they want to go. So I'm
02:13 taking my Ikigai banner and some resources with me to sit with them or give them some resources
02:19 that they can go away with and start unpicking what they're good at, what they like and how they
02:24 could then perhaps frame that into something they could do in the future to be happy. And
02:29 round this table you've had families up here doing workshops together. I mean when do we ever,
02:35 we're all guilty of it, when do we ever sit down as a family with our children. Yeah we sit down
02:40 and watch telly and we may sit round the table and have dinner, although not many do that.
02:44 But I guess it must be a real bonding experience for the family to find themselves all here and
02:49 you know engaged in something creative. Must be quite nice to watch. It's wonderful. I had my
02:54 first family group last weekend. Five of them sat round this table. We were making North American
02:59 Indian dreamcatchers. We had the oils burning. We had the North American Indian music playing
03:05 and it was a delight. Three generations of family together for two hours with an afternoon tea
03:09 just having some really therapeutic art and craft. So I'll be running these on Saturday afternoons,
03:14 probably two or three each month so that families can come and do art together. And you also run a
03:22 workshop out from Admiston is it? That's right, that's right. It's Admiston House Community
03:27 Centre. Saturday morning it's the Budding Artist Society. I have about 12 young people who come
03:32 every Saturday and in half terms and holidays to do meet the artist workshops where they learn
03:37 about art techniques and just have that creative freedom, a bit of independence, build up their
03:43 resilience, build up their social skills whilst making wonderful masterpieces as well.