“Creating artwork allows your mind to be in a safe place while it contemplates the tougher issues you are dealing with.” ― George E. Miller

Shine’s Creative Therapy & Wellbeing Course is a 12-week course, which runs for two hours, once a week. It covers a wide range of arts and coping strategies, giving the mums a mindfulness toolbox that enables them to better cope with their anxiety and depression.

We fund a creche, which runs alongside the course, meaning mothers can leave their babies in safe, qualified hands, while turning their attention to themselves for these two precious hours.

Local artists join us to run a variety of workshops, including crafts such as: felting, origami, printmaking, slow-stitching, green sketching, batik work, mandala painting, journalling and collage, crochet, poetry and mosaics.

We know from experience how effective creative therapy can be for people who are struggling, and it provides a vital distraction and calming tool for when mothers are feeling anxious or low. Each session, mums leave with something truly beautiful that they can feel proud to have created. Attending our sessions, mothers boost their confidence, share their worries and experiences with other mothers going through the same thing, and get some much-needed ‘me’ time, along with a hot cup of tea and someone to talk to.

We run courses in Cirencester and Swindon, three times a year. Please click on the relevant button below to find out details of the course timings and locations, and get in touch if you would like to know more, register for a course, or refer a mother to our services.

THREE MONTHS OF SUPPORT

Firstly, each course is three months long, providing enough time and space for mothers to connect with their peers, to speak to other women who understand their situation, to build friendships and to become part of a community.

 DEDICATED WEEKLY CHILD-FREE TIME

Secondly, through its adjacent creche, it truly offers mothers space and time away from their children, something that for many of them is almost impossible to achieve at any other time in their week. This is one of the many things that makes Shine so unique - I know of no other support group for mothers that also offers a completely free creche facility for over two hours, once a week. 

 HEALING THROUGH CREATIVITY

Thirdly, the art therapy aspects of this course are vitally important – for most of the Shine mums, the soothing process of stitching, felting, scrapbooking or crocheting can actually help calm the nerves, keep anxiety at bay and focus the mind. Mums learn these skills in a safe, supportive environment and can then take these new projects home to work on when they feel worried, anxious or sad. Every single week this course literally gives women tools to help them cope with their mental illness.  

 PEER SUPPORT & COMMUNITY

Shine is run by entirely by women who have experienced postnatal depression and anxiety, while both the volunteers at the courses, and many of the community artists, are also PND survivors themselves. Using art therapy as a focus, mothers are encouraged to talk about and to face the challenges of their depression and anxiety with people who understand exactly how they're feeling and those who have been through it, and can advise, support and guide each other. True friendships and a supportive community are created in these classes, which are a vital lifeline for hundreds of women.

 COMPASSIONATE NETWORK & FRIENDS FOR LIFE

The support doesn't end once the Shine art courses have finished. Lauraine has built a strong and supportive Facebook group network, which connects nearly 250 local mothers, who all offer support and advice to each other every single hour of the day. On many occasions, these women have been there for some of their friends’ darkest hours - this network is literally keeping people safe and making them feel less alone. In addition, after the course, all Shine mums can attend the weekly Shine drop-in playgroups which have a nursery worker in attendance to help with the children and run throughout half terms and holidays, and welcome children of all ages, providing a further lifeline at challenging times.

~

Shine is not something temporary that helps for a little bit, it is access to a wealth of resources, to a network of support, to creative outlets, to vital time off for even the poorest mums. Its impact is long-lasting and deeply effective.

Some of our recent creative projects and crafts…