Author: Katherine Taylor

I live in Lancaster and work in Lancaster & Morecambe CAMHS as a senior clinical psychologist, and across Greater Manchester managing the new Arts, Culture and Mental Health programme with GM i-THRIVE, part of the national transformation of children's services. This blog began to help record and share my 2017 Churchill Travelling Fellowship, following a research role at Arts for Health, Manchester Metropolitan University. My work in the field of arts and well-being came about in many converging ways. As a child I was interested in emotional well-being, and worked in mental health research as a graduate. I began clinical psychology training in 2010, and for my thesis studied the role of creativity in bipolar disorder, because of the known links, and partly due to my own experiences of engaging creatively to manage extremes of mood throughout my 20s. I have worked in several university psychology research departments including the Spectrum Centre for Mental Health Research at Lancaster University, notable for its service user involvement, and on the Dementia & Imagination research programme.