Creative practice, connection, and recovery
- Mar 27
- 4 min read
We're really pleased and excited to share our recent contribution to an international toolkit exploring the role of creative practice in supporting victims and survivors of terrorism.
The toolkit brings together reflections, examples, and learning from survivors, practitioners, artists, and organisations working in this space, through a wider collaborative project connected to the University of Birmingham.
The Creative Practices for Wellbeing Toolkit, developed by Joanne McCuaig and Dr Katharina Karcher, is informed by more than five years of fieldwork and an international online survey. It highlights how activities such as art, writing, gardening, music, sport, and spiritual practices can support healing, emotional expression, and community connection.
As part of that, Vicki Brown, from our team, shared reflections on Peace Collective’s approach to creative group work, alongside artist and educator Suzanne Atkins, who reflected on her collaboration with us, including the Peace Crane project and mindful drawing workshops.
It was meaningful to see this work included in a wider piece that recognises something we’ve known for a long time: that creative practice can play an important role in coping, connection, and recovery.
At Peace Collective, we support people affected by violence and harm over the long term, in ways that are relational, flexible, and grounded in lived experience.
That support takes many forms, one to one conversations, peer support, group spaces, and practical tools for navigating everyday life after trauma. Over time, we’ve found that creative practice has become a really important part of that support.
Creative practice can support trauma management and recovery in a number of ways. It can help people regulate stress, focus attention, reconnect with their body or surroundings, and create moments of calm or relief when they feel overwhelmed. It can also offer a sense of agency, routine, expression, and connection, all of which can be important in the aftermath of violence and trauma.
Our contribution
In the toolkit, Vicki reflects on how creative practice has become one of the most valued parts of our group offer.
At Peace Collective, group work is about bringing people together in ways that feel safe, manageable, and useful. While every person’s experience is different, we often see that people benefit from being alongside others who understand something of what they are carrying. Creative sessions can help make that possible in a different way.
As Vicki describes in the toolkit, these spaces can support people to:
learn new skills
achieve something
interact with others without needing to focus directly on trauma
develop coping strategies
build a sense of solidarity
experience enjoyment and distraction
engage more easily with other forms of support
That has been true across different types of activity, from collaborative projects like the Peace Crane installation to smaller, quieter sessions focused on mindful drawing and creative reflection.
Suzanne’s reflections in the toolkit also captures something very important, that this work is not about artistic ability or producing something polished. It is about the process, the concentration, the rhythm, the sense of calm, and the opportunity to do something with your hands when words feel difficult or inaccessible.
Why creative practice matters in this work
For many people affected by violence, especially terrorism, support can quickly become centred on talking, processing, and retelling.
That can be useful, but it is not always what someone needs, and it is not always what feels possible.
Creative practice can create a different kind of space, one that is less direct, less exposing, and often easier to enter.
It can create space for people to be with others, take part, and feel connected, without needing to explain themselves or revisit difficult experiences directly. That can be especially important for people who are overwhelmed, exhausted, emotionally shut down, or simply not ready to speak.
We’ve found that creative practice can support people to:
slow down and focus
regulate stress and anxiety
reconnect with themselves and others
build confidence through participation
access support in a way that feels less intense or exposing
That does not mean it replaces other kinds of support. It sits alongside them. But it can often make support feel more accessible, more manageable, and more human.
What makes it work
One of the main things we’ve learned is that creative practice only works well when it is genuinely accessible.
That means thinking carefully about:
cost and materials
whether people can take part online as well as in person
how much pressure there is to “perform” or share
physical access needs and practical barriers
A lot of the success of this work has come from keeping it simple. People do not need specialist equipment, prior experience, or confidence in being “creative”. In fact, some of the most effective sessions are the ones that ask very little and allow people to join in at their own pace.
That flexibility matters, especially in trauma-informed work, where predictability, choice, and low pressure are often part of what makes participation possible in the first place.
More than an activity
What the toolkit captures well is that creative practice is not just a nice add on.
When done well, it can become a meaningful part of how people cope, connect, and recover.
It can offer a shared task, a sense of achievement, a moment of calm, or simply a different way of being in a group. Sometimes that is exactly what is needed.
We’re grateful to have been included in this piece of work, and to everyone who contributed their insight, creativity, and lived experience to it.
We’re also really pleased to see growing recognition of the role that creative practice can play, not just in expression, but in support, healing, and connection.
If you’d like to read the full toolkit, you can find it here:
