Arts & Ourselves
A user-led creative arts and writing programme for people with experience of self-harm.
Sept 2026 - April 2027 | Online | Free
Arts & Ourselves is an ongoing series of creative sessions led by and for people with experience of self-harm. It is run by Make Space in collaboration with excellent creatives and facilitators. The programme offers room for our experiences in their multiple forms; a space for us to be together and to make some things.
At no point will you be asked or encouraged to discuss or creatively represent your experience of self-harm, however you will be welcome to. We will never try to stop anyone from self-harming.
All sessions are held online, in the evenings and will be free to attend.
Our aim is to give room for self-harm in all of its different meanings; you might want to explore shame, feel into joy, forget about self-harm entirely, or hear from others. Whatever you need, we hope you feel welcome. Each session will focus on a particular creative medium - the extent to which you make this about your experiences of self-harm is up to you.
Note: This programme is aimed at those 18+.
Current programme: Writing our own way workshop series
These workshops are not about writing right or right writing. They are about finding doorways, windows, letterboxes, slits in walls and any other ways in to begin, resume, or continue writing.
Many people who write, and many people who don’t, find writing almost impossible. Some do it anyway and some of us dally around doing and not doing.
Writing our own way is not about technicality and strict adherence to forms of writing. Instead, the workshops form a collection of different invitations and provocations to prompt you to play with words, expression, and your imagination.
All this to say, if this is of interest, you are welcome.
About the facilitator
Louisa (she/her) is a queer, AuDHD workshop facilitator; avoidant-writer; therapist; seeker of wonder; and all-round appreciator of non-human furry and feathered persons
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These sessions are for people with experience of self-harm. This could be historical or ongoing. You get to decide whether or not you feel you have experience of self-harm; it is not our place to decide (and nor will we ask).
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You must sign up to each session individually. You will receive a zoom link shortly after this.
Each session is free to attend and will be held online on Zoom.
Our programme is supported by a therapist who will be available to anyone who needs space to debrief after the sessions. The debrief space is a one off session, to give you room to process what might have come up for you in the workshop(s)- it is not intended to offer ongoing or immediate support.
Each session will be automatically captioned as default. There is space on the sign up form to let us know about any other access needs you have such as live closed captioning, BSL, or an intro to the team before the session. We will do our best to meet these needs.
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No. We all know why we are there, and sometimes that is enough. Sometimes people talk about self-harm, often they don’t. That is okay.
Make Space rejects cessation based responses to self-harm. We will never ask or suggest that you stop self-harming. We recognise that self-harm can take many forms and play many different roles in people's lives. We do not require you to disclose anything about your self-harm.
We are an organisation led by people with experience of self-harm. We are not trained medical professionals and cannot offer medical advice or assistance.
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Sessions are held online, on zoom. They last 90 minutes and will have a break halfway through.
Groups are likely to be small (5-15 people). People join from all over the world and are lots of different ages.
The sessions have space for all kinds of feelings; including sadness, silliness, anger, and ambivalence.
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Arts & Ourselves is funded by the the National Lottery Community Fund (TNLCF).
TNLCF has no access to information about who has joined our sessions.
We use the funding to pay for: facilitators, therapists, insurance, zoom subscriptions, safeguarding/DBS checks, and our own time.
Writing that moves us
The writing we encounter can shape us, change us, and call to us. Writing can give us words for our experiences, it can help us to feel less alone, it can offer us new ways of thinking, knowing, and being.
In this workshop we’ll talk and think about the writing that has moved us deeply – both in relation to our experiences of self-harm and more broadly. We’ll explore what writing has meant to us, how it has made us feel, what we have taken from it.
Come along if you’d like to share the writing that has moved you, and find out what has moved others – come along if you’d just like to listen and reflect.
This session is led by the Make Space team.
This session is held on Zoom > > click here to register via Eventbrite < <
Writing back
Experiences of self-harm can often feel silenced, and the world around us can feel uninterested in our lives, our insights, our needs, our knowledge. Writing is a way to reclaim our voices, to hold fast to what we have to say and why it matters.
In this session we’ll engage in reflective writing that responds to the world around us, that claims our right to be the author of our own stories, and that uses writing to begin to build the world we want to see. We’ll use creative prompts to speak back to the systems and structures that limit and silence us.
Come along to reflect, to speak out, and to find the words that speak for us.
This session is led by the Make Space team.
This session is held on Zoom > > click here to register via Eventbrite < <
TLDR: Potent and punchy writing for the distractibles among us
A word can stop us in our tracks, it can send us running for the door, it can have us jumping for joy. In this session we’ll think about the power of words, and how sometimes saying less can be the most powerful way of communicating what’s in our hearts.
Join us for a workshop led by Louisa Harvey, where we will be writing poems that pack a punch and responding to creative prompts that invite us to explore how words help us to know, how they help us to care, and how they help us to survive.
Come along to write, to think carefully about how words fit together, and to find the right words for what we want to say.
This session is led by Louisa (she/her), supported by the Make Space team.
This session is held on Zoom > > click here to register via Eventbrite < <
Beating-around-bushes: Longer-form writing for those who like the scenic route
Writing can be our escape, it can be our portal to a way of thinking differently, it can be the way we hold on to what is precious even when it is fleeting.
Join us for a workshop led by Louisa Harvey, where we will be having a go at different sorts of creative writing, and trying to find a way to capture excitement, joy, and the hope of flickering lights. There might be darkness all around, but together we can write our way to something good.
Come along to write, to imagine, to escape. Come as you are, in the way that you need.
This session is led by Louisa (she/her), supported by the Make Space team.
This session is held on Zoom > > click here to register via Eventbrite < <
Found+ Poetry: For anyone daunted by the blank page
The words that others write can be a powerful resource, a space in which we find meaning, a library of life and love from which we can create.
Join us for this workshop on found poetry, led by Louisa Harvey. We’ll spend time getting to know some poems, finding out what we’re pulled towards, and exploring how we might create something new from them. We’ll seek meaning and we’ll make our own.
Come along to think with poems, to talk with poems, to see what poems have to say to each other. Come as you are, in the way that you need.
This session is led by Louisa (she/her), supported by the Make Space team.
This session is held on Zoom > > click here to register via Eventbrite < <
Mad Memes!
About the session
This workshop will explore the use of memes as a form of communication and resistance – a means of expressing our thoughts, feelings and experiences in humorous but also poignant ways. We will draw upon existing memes for inspiration and discussion, before using meme generator websites to create our own!
The workshop will be facilitated by Fiona Malpass who is the Hearing Voices Project Manager at Mind in Camden, as well as a freelance speaker and trainer. They come from a place of lived experience and enjoy finding creative and provocative ways to give voice to people’s experiences.
You will need:
The workshop will be held online by zoom, so technology to access online meetings is required. Use of a computer can for some, feel more useable in terms of navigating multiple windows and tabs (e.g. zoom and a web browser for meme generator websites), however, people are very welcome to join on mobile devices if they prefer.
Note: This session is aimed at those who are aged 18+.
Creating responses to self-harm
What might be possible if we were able to think creatively about responses to self-harm? What does it mean to build solidarity and care among those of us with lived experience?
Led by the Make Space team, we’ll blend reflections and creative prompts to think about what it means to show up for each other and our own experiences, in the face of systems of “care” that often cause more harm than good.
We’ll be drawing on the themes of the programme as a whole, celebrating Mad Art, Mad Togetherness, and Mad Imagination.
As always, there is no pressure to talk about your own experiences. You are welcome to join anonymously and to make decisions about how you do and do not want to participate in the space.
You will need:
Whichever materials excite you/you have to hand! Pens, pencils, laptops, collaging kits, paints etc.
Note: This session is aimed at those 18+.
The joy of sticks: character creation for bad artists
This workshop will take you through a process for creating cartoons with strong characterisation which assumes absolutely no artistic training or talent (although if you have existing artistic skills you are also very welcome). Rachel Rowan Olive is a researcher and artist/illustrator/zine-maker whose first zines were stick figure cartoons about the mental health system; she then expanded to stick figures of her other major obsession, dogs. Come along to test the boundaries of the form for telling your own stories or sharing your own special interests.
This workshop will be run by Rachel Rowan Olive (she/her) @rrowanolive on socials / https://rachelrowanolive.etsy.com / https://www.rachelrowanolive.com
You will need:
Pen or pencil
Paper
Note: This session is aimed at those 18+.
Collaging a New World
Hi everyone. My name is Robin (they/them), I'm a gender-queer Art Psychotherapist and Artist based in Bristol. I use art to support people with their well-being and mental health challenges alongside creating my own artwork. My art is often a playful exploration of my current mood, explored through a variety of art materials and tools. In this workshop we will play with and combine different collaging techniques to create magical new worlds...
You will need:**
Collaging materials (magazines, newspapers, old cards/books, wrapping paper, fabric etc.)
Glue (pritt-stick or something stronger if working with fabric)
Scissors and paper
Pens.
If doing a digital collage I'd recommend using Adobe Express. https://www.adobe.com/express/ and use the free version.
**We have a small budget to send participants materials for this workshop in the post. Details of how to request materials will be in the sign up email.
Note: This session is aimed at those 18+.
Drifting space: a poetry workshop
In this workshop, we’ll be exploring different ways of being drawn to, through, and by the places and spaces that surround us. This workshop is a chance to speak to the spaces and places that we are pulled to and provoked by. We’ll be exploring how poetry and writing more broadly might respond to how we move in the world around us – both the physical world that we can see and touch and the emotional or online worlds that exist in our hearts, our minds, and our devices! As people who have self-harmed, we’ll consider what our surroundings might mean to us and how our poetry can express those intangible connections. We’ll be letting go of directions about how to move in a given space, of feelings of ‘should’ and ‘ought’ and releasing ourselves from the pressure to make progress and be productive. We’ll ignore false ideas of skill or training, and prioritise what words can do for us, and how our writing can feel joyous, caring, and meaningful. This workshop will involve responding to prompts in whichever way feels most comfortable and significant in that moment, in any way that might mean.
This workshop will be facilitated by Cat (they/them). Cat is a poet and publisher who loves thinking about unusual ways of using words and what words can do for us. Their debut collection 712 stanza homes for the sun was published in 2023 by Broken Sleep Books with their most recent collection Dear Lettera 32 being recently published by Permeable Barrier. They're @marbledmayhem on Twitter, Instagram, and BlueSky.
You will need:
Pen or pencil
Something to write on
A laptop/tablet if you’d rather type than write
Note: This session is aimed at those 18+.
Love Letters from No-Go Zones: a writing workshop for you.
As those with experience of self-harm, we may be seen as so outside of what lies in the territory of acceptable human experience that we inhabit symbolic no-go zones. We queer things, we seem difficult, resistant, outside the lines, despite efforts to mould, fit, pass, belong. This is a workshop for the word-shy, and the wordsmiths, the curious and ambivalent, to come and string together letters to reach each other, ourselves, outwards, and to say in a language that befits us what we wish to say in that moment. Come as you are, in the way that you need. The workshop will involve responding as you chose to open and flexible prompts. You will be welcome to participate as much or as little as you wish, to share or not, you will be met gladly.
Louisa (she/her) is a tutor/facilitator, boat-rocker, survivor, escapologist, therapist, learner and AuDHD seeker of joy and potato smiles.
You will need:
Pen/pencil
Paper
Or something to type on, if you’d rather write that way.
Get in touch
If you have any questions about the programme or would like to speak to the team before attending, please feel free to get in touch at info@makespaceco.org
Funding
This project is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund.