Managing Mental Health and Finding Boundaries in the Arts

About the session:

In the run-up to World Mental Health Day (10 October 2024), join us for a twilight session dedicated to managing mental health and finding boundaries in your work. This session will equip you with tools to hold healthy conversations around mental health while prioritizing your own wellbeing.

As music practitioners and arts professionals, we navigate a world that can be stressful, insecure, and emotionally challenging, whilst also balancing personal pressures. Working with young people in challenging circumstances adds another layer of complexity. This training is designed to help you take care of yourself as well as the young people you work with.

The session will be delivered by Soundcastle, experts in grassroots community music and Mental Health First Aid Training. Making music happen in education, social care and health care contexts means Soundcastle facilitators have needed to hone the tools that support the mental health of practitioners and participants in practical, open and approachable ways.

This session will guide you through recognising stress, setting boundaries, and creating more resilience in your practice. You’ll gain strategies to manage your own wellbeing, support others, and foster open, honest conversations about mental health.

What to Expect:

• An introduction to mental health awareness, how this might present itself in adults and young people, and the language to explore this.
• Practical tools for stress recognition and managing boundaries when working with young people.
• Case studies and examples from Soundcastle’s extensive experience.
• A starting point to open up conversations with young people and colleagues about mental health.
• Next steps and self-care strategies to build resilience in your practice so that you can be your whole self at work.
• An open, inclusive, and supportive environment.

Part listening, part discussion, part personal reflection, join us to better balance stress and mental health in your professional and personal life.

Who is this for:

Anyone working in the music, creative and cultural sectors who works with young people, including:

• Music teachers and educators
• Community musicians and artists
• Workshop leaders and practitioners
• Youth workers
• Arts organisations and Music Education Hub staff

This event is particularly relevant to anyone who is interested in Mental Health First Aid Training. We will be sharing information about future MHFA training opportunities at this session.

Session leaders:

This session will be led by Soundcastle. Soundcastle delivers grassroots community music programmes across London and Sussex, which involve supporting people with complex mental health challenges. Their team are specialists in this space and offer Mental Health First Aid Training to individuals and organisations across the UK, including the Guildhall School, Bristol Old Vic and Groundswell Arts.