NHS Royal Orthopaedic Hospital Pain Clinic – past workshop

In 2025 I ran a set of Art workshops as part of the offering of the Pain Clinic at the NHS Royal Orthopaedic Hospital Birmingham.

In seeking to offer a wider range of ways to manage pain, the ROH  asked me to deliver creative sessions where the participant could use the effects of being in a Flow state as pain management.

The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was best known for developing the concept of “flow,” a place where you become fully immersed in what you’re doing.

Over several weeks we used watercolours, acrylic paint, pastels and use of colour to create artwork and experience the dopamine increase that art making can bring. Many participants surprised themselves in what they could achieve artistically but also commented how they became calmer and lost track of time and worries whilst engaged in their art making.