Creativity and Wellbeing Week how can creativity improve childrens wellbeing

Place2Be welcomes Creativity and Wellbeing Week’s initiative to raise awareness of ‘creative health’: the idea that engaging in creativity can have a positive impact on our wellbeing and mental health.

Creativity is crucial for children’s healthy emotional development. Research in the fields of neuroscience and psychology has found it plays an important role in helping our minds and bodies develop.  

At Place2Be, creativity is an integral part of the play therapy we use and plays a key role in promoting a whole-school approach to mental health. Expressing themselves creatively can help children to: 

• develop resilience and feel seen and heard: research has shown that children who engage in creative activities in primary school are likely to have higher levels of self-esteem when they reach adolescence. This effect is boosted when they engage in these activities with caregivers
• build positive social and emotional connections with others: creative play can help children learn about themselves, how they relate to others, and the world around them
• freely express their thoughts and feelings: it can be challenging to express our inner emotional worlds and having non-verbal means of expression can be freeing.

Place2Be’s Art Room team empowers children and young people, families and schools to use creativity as a tool to support wellbeing.