Developing accessible, innovative and effective approaches for arts psychotherapies and arts and health practices. 

Arts psychotherapists and arts and health approaches use a range of mediums, including, visual art, body movement, music and drama to help bridge talking, feeling and the ways that we interact. Building on evidence and advances in research in arts, mental health and wellbeing, we support models and practices to be applied in accessible, inclusive and safe ways that are conscious of the social, political and cultural contexts within which they are employed. To do this we engage and lead research projects and provide translatory training programmes with the knowledge of technical aspects of implementation supported by our leading clinicans.  

ICAPT webpage photo 2.jpgICAPT was established in 2011 to build upon the excellence of arts psychotherapies and arts and health clinical knowledges and to offer training for evidence and innovative models more widely. The aim of the centre is to provide an inclusive and effective engagement for patients where interventions are guided but not prescriptive and are informed by the latest research without losing the intuition and innovation for which arts psychotherapists offer. 

The priorities of the centre are to:

  • Offer trainings that utilise knowledges from mentalisation-based therapies, interpersonal and interventions for psychosis 
  • Develop clinical research and quality improvement projects for arts psychotherapies.  
  • Develop dialogues with service users about how we can be more sensitive and inclusive to cultural, social and political situations. 
  • Build an international community

This is the first centre of its kind, accessible to all arts psychotherapists with a focus on innovation and evidence-based practice and will help to offer a way forward for arts psychotherapists developing, innovating and refining clinical methods verbally and non-verbally for specific clinical populations. 

To become a trainer, to co-produce events or to learn more about our partnership with Brunel University, please contact jenni.de-knoop@nhs.net

Mentalization Based Arts Therapies - 2 day Training     

When: 23 and 24 January 2024

Where: In person

Time:  9.30am to 4.30pm (both days)

Presenters: Oliver Campbell, Natalie Chesterman, Kawori Iguchi, Mario Eugster and Dominik Havsteen-Franklin. 

This training is now closed and new dates will be available soon. In the meantime, if you would like to book this training for your team or service, please contact Jenni de knoop.

Arts Therapies Clinical Supervision Fundamentals

This course is suitable for people who are new to supervising or are thinking to supervise in the future. Bookings for this will open soon.

When: 7 December 2023

Where: Online

Time: 9.15am to 1.30pm

Presenters: Dominik Havsteen-Franklin, Diane Eagles and Mario Eugster

This training is now closed and new dates will be available soon. In the meantime, if you would like to book this training for your team or service, please contact Jenni de knoop.

Advanced Mentalization Based Arts Psychotherapies (MBAP) Practitioner Skills Training Day: Working with Neurodiversity and Embodied Mentalization

The training will centre on working with neurodiversity and embodied mentalization. The topics to be covered include:

  • The necessity of neurodiversity-informed practice
  • Flexibility in mentalization-based arts psychotherapies
  • Honouring and affirming differences
  • Case discussions 
  • Developing relational mentalizing and movement based interventions
  • Theory and practice in working with gendered and racialised bodies

Date: Monday 30 September

Time: 9:30am to 4:30pm

Presenters: Natalie Chesterman (Art Psychotherapist), and Dr Erene Kaptani (Dramatherapist)

This training is now closed and new dates will be available soon. In the meantime, if you would like to book this training for your team or service, please contact Jenni de knoop.

"Beyond Crisis: The Role of the Arts in Transforming Society for Our Futures" 

Hosted by Brunel University and ICAPT. This is a series of monthly lectures starting from October 2022 and running through until July 2024. They will take place on the third Tuesday of every month (apart from December) and the venue will be CNWL Trust HQ (350 Euston Road, Regent's Place, London, NW1 3AX).

'Art Therapies - Beyond Crisis' seminar series

Seminar 5 - 'Inclusivity, Healing, and Transformative Arts Pedagogies: Transversing Boundaries'

We invite you to join this thought-provoking seminar to explore the synergy between diverse academic fields and art psychotherapy practices, and to witness the unfolding of art as a potent medium for healing and social change.

Event Question: "How do the methodologies of art psychotherapy pedagogies, as taught by Brunel University, facilitate healing and foster social inclusion?"

Date and time: 22 April 2024 - 6pm to 8.30pm UK

Address: Online and also in person at Brunel University, Gaskell Building Room 048 or online

*This is a hybrid event and free for CNWL staff to attend. Please contact Davide (davide.puddu1@nhs.net) or Jenni (jenni.de-knoop@nhs.net) for the complimentary booking code.

Presenters: 

  • Dominik Havsteen-Franklin, Co-Chair, Consultant in Arts Psychotherapies CNWL NHS, Professor of Practice in Arts Therapies at Brunel University, Art Psychotherapist
  • Liliana Montoya De La Cruz - Art Psychotherapist, Visual Artist and Art Educator, Programme Lead for the MA in Art Psychotherapy at Brunel University
  • Daniel Stolfi - Drama Therapist and Medical Anthropologist, Module Lead for the Anthropology & Aesthetics Module at Brunel University.
  • Alice Myles - Art Psychotherapist, Lecturer on the MA Art Psychotherapy at Brunel University.

Read the full information and confirmed speakers.

Book your place on the Step Up website.

Dominik Havsteen-Franklin
Consultant in Arts Psychotherapies
 

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Dominik Havsteen-Franklin (1972) is an internationally established, British Art Therapist and Clinical Academic who investigates and develops innovative models of arts-based intervention in health care that use body movement and visual image making. He is employed as Professor of Practice in Arts Therapies at Brunel University London and as a Consultant in Arts Psychotherapies for CNWL NHS Foundation Trust. He also a founder and Vice President for European Federation of Art Therapy.

He has an extensive portfolio of research collaborations including working with East London NHS Foundation Trust (London), University of Hertfordshire on the Horizons Project, Imperial College, Fred’s Company (London), Weill University (Qatar), Roehampton University (London), Sp(i)eel Arts Collective (South Africa). His research has focused primarily on intervention development to impact on health conditions such as art therapy for complex depression, mentalization based art psychotherapy for emotionally unstable personality disorder and developing psychosocial practice in South Africa.

Research in progress includes using art therapy in museums in Qatar, Arts Therapies for heterogenous groups in mental health, and neuro studies of change process in arts therapies. His major project at present is focusing on healthcare worker team development.

The results and background to completed projects have been published in wide range of peer reviewed journals, for example recent publications include: 

  • Colecchia, F., Spinelli, G., Havsteen-Franklin, D., & Nandy, M. (2025). Toward a Sociotechnical Ecosystem for Ethical Screening and Promotion of Mental Health and Well-Being. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 27(1), e64790. 

  • Havsteen-Franklin, D., & Campagna, A. (2025). Investigating the Impact of Musical Soundscapes on Well-being: A Qualitative Focus Group Study Using Arts-Based Methods: 探究音乐声景对幸福感的影响: 一项采用艺术本位方法的质性焦点小组研究. Creative Arts in Education and Therapy (CAET), 85-104. 

  • Havsteen-Franklin, D., Asenjo Palma, C., Dima, M., Hansen, M., Merdin Uygur, E., Tore Yargin, G., … Meliou, E. (2025). Wellbeing in the wild: co-creating context-sensitive wellbeing dimensions with a community of young artists. Arts & Health, 1–24. 

  • Mandangu, C., Ramos, A. M., Sengupta, M., Bender, R., El-Hayani, R., Hasan, I., ... & Havsteen-Franklin, D. (2025). Implicit bias in referrals to relational psychological therapies: review and recommendations for mental health services. Frontiers in Public Health, 12, 1469439.https://pmc-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.ezproxy.brunel.ac.uk/articles/PMC11842250/ 

  • Myles, A., & Havsteen-Franklin, D. (2025). Beyond the Human: Emergent Theories of Synthetics in Art Psychotherapy Research Pedagogies. Body, Space & Technology, 24(1).https://www.bstjournal.com/article/id/18355/ 

 

Jenni de Knoop

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Jenni is a UKCPregistered Dance Movement Psychotherapist (DMP), Open Dialogue practitioner, clinical supervisor, educator, and doctoral student with over 21 years of clinical experience. She works in adult psychiatric rehabilitation and is the practice lead for the CaRE Project (creative team development) as well as the Training and Development Lead for the International Centre for Arts Psychotherapies Training (ICAPT). 

Jenni is a visiting lecturer at the University of Roehampton and Brunel University, teaching on the Dance Movement Psychotherapy and Arts Psychotherapy Master’s programmes. She also works in private practice, offering clinical supervision, group reflective practice, and bespoke workshops. 

Jenni is passionate about supporting people to inhabit their unique bodies with creativity, respect, and compassion. She is committed to dialogical, traumainformed, and embodied approaches. Her research interests include creative team development, relational and embodied resilience, and supporting teams to work better together through relationally coordinated practice. 

Recent publication: 

Havsteen-Franklin, D., de Knoop, J., Agtarap, T., Hackett, S. and Haeyen, S. (2023) ‘Evaluation of an arts therapies approach to team development for non-acute healthcare teams in low control and high pressure environments’, The Arts in Psychotherapy, 83. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2023.102003.   

Moving with ADHD Neurodiversity in Clinical Practice: Embodied, Clinical and Relational Perspectives.  

When: Wednesday 18 February 2026   
Where: Online 
Time: 10am-12.30pm  

Trainer: Alexandra Zibisow, Dance Movement Psychotherapist 

Intended audience: 

  • Creative Arts Therapists & trainees 

  • Therapists and practitioners interested in embodied, neurodiversityaffirming ways of working 

  • Clinical supervisors exploring ADHDinformed practice 

Learning aims: 

  • Understanding ADHD through a neurodiversityaffirming lens 

  • How attention, regulation, executive functioning and rhythm show up in therapy 

  • Embodied, relational and regulationbased strategies 

  • Working inclusively with or without a formal diagnosis (including NHS contexts) 

  • Considering therapist neurodiversity, countertransference and supervision dynamics 

Please visit Step Up to book a place or contact Jenni de Knoop for more information. 

Introduction to Team Formulation through Trauma-Informed Approaches (TIA) in Arts Psychotherapies: Shifting Perspectives from 'What is Wrong with You?' to 'What Has Happened to You?

When: Wednesday 29 April 2026 
Where: CNWL HQ, The Bevans Room, 350 Euston Road, Regent's Place, London, NW1 3AX
Time: 9.30am-4.30pm 

Trainers: Gill Lock (Art Psychotherapist), Carol Jaffier (Dance Movement Psychotherapist) & Roz Urquhart (Art Psychotherapist) 

Intended audience: 
• Creative Arts Therapists & trainees 
• Clinicians interested in trauma-informed arts-based approaches 
• Multidisciplinary teams exploring traumainformed team formulation 

Learning aims: 
• Introduce the Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF) as an alternative to medicalisation 
• Shift perspectives from “what is wrong with you?” to “what has happened to you?” 
• Use artsbased methods to reflect on feelings evoked by serviceuser stories 
• Deepen understanding of embodied and psychological trauma responses through creative exploration 
• Explore how power dynamics and threats to core needs shape distress 
• Develop traumainformed team formulations using creative and reflective arts practices 
• Understand threat responses through a traumainformed, artssupported lens 
• Identify compassionate, traumainformed ways forward informed by creative processes 

Please visit Step Up to book a place or contact Jenni de Knoop for more information. 

A series of four evening lectures curated by Kawori Iguchi, Music Therapist.

When: 

  • 14 April
  • 26 May
  • 07 July
  • 6 October 

Where: CNWL HQ, the Bevans room, 350 Euston Road, Regent's Place, London, NW1 3AX

Time: 6pm-8.30pm  

More information to follow.

Research projects, service evaluations and clinical audits
Database of PhDs in arts psychotherapies

Related links