THE ARTIST WELLBEING COMPANY
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Artist Wellbeing provides mental health and wellbeing support for artists and those working within artistic industries; such as theatre, TV & film and dance.
Artist Wellbeing can support anyone who identifies as an "artist"; such as actors, dancers, writers, directors, performance artists, visual artists and more.
Artist Wellbeing can support those who work alongside & in collaboration artists; such as producers, crew members, stage-managers, lighting/sound technicians, venue members and more.
All services are provided by qualified & registered counsellors or psychotherapists, who also have experience in supervision and working within a creative industry.
Depending upon specific needs, services are provided via online video support, in-person sessions, on-location or within the rehearsal room.
HealthCare Award Winner
2020/21
training & workshops
Sharing and teaching best-practice methodologies / psycho-education / well-being workshops
MEET THE TEAM
"We had a dramatherapist on standby the whole time ... She was very helpful, quite grounding. When occasionally things do get quite tough ... I would meet with Lou."
Michaela Cole,
I May Destroy You
"An Artist Wellbeing Practitioner was someone to talk to and lean on when the going got tough. "
Ursula Martinez, A Family Outing
Lou Platt
Founder & Director
Lou began supporting the mental health of those working in creative industries in 2012 when a local theatre company asked her for support. She held space for the company to communicate, reflect, process and grow together. Since then she has slowly but steadily built practices that support those working in creative industries, paying particular attention to where the performative and personal meet. Lou believes in helping all those working in the creative industries develop practices that are exciting, risk taking but are most importantly supported, self-aware and care-taking of those involved.
For Lou, being an Artist Wellbeing Practitioner is a unique synthesis of being a Dramatherapist, Clinical supervisor, Internal Family Systems Practitioner, and independent theatre maker/performer. Through use of compassionate therapeutic techniques, open dialogue and psycho-education, Lou strives to enable artists, production teams, venues and organisations to not only take radical care of their mental health and wellbeing, but to also reach and maintain their fullest creative potential.
Lou has worked as an Artist Wellbeing Practitioner within theatre, film, TV, dance, visual arts, writing and the music industries. For quality assurance, Lou is registered with the Health Care Professions Council, is a member of the British Association of Dramatherapists and has public liability insurance. She regularly takes her artist wellbeing practice to clinical/process supervision, and also engages in Continual Professional Development through on-going certified training and learning practices.
Nikki Disney
Assistant Director
Artist Wellbeing Practitioner
Nikki is a state registered Dramatherapist, Clinical Supervisor (MA. HCPC, Badth), theatre director and yoga teacher who has worked with vulnerable groups and individuals using art for over 20 years. She has 12 years experience as a Dramatherapist working with young people for CAMHS, Place2Be and Children's Society specialising in early trauma and is a DBT trained clinician.
Nikki has implemented and delivered safeguarding and wellbeing procedures within arts organisations, lead on access and wellbeing for The Party Somewhere Else festival and trained artists on boundaries, trauma informed approaches and wellbeing with organisations such as Derby Theatre, Nottingham Playhouse, The Recreate Agency and JMK. She has implemented tool kits for wellbeing in the rehearsal room and specialise in themes of trauma, mental health, working with children and young people and autobiographical material.
Recent projects; include Purple Snowflakes and Titty Wanks @ the Royal Court, Wonderboy @ Bristol Old Vic and First Touch @ Nottingham Playhouse along with extensive ACE funded project support and mentoring. She has offered 1:1 therapeutic support on projects with Regent’s Park Theatre and the BBC.
Noelle Adames
Artist Wellbeing Practitioner
Noelle approaches her work from a wide-ranging background as a Dramatherapist, Professional Actress, Marriage and Family Therapist, and Artist Educator. Through her 20+ years of working in therapy and the arts, she brings an understanding of the important role that play and creativity hold in forming a healthy, balanced and happy individual or group. She combines her years of experiential and educational lives to work with folk in discovering, growing and healing through the creative arts. Understanding the complexities of creating and being creative, Noelle works with artists to develop a safe and open space to explore and develop their work and themselves. Noelle is an HCPC qualified dramatherapist. She holds an MA in Drama and Movement Therapy from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, an MEd in Counselling from George Mason University and is a CAST trained clinical supervisor.
Noelle has worked on productions for Regents Park Open Air Theatre and other independent theatre productions. She is also currently working on a TV drama series for Netflix.
Eshmit Kaur
Artist Wellbeing Practitioner
Eshmit is an Initiated Sikh, a Dramatherapist (MA, HCPC, BADth), Performer and Creative Facilitator. Having trained as an Actor (ALRA, BA Hons), Eshmit became interested in the relationship between the arts and emotional wellbeing, the act of Serving others and art-making and performance offering a transpersonal experience. This led Eshmit to undertaking Dramatherapy training and working with people with various needs since then.
Eshmit's clinical experience includes working with children and young people facing issues such anxiety, self-harm, disordered eating, managing neurodiversity and sexualised behaviour. Specialising in Complex and Attachment Trauma, she has worked in Tiers 2-4 in NHS CAMH Services, a therapeutic school and currently with private fostering agencies and a care-provider offering consultation and training to residential children’s home to help manage the complex needs of developmentally traumatised young people. She also runs her own private therapy practice, EK Therapy, which aims to reduce barriers of access for individuals and communities that have experienced institutional and systemic issues within mainstream services.
She is actively involved in grassroots projects within the Sikh Community and helping young people to thrive on a spiritual and temporal level.
Emma Hagen
Artist Wellbeing Practitioner
Emma is a caucasian Scottish woman who lives in a small village near Glasgow. She is a psychodrama psychotherapist, person-centred counsellor, clinical supervisor, senior trainer and co-founder of Psychodrama Scotland. Emma has worked as a drama artist, director, and project manager for over 2 decades with various theatre companies and organisations including Citizens Theatre, Tron Theatre, Scottish Opera, 7:84 Theatre Company, Visible Fictions, Borderline, Toonspeak, Birds of Paradise, Urbancroft and Solar Bear. She specialises in working with marginalised group with diverse needs. Over the course of her career, Emma has established and facilitated a range of projects within the creative industries, combining her skills, knowledge, and experience to create unique and dynamic projects within drama, theatre, and film, with a range of therapeutic, educational, and creative outcomes. Emma is passionate about offering safe and containing experiences, built on a relationship that is authentic, transparent, and congruent.
Lou Platt as Featured in the
New York Times
“She is very clearly on the side of the person who is in need,” [Michaela] Coel said of Platt. She puts that person “before producers, directors and money, and television itself. And actually she may have been the only person on set able to do that,” she added."
Photo Credit: Alex Ingram