‘From The Cradle to the Grave’: Reciprocity and Exchange in the Making of Medicine and the Modern Arts

Helen Mason is a consultant occupational therapist with ten years experience of working in the NHS. Her clinical work adapting and designing creative activities which are clinically relevant, effective and meaningful for service users, has led to collaborations and consultancy work with internationally renowned organisations including the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London. Her company Animation Therapy Ltd won a prestigious award for innovation in mental health from the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA) in 2008 to develop Mason's early work using stop motion animation in intra-disciplinary practice. The award enabled cross-pollination of skills between world class animators, academics and clinicians specialising in a range of therapies and saw the creation of a website exploring the use of animation in therapy. The approach to using animation in practice has now been refined into what is known as the ‘Re-Animation Approach’. Animation Therapy Ltd recently launched their resource based Level One Re-Animation Approach courses from the world famous Aardman animation studios. Mason will present a selection of animated films to provide an introduction to some of Animation Therapy's work, using their unique Approach.