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Hello, welcome to the third issue of the Flourishing Spaces Newsletter - a small offering to pause in the midst of busy days. Firstly, we would like to thank you for signing up to receive this gentle thread. We aim to connect a growing community committed to re-humanising medicine and education through creativity, reflection, and care. This isn’t about adding more noise to your inbox but some encouragement, a signpost to something meaningful, and a glimpse into what’s unfolding in our shared landscape. All previous newsletters can be read here (scroll to the bottom of the page).
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“When I find the time to reflect on it, macrocosmically, being a doctor is a privilege. During this first year of working, I've come into close contact with so many different lives. I've broken bad news - "I think they're sick enough to die". Shared hopeful biochemistry - "things are moving in the right direction”. Synthesised the complex into succinct summaries. I've taken an interest in when strangers' bowels are moving, and even more interest when they're not. I've bargained, negotiated and resolved conflicts. “ - Haffner G. “An Ache I Can’t Medicate”. (In Press). Journal of Holistic Healthcare.
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You can find the full reflection and an accompanying poem in the upcoming edition of Journal of Holistic Healthcare on the theme of “Facing the Shadow”.
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Friday July 11th Networking Meeting: Creative Teaching in the Medical and Health Humanities at Imperial College 📍Level 3, Royal College of Science building, South Kensington Dr. Giskin Day warmly extends her invite for an in-person networking meeting with a theme of Subjective Objects: Creative Teaching in the Medical and Health Humanities. The event includes a session inviting participants to bring an object linked to their creative teaching practice, talks by Dr. Giskin Day, Alex Mermikides (KCL), and students. Additionally, optional afternoon workshops at the V&A or Science Museum are offered, which explore visual thinking and the history of medicine through objects. Hybrid attendance is available for the 11:00–12:30 session via Teams.
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Keynote by Louise Younie at Moorfields Academy During her keynote, Louise invites the group to finish the sentence ‘at work I feel cared for when’ and with their responses, she crafts a poem. The finished piece remind us that small acts can make a big difference to support the development of flourishing spaces for each other. An excerpt from the poem composed on the day is pictured below:
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This poem created across students, healthcare staff and junior and senior clinicians offers deep listening…The poem is more than a collection of sentiments. It is a map of what makes us human. And it is the wisdom that is already woven within and between us,silver threaded whispers holding the whole system together. - Louise Younie
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Updates to Flourishing Spaces website We are currently in the process of refreshing our website to make it more intuitive, welcoming, and easier to navigate. Our aim is to help you find the content, opportunities, and inspiration you’re looking for with less digging and more flow. You may notice some gradual changes over the coming weeks as we shape a space that better reflects the evolving heart of our work in creative enquiry within medicine. If you find yourself walking through the site and want to get back to the front page, just click the Flourishing Spaces icon at the top left! We are excited to share the finished result with you soon.
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June 2025: Creative Health in Parliament Professor Daisy Fancourt has spoken at the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Creative Health calling for action so that all children and young people are given opportunities to access creative, arts and cultural activities, where clinically appropriate, to support and improve their mental health and wellbeing. She gave evidence highlighting the urgency of the youth mental health crisis and the opportunities presented by creative health approaches. Read here for more. Dr. Simon Opher (MP)- chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Creative Health and a practising GP, took Creative Health to the heart of government during this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions. In a passionate address, he highlighted how arts, culture, and creativity play a vital role in tackling the challenges facing our health and care systems.
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CREATIVE ENQUIRY ‘Comfort Within Liminality’ Through my creative piece I wanted to resemble the importance of Now; a state of mind that I have found comfort in after realising how I have spent a majority of my early life with my mind constantly projecting to my future as a doctor... I feel like a large part of my lived experience has taken place in a state of liminality, in a state of moving somewhere new just as I had settled in, medical school feels like it is almost over when it feels like it just began… |
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Bandages are wrapped around the wrists to signify a metaphor of being a wounded healer, a doctor-to-be who brings their past with them in peace. You can see, however, that there are spring flowers growing out of the wounds. With this I can draw a link to flourishing and how I believe real growth happens from a place of coming to acceptance with our flaws and negative experiences. Creating this piece gives me a feeling of trust in myself that I have tools to handle existing in a liminal space, as change is the only permanent thing in life, especially in medicine. - Elle Tallgren, 4th year Medical Student
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TRY IT OUT : A quiet moment
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In Flourishing & Creative Enquiry workshops, we often invite 10 minutes of ‘Quiet time’ at the end of the sessions. This is a space to sit with your thoughts and engage in something creative using a tool of your choice. This simple pause has consistently emerged as a highlight in the closing reflections~ a moment of calm and connection to self. Sit somewhere quiet, if you can. Let your thoughts arrive without needing to fix or follow them. Sometimes, just pausing long enough to recognise what’s moving through you is more than enough. And in that moment, something quiet and necessary begins to return.
A journal by your side, or even a scrap of paper and a pen, may help to catch what drifts up~ images, questions, fragments of feeling. You don’t need to make sense of it now, but see if you can just capture it. Medicine teaches us to care for others; creativity reminds us to care for ourselves. In this stillness, let the ink trace what words cannot yet say.
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“The arts are not a luxury in medicine, they are a lifeline—to empathy, to meaning, and to the fullness of being human.”
— Rita Charon, physician and founder of Narrative Medicine
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If there’s something stirring for you after reading this, or if you simply want to say hello, we’re always here, just email us at creativeenquiry@gmail.com. We will see you again in the next newsletter, which is due to be published on the last Friday of July. With warmth, The Flourishing Spaces Team
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