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Hello, welcome to the seventh issue of the Flourishing Spaces Newsletter~ a small offering to pause within the season of Autumn. 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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“I have lived with the realities of loss, pain and decline now for 12 years, they have not gone away, but thanks to my full-time painting, I feel more present and alive than I ever was before.” - Excerpt from “Thoughts on Flourishing” by Gavin Blench
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Final year medical student Elle Tallgren from Barts and The London (QMUL) presenting on creative enquiry and flourishing “It was a delight to be invited to present my dissertation work as a poster at the Medical Humanities conference in Cambridge. The CUMHS* and AMH* did a beautiful job organising this day, full of talks on what it means to be in the field in this current day, with ongoing advances in technology and AI.” Further thoughts on the conference from Elle are in our news items on the website; read more about it here. |
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❗️Call for submissions in the field of primary care❗️ A new ‘Art and Creativity in medicine’ strand accepting submissions for the RCGP conference 2026, click here for more information. ⏱️ Deadline December 5th. If you are involved in the field of primary care in the South East, there is a call for creative enquiry submissions for the SAPC SE (Society of Academic Primary Care, South East) conference 'Advancing equity in primary care: building healthier communities together', click here for more information. ⏱️ Deadline November 8th.
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INTRODUCING FLOURISHING SPACES TEAM
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This month we meet Dr. Ana Cabral who writes on co-creative flourishing spaces at Queen Mary University: Co-creation offers a transformative space where hierarchies are flattened, and staff and students move beyond traditional roles to become partners in learning and discovery. |
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At Queen Mary we have two schemes to make space for collaboration as part of our strategy to co-create both teaching and learning, as well as celebrate our mission to enable staff and students to flourish: |
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1. Go co-create: Educators and learners as co-creators – resources, support and training to guide collaboration 2. Student Enhanced Engagement and Development award (SEED) – scheme to recognise the student contributions to the enhancement of curriculum and learning experience across Queen Mary through working co-creatively with educators Read more about Dr. Ana Cabral’s work and the impact of co-creation on students and staff on our website here!
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Events from Creative Clinic This organisation champions creativity as a wellbeing tool for doctors and medical students. The following evening sessions are led by artist Liz Atkin. ⏱️ 4th November, 2025
Autumnal tea and coffee drawings;
Get creative with tea and coffee, we will be working with felt tips and pens.
⏱️ 2nd December, 2025
This session is inspired by the Beautiful Brain; exquisite drawings of brain cells, brain regions and neural circuits by Santiago Ramon y Cajal. Bring pens, graphite pencil and colouring pencils. Click here to sign up!
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Conference: Future of Healthcare ⏱️ November 29th, 9am-5:30pm 📍 Robens Suite, Guy’s Campus, London (and online for those facing barriers) Organised by the College of Medicine and Integrated Health- calling all healthcare students to attend and submit posters here. Deadline for submissions: 10th November 2025.
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An ache I can’t medicate by Georgina Haffner, FY1 doctor
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“One unseasonably warm April day, I was shifted from my base ward to cover another, due to inconsistent staffing levels, as is frequently the case. That day, I was looking after a young woman admitted from a psychiatric hospital, isolated in a side room. Not only being worked up for probable TB, but also living with bipolar disorder. In many ways, our encounter brought my shadowy emotional undercurrent to light. Neither of us were where we wanted to be. When she asked me if I would want my mother to come and visit me, I could have assumed the role of detached doctor. But instead, I told the truth and responded as a daughter who has lost hers. That encounter deserved a poem; not because I always have the energy to write – but because meaning found me. The personal and the professional collapsed into one another – and I needed to honour that. Writing has remained my anchor in times of loss and longing, as well in moments of awe, joy and optimism.” Read Georgina’s full reflection from our website. Originally published in Journal of Holistic Healthcare, Volume 22, Issue 2, Summer 2025 .
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TRY IT OUTCreating a self-portrait
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“I have recently started a 5 week internship in adolescent psychiatry in Helsinki~ the capital of my home country. In the first days, I went to visit its oldest art museum~ Ateneum, and the exhibition on one of the most famous Finnish painters ended in a room with tables with little mirrors on them~ an invitation to join the practice of Akseli Gallen-Gallela (1865-1931). My sisters and I all sat down and drew a self-portrait. What followed was an interesting discussion on our image of the self, a moment of creative enquiry where we took turns reflecting on what it was like to scribble down all the details of a face that others see more than we ourselves do. I have been creating self-portraits since I can remember, mostly with the help of a camera. It has helped me learn who I see myself to be in the world that I am in. One of them is shown above, created in 2022 as a 2nd year medical student, I used this piece to reflect on the liminality of being a medical student, and recently exhibited it as part of my poster at a Medical Humanities Conference in Cambridge (18.10.2025). Self portraiture isn’t necessarily obsession about the self, but rather an honest reflection on how we experience life in the current environment.” — Newsletter editor Elle Tallgren, 5th year medical student
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A few tips: Choose your tool- a pencil or a photography device. Reflect- how do you see yourself, how can you express this through your sketch or photograph. Go with the flow and see what comes out. A ‘successful’ self-portrait isn’t necessarily measured by its realistic reflection of the subject, but rather by the experience of the subject while mirroring themselves with their own method of expression. |
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Medicine is about more than surviving the shift. It’s about facing the uncertainty and finding yourself still standing, still curious, still human. —Emily Taylor, FY1 doctor ( From Arming yourself against uncertainty, Journal of Holistic Healthcare, Volume 22, Issue 2, Summer 2025)
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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 November. With warmth, The Flourishing Spaces Team ———————————————————————————— FLOURISHING SPACES
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