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Our Latest Articles


Crunch Culture, the Writer’s Strike… Can we please start listening to artists?
Once again, the consequences of prioritising financial gain above real human wellbeing and mental health are being broadcasted, clear as day

Melisa Kose
May 30, 20238 min read


The Festival of Italian Literature Celebrates Places, Bodies, and the Hybridity of Form
After a three-year-long hiatus, the Festival of Italian Literature in London (FILL) has made an exciting comeback on Saturday 22nd of...

Maddalena Vatti
May 5, 20236 min read


The Festival of Italian Literature in London: Cultures across borders
A festival of literature and ideas bringing together writers and thinkers from different backgrounds After a three-year break due to...

Antonella Lettieri
Apr 28, 20234 min read


Dance to Health: Flamenco-style
I've been captivated by flamenco since I graduated from the Laban Centre London where I trained in contemporary dance and ballet in the '80s

Nikki Crane
Apr 27, 20235 min read


Thinking About Spring Poetry
Photo by Sophie Grieve-Williams on Unsplash With Spring comes hope. After the gloom of Winter, the days lengthen; the daffodils bloom; the sun reappears. Yet for some, counter-intuitively, the arrival of Spring can be desolate. It turns out that people attempt suicide and die more often by suicide far more often in the springtime. Things get tough just as the tulips begin to unfurl. T.S Eliot, it seems, got it right when he wrote "April is the cruellest month," in his poem T

Rachel Kelly
Apr 26, 20236 min read


The Mental Afflictions of Isabella of Parma, “The Melancholic Princess”
When Inspire the Mind asked me to write a new batch of history-based articles on mental illness, in the same style as my pieces on "Glass...

Emily Zarevich
Apr 13, 20236 min read


Writing the Body as a Political Act
While taking part in online meetings, I started to notice that, for most of the time, I look at myself onscreen. Surely not out of...

Giorgia Tolfo
Apr 6, 20235 min read


Taking Part in Melbourne’s Big Anxiety Festival
Exploring mental health through art In this article, I share some of my learnings from taking part in The Big Anxiety festival in...

Daniel Regan
Mar 30, 20235 min read


‘Ted Lasso’ and the Conversation Around Mental Health
‘Ted Lasso’ is an award-winning show that tells the story of an American-football coach hired to manage AFC Richmond, a British football...

Lea Schmid
Mar 28, 20234 min read


How poetry can bring people together, and practical ways to do so
Image Source: Pixels Phew. I’m not alone, it seems, in my enthusiasm for poetry’s healing power. No less an organisation than UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) also believes in banging the drum for verse: March 21st is World Poetry Day, established by UNESCO. It was back in 1999, it turns out, that UNESCO set up World Poetry Day during its 30th General Conference in Paris in 1999. Its aim was to support “linguistic diversity through

Rachel Kelly
Mar 21, 20236 min read


Franco Basaglia, the Italian Psychiatrist Who Closed the Asylums
Photo by MLucan on Wikipedia, CC SA-BY 3.0) I am an Italian writer and contributor to Inspire the Mind , and I was born in a country known for the wrong type of political avant-garde. We had the first fascist party in Europe and managed to switch sides in both world wars. The social reform movements that started in the 60s descended into violence in the 70s, taking the country on the brink of civil war. Twenty years later, Berlusconi invented the modern populist political sty

Gianluca Didino
Mar 17, 20235 min read


FLEXchange - Incorporating Art's into Student's Learning at University
A prospective interdisciplinary curriculum integrating arts, health, and humanities at King’s College London A group of academics at...

Amina Begum
Mar 9, 20235 min read


Poems for the Winter of Our Minds
Odd as it might sound, often the most comforting poetry is the darkest. I know this from personal experience, as a mental health advocate who has been running Healing Words workshops in prisons and for mental health charities for five years now. I set up the workshops as I myself had found poetry helpful during two severe depressive episodes when I was in my thirties. During the workshops, I explain and share poems which help us to understand and allow our feelings, whether d

Rachel Kelly
Feb 7, 20234 min read


The Therapeutic Power of Poetry: What's the Evidence?
Can poetry help our mental health? Image source: Freepik In my last piece, I spoke about my personal experiences with poetry, and the life-changing impact it has had on me, so much so that I’ve written a new book on the links between verse and our emotional wellbeing. However, now I am here to share the evidence that attests to poetry’s power to heal our minds. Author's own image I set about to find what research existed, and came across a number of studies which I divided in

Rachel Kelly
Jan 26, 20234 min read


What is Post-Avatar Depression, and why I did not experience it?
Don’t worry, there are no spoilers. I haven’t stepped into a theatre since December 2019. I decided to change that by having a solo...

Riddhi Laijawala
Dec 22, 20223 min read


Curating Art in a Mental Health Setting
My experiences in the mental health service, and my experiences as an artist, have led me to develop new ways to engage people in...

Ana-Maria Amato
Dec 21, 20223 min read


How Shirley Jackson's Agoraphobia Affected Her Writing
I’m an English instructor, so of course I’ve had the opportunity to teach horror writer Shirley Jackson’s legendary short story “The...

Emily Zarevich
Dec 7, 20225 min read


At the Back of Your Mind: A fun, fresh mental health podcast
Hosted by mental health researchers at King’s College London We were on the way out of the final UK lockdown when a group of young female...

Inspire the Mind
Sep 1, 20223 min read


YouTopian Journey: The Inner Journey for an Outer World
The Inner Journey for an Outer World It came from the east. A virus that changed the world. The mental health, especially of Gen Z and...

Shaun Gold
Aug 31, 20225 min read


How Ukrainians are using Virtual Reality to improve their mental health
Virtual reality (VR) has been finding more exciting applications for healthcare: VR tools help ease chronic pain, change body...

Yuliya Kovalchuk
Jul 14, 20225 min read


Reflecting on Day 1 of FLEXchange
An Interdisciplinary Curriculum Development Workshop in Arts, Health and Humanities at King’s College London Today, our Inspire the Mind...

Mollie Brown
Jul 13, 20224 min read


Ramadan Reflections
A blog written by Amina, Subeyda and Maryam (Assistant Editors of InSPIre the Mind) — — — Ramadan is a special time for Muslims all...

Amina Begum
Jul 6, 20225 min read


Making art brings neurodivergent Ukrainian teenagers peace in times of war
As a Ukrainian researcher doing a rotation at the SPI lab, the home of Inspire the Mind, I can’t help but wonder what the impact of war...

Yuliya Kovalchuk
Jun 30, 20224 min read


Ukrainian artists with Down's Syndrome process the war by painting it
On the 24th of February 2022, my life was split into “before” and “after”. Guess which country I am from? Ukraine. Living through the war...

Yuliya Kovalchuk
Jun 16, 20225 min read
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