Building resilience: a pilot study of an art therapy and mindfulness group in a community learning disability team

This article describes findings from a pilot study for a new art therapy intervention designed for clients attending an Adult Learning Disability Service. The intervention consisted of an art therapy and mindfulness group for clients, for 90 min per week over an initial 6-8 week period, with the aim of improving group members' resilience and ability to cope with difficult life experiences. Clients completed questionnaires about their experience of the group sessions and a thematic analysis was conducted to identify three main themes. The results suggest that the clients who received this intervention experienced improvements in their clinical presentation as well as in their quality of life, an increase in joy and positive wellbeing, and a decrease in low mood and social anxiety.Plain-language summaryThis paper describes an art therapy group run for adults who have learning disabilities. In the group people used mindfulness practices as well as art making and discussion. This helped people to notice and share their thoughts and feelings. The paper shows the results of a questionnaire completed by the group members. It shares group members' comments about how they found the group and how the group helped them.