Drawing East London – art therapy for employee wellbeing

As a team, here at ELBA, we take mental health and employee wellbeing very seriously. Working in Corporate Social Responsibility, this simply makes sense. At ELBA, we believe that workplaces have a real responsibility for looking out for the wellbeing of their staff and the local community. We are also firm believers that community development work, employee volunteering and businesses getting involved in supporting the communities in which they work, are a great way to support the wellbeing of staff and the community generally.

May is the month in which we mark Mental Health Awareness week. Taking place from 13 -19 May, this is a campaign we’re passionate about supporting and highlighting.

As well as working with our members to help them support the wellbeing of their employees and their local communities, we also have a range of initiatives that aim to address and support our own colleagues’ wellbeing, organised by our team of volunteers, the WELBA team.

This Mental Health week, WELBA organised a ‘Drawing East London’ session. With studies suggesting that art therapy can be valuable in treating issues such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and even some phobias, this was a great way for team members to express emotions without words, process complex feelings and find relief. Everyone was asked to bring a picture of something related to east London and we used watercolours, marker pens, inks and other media to recreate these. Session leader, Ashley, then collated the pieces into the final piece, shown above. The art work includes a drawing from everyone that attended: Christine, Holly, Emily, Chris, Ashley, Selina, Smera, Antonia, Merossa.