Hey, we’re PLNTD and welcome to our very first blog of 2023, better late than never.

What a year it’s been. Whilst we’ve been established since 2020 and were thinking up ideas from possibly even 2018ish, we’ve sort of only gone full force this year with our workshop plans.

So, we’ll be starting in August for this…

Aug

Our First Office

This summer we landed in our first office, a nice cute little space in Neasden that we thought was perfect to hold small intimate workshops with an option for larger workshops in the downstairs communal space. 👌

Some time was spent doing it up and putting our warm, crafty stamp on it.

Sept

Forgotten People Fill My Mind Exhibition

We started September by visiting Parasites Within’s first-ever art exhibition titled Forgotten People Fill My Mind (#FPFMM) and having our “overcoming incidents” worksheet present and available for guests to work through on day two of their exhibition. 

The artwork heavily embodied emotion and mental health, thus, the artist, Detroit Dyer-Miller, thought that our worksheets would be great to get his audience to start thinking about their own emotions. Sadly, day two of the exhibition saw a lot less traffic than day one (which was literally jam-packed), so not many people got a chance to do the worksheets but, you live and you learn :)

Well-being Worksheet Development

Throughout the month we also continued developing our worksheets for our 12-session creative well-being program and had all content reviewed and fine-tuned by a positive psychologist. Thanks so much, Tiffany <3. 

(We also plan to have the worksheets reviewed by a Psychodynamic Psychotherapist next year too.)

Our First Summer Workshop

We ended the month with a bang, holding our first summer workshop trialling tasters of our workshop ideas. With different art activities and “thought flower beds” asking our attendees questions to encourage deep self-reflection, the engagement with the material was amazing. So, it’s fair to say it went WELL. 

Quotes from workshop attendees:

“There was a positive change, during the workshop some of the tasks required us to think deeply about aspects of ourselves that we don’t generally think about. As a result I had a chance to reflect on myself in a quiet creative space.”

“It made me think more positive about my life” 

“I really enjoyed the art activity, it brought me to a good place, back to my school days as art was my most enjoyable subject, I loved the ambiance, everyone in the session was relaxed and chilled due to the background music, hot and cold drinks and goodies. the time went so quickly.”

Oct

Events, networking etc etc.

Nov

Taster Workshop for Sufra

In November we were immensely pleased to hold a taster workshop for refugees and asylum seekers at Sufra’s coffee morning. 

The feedback we received was incredibly positive and we were so happy to have had such an impact on the attendees.

“Many of our current attendees haven’t attended school for very long, and spend a lot of their time looking after their families and their homes so to have some time out for themselves, and an activity all about them and their feelings was great!”

-Sufra

Dec

Our First Campaign

In December we launched our “Want a Treat? Write something sweet” campaign that asks members of the public to share a positive quote or affirmation in exchange for a sweet treat. It has so far gone swimmingly well. We’ll be posting an article about this campaign soon for those who would like to learn more.

If you’re still reading this, I hope you’ve had a great year and are looking forward to whatever next year has to offer you.

All the best,

PLNTD <3