Creative Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing
Creative expressive arts, health, and wellbeing is a discipline at the intersection of the arts, psychology, and therapeutic practice. It is built on the recognition that creative activity, whether through visual art, music, drama, dance, or other expressive forms, has genuine therapeutic and developmental value. Engaging in creative processes can support emotional regulation, communication, social connection, and personal growth in ways that verbal therapies alone sometimes cannot.
This field brings artistic practice into relationship with health and wellbeing settings, from hospitals and care homes to schools, community centres, and mental health services.
At Derby this part-time programme includes a foundation year, giving you a preparatory stage to develop the practical and academic foundations you need before entering the main degree. You will develop skills in using creative and expressive arts with people across a range of settings and ages, learning from tutors who are both experienced practitioners and researchers in the field. Community partnerships are embedded in the curriculum, giving you real-world experience of working in settings where the arts are used therapeutically or developmentally, and building the professional competence that employers in health, care, and community settings value.
The programme develops both specific skills in arts-based practice and transferable skills in working with people, communicating effectively, and supporting wellbeing. It is suited to students with an interest in both the arts and the caring professions, and is designed with a wide range of employment settings in mind.
Graduates move into roles in arts in health programmes, community arts organisations, mental health support, care homes, educational settings, and youth work. Many go on to further training in arts therapies, counselling, or education, and the degree also provides a strong foundation for postgraduate study in art therapy, music therapy, or drama therapy, which are the routes to qualification as a registered arts therapist.