‘Creatful is a brand new community company based in Hampshire, England. They are passionate about creativity and look to use it to improve wellbeing and social inclusion in local communities.
Creatful was born out of founder Nancy Fellows’s passion for bettering communities and her love of creative pursuits. Through what she learnt through her own experience with mental health struggles, Nancy is filling a gap in the wellness space for those people who, like her, crave a creative outlet and connection with others.
Nancy, lives in Portsmouth and has two children, ages six and eight. Nancy is a trained designer and worked in the corporate world for 14 years most recently as a senior business consultant.
In the depths of the pandemic, in 2020, Nancy found herself in the midst of a mental health crisis. Having lived with Severe Anxiety Disorder for seven years, Nancy noticed a dip in her mental health and knew that she needed help. She was diagnosed with depression and after being signed off sick from work, Nancy’s determination to get better propelled her to take action.
Unfortunately, Nancy’s recovery journey quickly hit a wall. To her surprise, she found herself stuck between two NHS mental health services, with nowhere to go. The mental health crisis teams deemed Nancy’s condition not serious enough to be a priority and the local NHS service deemed Nancy too risky a patient to treat. Nancy was on her own.
Shocked, but unwilling to give up, Nancy committed to embarking on her own wellness journey. She paid for private therapy and gladly completed the tasks set by her therapist after every session. This homework was helpful, but Nancy couldn’t help noticing that it was all focused on reading and writing – which Nancy found challenging, due to her dyslexia. Surely, there must be another way?
Nancy took the worksheets and activities she was given by her therapist and turned each of them into a creative exercise. They became more fun to complete and it was therefore easier to retain the information. By her last therapy session, Nancy had a collection of worksheets, perfectly suited for creative minds.
Through her experience of mental health service no man’s land, lack of success finding a local group to join and her creative journey through therapy, Nancy knew there must be other people just like her. What happens when those people don’t have the luxury of being able to pay for private therapy? And so, Creatful was born.
Creatful is a community interest company (Not for profit) they provide cross generational, inclusive social wellbeing groups and mindful creativity courses in Portsmouth. Creatful also shares mindful creativity tips, tools and techniques on their social media pages.’
