Emma Mills, Mental Wellbeing Co-ordinator: Southend (She/Her)

Hi, I joined Metal in 2016 to lead on NetPark Wellbeing, now relaunched as Connect & Create, our award-winning arts and mental health project with Southend City Council. I was born and raised in Southend, studied Fine Art in Sunderland, and taught for 25 years in London, Essex and Botswana before completing an MA in Art Psychotherapy at Goldsmiths in 2006. Since then, I have worked in the NHS, Women’s Aid and community projects, alongside my work at Metal. I continue to practice, lecture and publish, with research on children witnessing domestic violence and the Art Therapy Trauma Protocol (ATTP/TT-AT), which we trialled here at Metal. My published work includes papers in the International Journal of Art Therapy, articles for the British Association of Art Therapists, and contributions to Art Therapy in the Global South: Now and Next. In 2023, our community programme won Most Innovative Mental Health Interventionat the UK Mental Health Awards. I still make my own work and am a founding member of TOMA (The Other MA). My current favourite song is ‘Red Light Spells Danger’ by Billy Ocean because it reminds me that dancing is the answer.