Using Puppets and Art Therapy for Mental Health and Quality of Life: The View from the Inside Workshop

In 2015, Wendy Passmore-Godfrey and Allan Rosales met over a cup of tea to discuss how puppet making and art therapy could be used to support vulnerable populations. Since then the ATB Healing through the Arts award- winning View from the Inside program has had over 200 participants ranging from Indigenous youth, afterschool programming, foster children, Girl Guides, Syrian refugee teens, adolescents at an alternative high school, homeless adults, adults with mental health concerns, women at a domestic violence shelter, and seniors. This workshop will speak to the evidence-based research, evaluation and further potential of the program. Participants will also get the chance to sample the program components as they create their own mask body puppet, journal a monologue, and find their ‘own voice’.