Life after brain injury: Art and Wellbeing group supports patient's recovery journey
Life after brain injury: Art and Wellbeing group supports patient's recovery journey
02 October 2025
One participant, Nicky, began attending the group after receiving treatment for a subarachnoid haemorrhage at Charing Cross Hospital in 2015. Originally a professional artist, Nicky has spent the last ten years rebuilding her creativity and sense of self.
Describing the effect of her brain injury, Nicky said: “I wasn’t there anymore. I couldn’t recognise or identify who I’d become, and I’m still trying to get used to the changes the brain injury has left me with.
“I look like me, I sound like me, and people who knew me before think I'm still that person, but I’m not. I don't function that same way, and the brain injury has made it very difficult to reconnect with who I was.”
Creative projects have played a vital role in Nicky’s rehabilitation, and attending our Art and Wellbeing workshops has helped her find a place to be creative alongside others who are recovering or living with health conditions.
"...It’s okay to be myself with a brain injury on a good day or a bad day, and the mere fact that I've got to the session is great."
Nicky, Art and Wellbeing participant
“I look forward to going into a space that's dedicated to creative thinking,” she said.
“It’s not like being in an artist’s studio from my past, where there might have been an element of drive. It’s just a collectiveness, and being part of a group where it’s okay to be myself with a brain injury on a good day or a bad day, and the mere fact that I've got to the session is great - you can come as you are.”
Through the group, Nicky created two artworks (one pictured below) which were featured in an exhibition displayed across our hospitals.
'Life Turned on a Sixpence - Blue' by Nicky
“It was a big challenge… because in the past, I could do a whole exhibition, and I’d just do it! Whereas now I’m aware I’m doing something I find incredibly difficult. But I did the exhibition, and it was a huge achievement.”
Following this, Nicky has gone from strength to strength, creating brighter and more spontaneous works using different processes and materials (shown at the top of this page).
Marenka Gabeler, the artist who facilitates the group, witnesses the positive impact of creativity first-hand: “People might go into a session preoccupied by the stresses and strains of their life, but the creativity and social aspect bring them to a lighter place.
“The group can be a great place to explore your identity and experiment with risk-taking, which can be hard in other parts of your life. It provides a safe space outside of the real world where you can build up confidence. Seeing this development is the biggest reward.”
For Nicky, the impact of the arts on her wellbeing has been transformative: “Life can be tough, and things like the Art and Wellbeing group and the Gallery Club are like these oases of joy. It’s still quite murky, and then there are these islands of joy, which make it all worthwhile and make everything hang together.”
“The art group is for anybody, whether you were or weren't an artist before, just go and try, and you might actually have a lot of fun as well, and meet some nice people.”
Read more about our Beyond Our Walls community arts programme.
