Dr Joanna Omylinska-Thurston
School of Health & Society
Current positions
Lecturer in Counselling & Psychotherapy
Areas of Research
Dr Joanna Omylinska-Thurston is a Lecturer in Counselling and Psychotherapy at the University of Salford and a Counselling Psychologist at the Greater Manchester Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH). She is a co-founder of a creative psychotherapy Arts for the Blues with colleagues from Edge Hill University and the University of Salford. Arts for the Blues is based on her prior British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded projects into clients’ perceptions of what is helpful and unhelpful in psychological therapies (Omylinska-Thurston et al, 2019). Based on research in evidence-based interventions for depression such CBT, counselling and arts psychotherapies, Arts for the Blues involves integrating creative modalities such as drawing, writing or movement into talking therapies (Omylinska-Thurston et al, 2020). It was evaluated in a single-arm study with mental health charity MIND clients (Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group funding) indicating promising results (Omylinska-Thurston et al, in preparation). Joanna is currently leading a GMMH funded feasibility study evaluating Arts for the Blues in NHS Talking Therapies as well as collaborating on Arts Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded projects on scaling up interventions such as Arts for the Blues and commercialising Arts for the Blues training. Joanna has been awarded NIHR DCAF Fellowship and is currently developing a Feasibility Randomised Controlled Trail (RCT) for Arts for the Blues in NHS Talking Therapies, building the evidence base for this approach in order to influence future service provision at a policy level.
Areas of Supervision
Psychological Therapies
Qualifications
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Doctorate in Counselling Psychology