Shortlisted nominees announced for our Art Therapist Awards 2025
We are delighted to announce the nominees for this year’s Art Therapist Awards. The awards celebrate the outstanding contributions made by art therapists across the UK. The recipients of the awards will be announced at our annual conference in November.
Here are the shortlisted nominees for our two awards!
Inclusive and anti-oppressive practice
Our Inclusive and anti-oppressive practice award recognises an individual or team of art therapists who have made significant contributions to improving the inclusive nature of service delivery, the development anti-oppressive practices or provided art therapy to communities that may not have traditionally accessed art therapy.
Adam Levene
Adam Levene works with people living with motor neurone disease (MND), a progressive non-curative disease affecting the nerves in the brain and spinal cord. Drawing on extensive experience in cancer and hospice care, he has developed sensitive, adaptive methods that enable creative expression despite physical limitations. By collaborating with MND associations in Sussex, Adam’s practice has also filled a gap in service provision for people and their families living with MND to access art therapy.
Lillian Shipton and Heather Dimarco
At Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, Lillian Shipton and Heather Dimarco facilitate art therapy groups for survivors of sexual violence. Against a back-drop of financial instability for crisis centres, Heather and Lillian have not only sustained their art therapy groups but also deepened their commitment to ensuring that no survivor was left without access to vital creative and therapeutic support, regardless of their gender expression or identity.
Innovation
Our Innovation award recognises an individual or team of art therapists who have developed innovative clinical practice, research or delivered art therapy in a way that has had a profound impact.
Cath Wakeman
Cath Wakeman OBE founded Imara, a Nottingham-based charity supporting children and families affected by sexual and domestic abuse. Recognising the absence of pre-trial therapy, Cath developed pre-trial art therapy provision and built a multidisciplinary service combining therapy and advocacy. Imara has grown into a locally and nationally respected service, influencing national CPS pre-trial therapy guidance.
Mariana Loewy
Mariana Loewy founded Creative Arts Therapies Space (CATS), a community interest company in central Edinburgh, designed with a dual purpose: to provide affordable therapeutic spaces for creative arts therapists and to increase access to affordable arts therapies for the wider community. The space also provides shared resources and peer support and supervision opportunities for newly qualified practitioners.
Susan Young
Susan Young is nominated for transforming a young people’s inpatient isolation unit through a collaborative mural project co-created with patients, trainees and artists. Her innovative six-week programme turned a sterile clinical space into a vibrant therapeutic environment, fostering ownership, safety and emotional expression among service users.
Join us for the award announcement!
The recipients of the awards will be revealed at this year’s annual conference Art Therapy and Collaboration on 8 November. Join us to celebrate and be inspired by collaborative and creative art therapy practice across the UK.