What ‘matters’ in making and cloth(ing)-led Facilitation in healthcare?… Towards a practice framework for advancing participation and collaboration.

My Phd explores the materiality of creative Facilitation methods used in healthcare. It reviews the role of making, clothing and wearing to; address power dynamics in group work; broker collaborations between different communities and facilitate participation of underrepresented communities.

Drawing on my own facilitation experience, spanning the last 15 years, I have identified practitioners who also use a Making and Cloth(ing)-led Facilitation approach (situated in Therapeutic, Socially Engaged Creative Health and Wearable Technology settings). My aim was to understand how they work and what they do in the complex health settings that they’re are applied in.

For the first stage of the project, I interviewed Facilitators working in the contexts of life-limiting illness and women’s health (Annette Schwalbe), female pelvic anatomy (Teresa Almeida), suicide bereavement in traveller communities (Seamus McGuinness) and anatomical dissection (Celia Pym). I also reflected on my own experience of facilitating in breast cancer care.

For the second stage, I designed and developed a creative, home-based activity pack (Wardrobe Probe), that aimed to sensitively understand women’s lived experience of breast cancer and reconstruction..through the wardrobe. And I designed and facilitated collaborative workshops that drew communities of service users and clinicians together to discuss community needs.

By reviewing ‘What matters in Making and Cloth(ing)-led Facilitation in healthcare?’ my research has developed detailed practice and ethical frameworks to enhance participation and collaboration in future facilitation work. It has also developed a set of facilitation methods that can therapeutically support people affected by breast cancer to reflect on their experiences and can enhance self-knowledge and awareness for self-care. 

My PhD was kindly supported by the charity, Breast Cancer Haven - it’s clinical staff and research team. And was funded by The Arts and Humanities Research Council as part of London Doctoral Design Centre.

I am eternally grateful to all of the people who have taken part in this study, who so generously gave their time, wisdom and energy. And whom without, the project simply would not exist.

KEYWORDS  Clothing, Collaboration, Complexity, Healthcare, Individual and Collective Creativity, Making, Making and Cloth(ing)-led Facilitation, Materiality, New Materialism, Participation, Wardrobe Probe, Workshop Facilitation