Inside the bespoke workshops where science meets art for better mental health

Posted on 19 August, 2025

There’s long been a scientific connection between creative expression and healing, but a new series of workshops is creating a national era of wellbeing.

Founded by the 2025 ACT Woman of the Year Lauren Cannell, Artfullness is helping people find real connections by reimagining how Australians connect, grow, and heal through creativity.

Spending the past decade using art to educate and empower others, Lauren is the founder and chief executive officer of Educación Diversa – an organisation that designs art-based educational programs to teach children about human rights, sexual and reproductive health, and the elimination of violence.

Beginning the program in Colombia and working with traumatised children to teach them complex topics, Lauren was named ACT’s Woman of the Year for 2025 after she moved back to Canberra and introduced the program at her daughter’s school.

The program, Drawing for your Rights, uses art workshops to educate children about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child – including how to make good decisions about their bodies and their lives.

A resounding success in the local community, Lauren’s journey began by wanting to make a safer community for children in Canberra – but now she’s gone national. Launching Artfullness with the hope that it will redefine care in Australia, she says that it’s all about making healing accessible, meaningful, and fun.

“I founded Artfullness because of a gap in the mental health system. There are too many people on waitlists for clinical mental health services and there’s not enough play embedded into schools,” explains Lauren.

“For a lot of kids, it starts with isolation, loneliness, bullying, and then before you know it, they’re on a wait list for a psychologist. I started thinking that there’s got to be a middle step there where it’s non-clinical and we can facilitate play and connection. For most kids – if we do that really well – they won’t end up needing clinical care.”

Working in Sexual Health and Family Planning for years, along with teaching sex education in schools, Lauren says addressing this systematic flaw is something she’s been passionate about for a long time.

Creating Artfullness out of a need for non-clinical play-based art workshops that enable people to use the creative part of their brain, she believes that creative expression is a powerful path to healing and connection. And while her passion still lies in helping children, the workshops are designed for everyone.

“It’s not therapy. We’re not clinicians, we’re not art therapists,” she says.

“It’s purely guided play that connects people with an on-topic theme. Artfullness is a bespoke workshop, so depending on the group that we’re working with, we design a program that fits their needs.”

“For example, the Mental Health Coalition came to me and asked for some workshops to teach people about the brain and how creativity can help your brain. We’ve designed a series of workshops where the people will be making ceramic brains, learning about the different parts, writing their thoughts on it and then using that ceramic brain as an ongoing tool to reflect on those thoughts.”

These innovative approaches are already gaining recognition. In talks with Headspace and other trauma clinics to see how Artfullness can relieve some pressure on their extensive waitlists, Lauren is hoping to shake up mental health care in Australia – but that doesn’t mean she wants the program to be needed.

“I wish I [Artfullness and Educación Diversa] didn’t have to exist. It sounds crazy, but I’ve started these up because no one else is doing it, and it needs to happen.”

When she looks to the future of the initiative, Lauren says that her biggest hope is that Artfullness will be a distant memory because play and creativity without electronic devices will once again become a part of daily life.

But in a world where people are feeling increasingly disconnected, it looks like Lauren is just getting started.

“We wouldn’t need something like this, because our kids would be connected. They’d be playing together…kids just don’t do that anymore. They’re on devices way too much,” she says.

“Mental health services are completely overrun. In an ideal world, I wouldn’t need to exist. But here we are.”

Also holding workshops that are open to the public as well as monthly women’s art circles, the 2025 ACT Woman of the Year says that the award has given her a platform to be heard in a society filled with noise. Using her title to boost conversations around mental health by creating new space for self-discovery, social connection, and shared healing, the launch of Artfullness is a timely reminder that nothing can replace real human connection.

“In a world full of digital tools but little real connection, we’re forgetting what truly brings us together. Art is more than expression, it’s a social glue that cuts across cultures, builds trust, and helps us heal.”

“We really are trying to build bespoke programs for particular needs… We’re here to heal, connect people through creativity. That’s our tagline.”

For more information follow @artfullness or email lauren@artfullness.space.