A Day In The Life of Beyond Therapy 2025

This amazing Live Scribing artwork by @rtiiika brilliantly captured the vibes of the day. Click for a closer look!

What is Beyond Therapy?

Starting in 2022, the Beyond Therapy Festival of Activism is The Green House’s annual cross-sector event in partnership with Upfront Survivors. The festival challenges attitudes towards child sexual abuse through art, activism, and research, with a range of panels and workshops.

The theme for our 2025 festival was Mental Health, and how we can build support for mental health after experiences of sexual abuse.

Who helped make it?

Our Festival Shaper’s Group, a group of young people ages 17-20, decided on the theme and reviewed all the panel and workshop applications before selecting the final lineup. Then, it was down to an amazing group of practitioners, researchers, and creatives – survivors and allies – to deliver some incredible sessions.  A team of lovely volunteers were also on hand, helping to register attendees, give out wristbands and Wellbeing bags, steward the panels and workshops, answer questions, and generally make sure the day ran as smoothly as possible.

A Day In The Life of Beyond Therapy 2025 – 18th March 2025

7:30am Bleary-eyed and clutching their travel coffee cups for strength, the Festival team descend on the harbourside Watershed cinema. Most of the set-up was completed last night but even now there are still pictures to hang, fairy lights and bunting to drape, volunteers to brief… What should they expect from the day? Everything and anything!

9:00am Attendees begin to filter in. They’re met at the Registration desk by some of our lovely volunteers, ready to check them in and give out wristbands. The wristbands are important – Gold means “no photos, please”, while Green means “I’m happy to be in some photos.”  Once the admin is out of the way, they get to pick up a Wellbeing bag, stocked with stickers, affirmation cards, stationery, and tissues.

10:00am It’s time for the Welcome Talk in Cinema 1. Our hosts Gemma Halliwell and Candice Harris open the festival. We hear a couple of amazing musical performances from Anouska Assisi and AZ, and hear some powerful poetry. It’s a moving session, and the tissues in the Wellbeing bag definitely come in handy!

11:15am The first panels and workshops of the day begin, and it’s decision time: Attendees could head to Waterside 2 for the Beyond labels: Creating narratives with survivors of trauma workshop to explore the Power Threat Meaning Framework. Across the corridor, the Righteous Rage drumming workshop channels pain into empowerment with Drum, Ceremony, and Song. Back in Cinema 1, we hear from a panel of young people using their voices and their power to advocate for better systems and services

And out in the Watershed’s café area, there’s a TARDIS set up at a table – a bleeping, blinking interactive console that encourages users to explore a creative response to surviving child sexual abuse and exploitation with clay, art, music, and words.

So much to do, so little time!

12:30 It’s lunch time. Time for a breather – just a quick one though, because there’s still so much to do and see! Grab a snack, a quick cuppa, and – oh alright, take 5 minutes to shower the therapy dogs that have just arrived with all the scritches and scratches they like. (The fluffy white one is called Percy, and he’s so soft he must be part cloud. As you can see, he’s a huge hit with everyone.)

Throughout the day attendees are also able to take a break in the dedicated Wellbeing Space. Some of the panels and workshops can cover some pretty heavy content, so the Wellbeing Space is an important little haven, filled with calming self-care activities.

13:15 The panels and workshops start up again. The Empowering parents to support their wellbeing and mental health workshop begins in Waterside 2. Its aim is to support the parents and carers of children who have been sexually abused, and explore how the abuse can affect their own mental health, as well as the young person in their care. Over in Waterside 3, the Trauma’s gone mainstream: Potential and challenges panel gets to grips with the risks and limitations of trauma-informed practice, as well as increasing understanding with some critical perspectives.

In Cinema 1, the Holistic as healing: Towards a more child-centred response to child sexual abuse panel brings together young people, researchers, and practitioners to consider the wider contexts and developmental stages of young people’s lives when when providing support, as well as opportunities for improvement.

14:30 Connecting in colour: A creative workshop exploring mental health and resilience brings together art and creative writing in the empowering role of creative social activism. Over in Waterside 3, the Poor mental health increases the risk of exploitation panel questions whether mental health and risk of exploitation are connected, and if current support systems  unintentionally echo the experience of exploitation with shame, guilt, loneliness, and victim responsibility.

15:45 The festival is winding down now, with the last few sessions of the day. Self-harm, risk and relationships: Building a sense of trust in self and others explores why relational approaches to trauma and self-harming behaviours are vital for preventative and community-based healthcare, and the need to include young people in conversations about risk. The Creating a HOPEBOX workshop invites participants to build a box filled with comforting items to help when feeling anxious, or dealing with suicidal thoughts.

17:00 Workshops and panels over, it’s time for a powerful and uplifting performance from The Good Stuff, a 14-piece gospel choir specialising in RnB and neo soul. It’s been a long and emotional day, but somehow it’s all passed by in a flash! A little feel-good music is a welcome way to draw this magnificent day to a close.