Co-create Comics as Self-Care Approach

Are you:

- Navigating experiences of anxiety or emotional overwhelm?

- Interested in exploring visual and creative methods for reflection?

- Looking to support your emotional well-being in a gentle, expressive way?

This hands-on workshop invites participants to explore personal experiences of mental health through creating simple, metaphor-based comics. The aim is to use visual storytelling as a gentle and imaginative way to externalise feelings, reflect on emotional experiences, and gain new perspectives on self-understanding.

The workshop is part of a collaborative research initiative that combines comics, art therapy, and visual metaphor approaches to mental health. The wider project has involved creating single-panel comics co-created by the researcher and people with lived experience of anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and autism, using visual storytelling to express and reframe personal experiences.

The approach has been developed by researcher and comic artist Jiahao (Jill) Ji, drawing on visual metaphor, narrative therapy, and art therapy methods. The emphasis is on expression rather than artistic skill – no drawing experience is required, and all materials will be provided.

During this session, participants will be guided by Jiahao (Jill) Ji and Catherine Li, who will support you step-by-step in creating a short, personal comic that represents an emotional moment or inner landscape. The environment is supportive, reflective, and open to all. All are welcome.

Image credit: Jiahao Ji

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About the workshop facilitators

Jiahao Ji is a third-year PhD student at Kingston University London, whose research is based on Narrative and Metaphor Therapy through the development of a co-creative visual intervention method. She has led over 20 workshops including collaboration with charities like Mind and Fusebox, as well as therapists across the UK, China, and Australia, and several practitioners are already applying her method in therapy. She is co-developing an assessment framework with an Australian therapist and preparing new workshops with a UK art therapist and the charity Hestia. Her work has been presented at four academic conferences, receiving recognition for its innovation and therapeutic potential. Here is a link to view a publication that documents some of the example of her work.

Catherine Li is a London-based curator, whose practice centres on site-specific exhibition, public programme, participatory art, and digital archiving. She approaches curating as a means of cultural creation and critical exchange, with exhibitions as platforms for research and innovation, where spaces are made not only to showcase art but also to cultivate and shape communities.

Website: www.catherineli.co.uk

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About this series of events

Flowing through: a workshop festival

Monday 01 & Tuesday 02 December 2025

‘Flowing through: a festival of workshops’ is a UAL-wide Academic Support project, co-ordinated by Adam Ramejkis and Natasha Sabatini and produced in partnership with Two Temple Place. All of the workshops respond to themes related to vulnerability, resilience, identity and emotional well-being - themes that form part of ‘The weight of being’, the next exhibition taking place at Two Temple Place from January 2026 (see twotempleplace.org for details).

Free and open to all. Booking essential.