Latimer Community Art Therapy

Latimer Community Art Therapy (LCAT) is a grassroots charity that promotes the mental and physical well-being and development of people living, working or studying in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and neighbouring London boroughs, including by:

• Providing effective psychodynamic art psychotherapy, and enabling others to do the same
• Enabling local people to have agency over their lives and the places in which they live, work and study
• Providing services, spaces and facilities for the development of local people both individually and collectively

Latimer Community Art Therapy was born in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017, beginning as a collective community response out of love and care for each other and particularly for our children. Tackling the immediate trauma we were witnessing in our community, and the neglect that led to it, providing safe spaces for expression and containment of this through our art therapy groups. This quickly grew to offering art therapy in our schools for children, families, whole classes and staff and children’s and youth clubs at our community centre on the estate.

LCAT continue to evolve with the community it is part of and as such tackles the problems deprived communities face from the grassroots, In our 8 years of operating we have grown and evolved, from a CIC to a charity and we continue to evolve. As well as tackling the lack of access to consistent mental health support and the importance of early intervention for mental health, we also provide safe places for children to play, socialise and give them trusted consistent adult relationships.

LCAT was awarded best work in supporting mental health and wellbeing from Young K&C in May 2024