Drawing on contributions from Canada, England and Utrecht this book illustrates the transforming effect of creatively applied thinking to social problems - both for those living with social issues and professionals working with them.

Introduction Prue Chamberlayne and Martin Smith

Part 1 - Use of the self in creative expression

1. Where is the love? Art, aesthetics and research Yasmin Gunaratnam

2. Georgie's girl: last conversation with my father Karen Lee

3. Innovative rehabilitation after head injury: examining the use of a creative intervention Claire Smith

4. An interplay of learning, creativity and narrative biography in a mental health setting. Bertie's story Olivia Sagan

Part 2 - Theoretical underpinnings

5. Smoke without fire? Social workers' fears of threats and accusations Martin Smith

6. Creating communication. Self-examination as a therapeutic method for children Carolus van Nijnatten and Frida van Doorn

7. Arts based learning in restorative youth justice: embodied, moral and aesthetic Lynn Froggett

Part 3 - The wider community

8. 'Ways of knowing and showing': imagination and representation in feminist participatory social research Victoria Foster

9. Representations of violence: learning with Tate Modern Hannele Weir

10. 'I thought I wasn't creative but...' Explorations of cultural capital with Liverpool young people Paula Pope

11. Case Experience: 'Dancing Shoes', A Buddhist Perspective Donovan Chamberlayne

Prue Chamberlayne is Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the School of Health and Social Welfare at the Open University. She has used biographical methods in a range of research and policy settings, and enjoys creative activities such as poetry and drawing.

Martin Smith is the Practitioner-Manager of the Buckinghamshire Social Services Out of Hours Emergency Team. He is particularly interested in researching and writing about social workers' experiences of stress and fear.