Fostering connection and safety through arts therapies in secure services: Therapists reflections.

This article examines the integration of arts therapies—including art psychotherapy, music therapy, and dramatherapy—within secure forensic mental health services to support individuals with severe and enduring mental health difficulties who pose risks to themselves or others. It highlights how these less-verbally focused, trauma-informed interventions foster connection, safety, emotional regulation, and progression across inpatient, rehabilitation, and community pathways, particularly for service users who struggle with traditional verbal therapies. Case examples illustrate how arts therapies enable expression and processing of trauma through sensory, visual, and embodied modalities, aiding recovery and risk reduction. The article emphasizes the importance of embedding arts therapies alongside multidisciplinary care to enhance psychological support in secure settings and calls for further empirical research to strengthen the evidence base for these approaches.