Creative mentorship for artists & creative facilitators

I offer one-to-one and group mentoring sessions for artists and creative facilitators, designed to support professional development, creative reflection, and long-term sustainability. Sessions can be commissioned directly by individual artists or arranged in partnership with organisations working with creative practitioners.

Each session is a co-created, non-directive space where we use the creative process as a tool to explore challenges, overcome blocks, or envision new directions. Mentoring can focus on the broader arc of a career or address a specific project, and can be offered as a one-off consultation or as a regular, ongoing check-in throughout a creative journey.

My mentoring practice frequently supports artists seeking to build more sustainable ways of working, integrate self-care into their practice, or reflect on the emotional demands of their work. I often work with artists who hold space for others, come from marginalised backgrounds, or work in high-pressure or high-responsibility contexts where burnout is a risk. These sessions offer a rare opportunity to pause, zoom out, and engage with the deeper layers of creative practice that can be overlooked in the urgency of day-to-day work.

Previous mentoring roles include AWAN x Iraq, a year-long professional development programme supporting Iraqi women artists in Baghdad, Basra, and Erbil, and The Artists’ Represent Recovery Network, supporting ethnically diverse artists of colour working in the field of creative health in London.

Let's work together

Testimonials

“I came away from our first session feeling a lot lighter and more hopeful, having gained some clarity and more awareness of some of the areas I need to focus on.”

Multi-disciplinary artist
I found Alaa to have a gentle, open and genuinely engaged approach, allowing me to get out of my comfort zone. Using tools and materials I usually avoid, her encouragement and guidance led to conclusions on the direction my creative practice should take and how centring self-care is crucial to keep it sustainable, enjoyable and financially rewarding.

Multi-disciplinary film maker (music/movement/words)
“You held the space so beautifully, and I really felt seen and met on a soulful level. Your intuition and perception are valuable gifts in this work”

Multi-disciplinary artist
“I really appreciated the way you utilised the creative process to help determine where the greatest need might be. Your insights and discernment were very on point, and although I wouldn't have known to ask for help with that particular area of focus, it was exactly the place where I had a great need.”

Multi-disciplinary artist

Let's work together

Collection of various dried leaves, flowers, and plant stems on a painted white surface.

Artist Mentoring Session | Colorful sticky notes on a wall with words like self advocacy, clear boundaries, self care and compassion, pausing, being my full self, asking for help or support, trying out new things, and celebrate achievements.

Artist Mentoring Session | A person creating colorful signs with markers on red and green paper, with markers organized in small green containers on a white table.

Artists Menoring Session | Man drawing and writing on a paper wall with colorful sticky notes around it, including sketches and handwritten notes.

Artist Mentoring Session | Colorful handmade card with red and holographic hearts, orange, blue, and white painted background, and curled paper embellishments.

Organized art supplies on brown paper, including colored pencils, markers, chalk pastels, crayons, pens, and sketches or notes on paper.

FAQ

Yes! I offer both online and in-person sessions. If sessions are hosted online, mentees will have to provide their own art materials, unless an alternative arrangement has been agreed on in advance.
In-person sessions can take place either in my studio space in East Ham. We can also arrange an alternative
location, which may be more suitable. This would have to be discussed in advance.
My fees for artist mentoring sessions start at £125/h. Prices can be negotiated based on frequency and scope of work.
While there may be overlaps at times, generally speaking mentoring sessions are fewer in frequency and are focused on exploring your methodologies, developing a sustainable practice, a specific project or your career as a whole.
We may know of each other from projects/spaces outside the mentoring session. Having a dual relationship does not cause an issue for mentoring.

Therapy/art therapy are confidential sessions, typically weekly, and focus on emotional wellbeing. We may delve deeper into your past, your thoughts, feelings and behavioural patterns. This work typically spans much wider than work-related issues. In order to offer ethical therapy, therapist and client typically do not have any relationship outside the therapy space.