Healthcare & Cleft Professionals
Creative, lived-experience and trauma-informed perspectives on the human side of cleft care
Cleft care is medical.
It involves diagnosis, scans, feeding support, surgery, speech and language therapy, audiology, dental care, orthodontics, psychology and long-term clinical follow-up.
That medical care matters deeply, and alongside it, there is another layer that families and children carry too:
The human layer.
The shock of diagnosis.
The language people remember.
The way a child feels when they are looked at.
The experience of repeated appointments.
The emotional weight parents may carry quietly.
The identity questions that can sit underneath the clinical pathway.
The difference between being treated as a case, and being met as a whole person.
My work with hospitals, cleft teams and medical professionals is not clinical training, medical advice or therapy.
It is creative, educational and reflective work shaped by lived experience, trauma-informed practice and the belief that children and families deserve to be seen in their wholeness.
I bring the perspective of a mother of a child born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate, an artist, an educator and a trauma-informed practitioner.
This work is designed to sit alongside clinical care, not replace it.
It invites teams to think about the human experience of cleft through creativity, language, representation, dignity and belonging. Because a child born with a cleft is not only on a medical pathway. They are on a human one too.
Creative Hospital Projects
When we held the 100 Cleft Portraits Exhibition in London, it mattered to me that creativity was part of the day.
Not just looking at art.
Making art.
Playing with colour.
Exploring faces.
Celebrating difference.
Creating alongside other families.
Allowing children and parents to see themselves as part of something bigger.
The creative process offers another way to express what can be difficult to put into words. It can open conversation, support connection and create moments of belonging for families navigating the cleft journey.
After the London exhibition, I knew the artwork made by the community that day should not disappear into a cupboard. It needed to keep giving back.
Together with Charlie from The Wonder Den, the community artwork was transformed into beautiful wall friezes for the cleft unit at Morriston Hospital in Wales. The artwork now lives across areas including the multidisciplinary team room, psychology space and wider cleft unit.
What makes this especially meaningful is that children and families from the Morriston cleft community also created artwork as part of the project.
This means children can now come into clinic and find their own faces, colours, marks and creativity on the walls.
To me, that matters.
Because hospital spaces do not only have to hold treatment. They can also hold humanity.
They can remind children and families:
You belong here.
Your story matters.
Your face is not something to hide.
You are part of a wider community.
Creative hospital projects can be developed with cleft units, children’s hospitals, family support spaces, psychology rooms, waiting areas, teaching spaces and multidisciplinary team rooms.
Projects may include:
community art workshops
collaborative wall friezes
portrait-based projects
creative family days
artwork created with children, parents and teams
visual storytelling around cleft, identity and belonging
bespoke installations shaped around the needs of the hospital or cleft unit
Every project is shaped carefully with the team involved, including practical considerations such as safeguarding, consent, image use, accessibility, suitability of activities, insurance and the needs of the clinical environment.
This is not about adding more pressure to already stretched teams. It is about exploring what becomes possible when creativity, lived experience and clinical spaces meet.
Parenting a child born with a cleft is not just medical.
Beyond Repair
Beyond Repair is a reflective educational resource for medical students, clinicians and cleft teams who want to understand more about the human experience surrounding cleft care.
It is not a technical teaching resource on cleft surgery.
It does not provide medical advice, clinical protocols, psychological treatment or therapeutic instruction.
It is a creative, lived-experience and trauma-informed perspective designed to support reflection around how care may be experienced by children and families.
The resource explores themes such as:
the emotional impact of diagnosis
the language families may remember
the experience of feeding, surgery and repeated appointments
how children may experience being looked at, examined or discussed
why dignity, consent and choice matter
how visible difference can shape identity and belonging
why family experience sits alongside clinical care
how representation and creativity can open important conversations
The aim is not to tell clinicians how to do their clinical role. It is to offer another lens.
A human lens. A lens that asks:
How might this land for the child?
How might this feel for the parent?
What might this family be carrying that we cannot see?
How can language, pace and presence support dignity?
How can we remember the whole person, not only the clinical pathway?
Beyond Repair has been created from my perspective as a mother, artist, educator and trauma-informed practitioner. It is intended for reflective learning, conversation and professional development, and should always be used alongside existing clinical guidance, safeguarding procedures and professional judgement.
Because the child is never just a cleft case. They are a whole person.
Important note
Katie Manning’s hospital projects, teaching resources and creative workshops are offered from a creative, lived-experience, educational and trauma-informed perspective.
They are not medical advice, clinical training, psychological therapy, diagnosis, treatment or a substitute for care from qualified medical, psychological or safeguarding professionals.
All hospital projects are developed in conversation with the relevant team and must sit within the organisation’s own clinical governance, safeguarding, consent, infection-control, risk-assessment and professional guidance.
Beyond Repair is a reflective educational PDF/resource for medical students, clinicians and cleft teams.
It explores the human, emotional and lived-experience side of cleft care through a creative and trauma-informed lens.
It does not provide medical advice, clinical protocols, psychological treatment or therapeutic instruction. It is designed to support reflection, discussion and greater awareness of the child and family experience alongside existing professional training and clinical guidance.
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