Participants often assumed the role of an onlooker in busy social situations. Participant 2 comments,
‘I do like sitting on the edge. But it has to be an edge where I feel safe. The winter gardens feel safe…’.Participant 4 also notes, ‘One of my favourite pastimes is people watching, …sit on the steps up by
the museum and watch people go by. That’s quite a nice way to spend half an hour…’ . It seemed that
observing social interaction from a distance gives an opportunity for those recovering from mental
health to learn about habits and acclimatise to social networks and structures, and this was evident in
the workshop (Figure 3) where participants identified locations of social significance to others, rather
than places that were meaningful to themselves.