Draft:Christian Anthony Howard Dixon: Difference between revisions

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Christian Anthony Howard Dixon
Born	1 July 1996 (age 59) Dudley, United Kingdom
Education	University of Hertfordshire, Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
Occupation(s)	Dramatherapist, Clinical Supervisor and Actor
Years active	1987 - Present
Organization	The Arts of Change
Partner	Shane Foxall (2004 - present)
Awards	British Empire Medal (BEM) Award (2024), Best Counselling Service in Dudley, West Midlands - Community Business Awards (2024)
Website	www.theaoc.org.uk, www.myclinicalsupervisor.co.uk, www.worldsforall.com

Christian Anthony Howard Dixon

Christian Anthony Howard Dixon BEM, born 1 July 1966, is a British born, Caribbean-African creative educational trainer, dramatherapist, clinical supervisor and actor. Christian has developed a special interest in healing the human system through evidenced-based combinations of psychological processes and creative art forms whilst engaging clients, regardless of any interest or experience in the creative arts, to explore and heal deep-seated traumas, relationship difficulties and many other psychological disturbances. Christian works intuitively using both directive and person-centred methods to support children, young people, adults, couples and whole families reach their desired aspirations. Over the years, Christian has received multiple awards and public recognition for his accomplishments in mental health care and his acting career.

Christian is currently the Chief Executive and founder of multi-award winning, The Arts of Change Ltd and The Arts of Change Trust, a counselling and therapy service based in Dudley, West Midlands, England where he is also the designated safeguarding lead.

Fields:

• Dramatherapy
• Psychotherapy
• Trainer
• Actor

Early Life

Christian Anthony Howard Dixon was born in Sedgley, Dudley, West Midlands, England, UK, on 1st July 1966 to (Roy) Ferdinand Wilberforce Dixon and (Pearl) Pearline Dixon. Both his parents were born and raised in Jamaica; his father in Chesterfield, Jamaica and his mother in Kingston.

Christian grew up in Coseley, a suburb of Dudley. His father worked as a labourer while his mother worked for a time as an auxiliary nurse. Christian was born – Howard Anthony Dixon, but changed his name by deed poll in the early 1990s to Christian Dixon, retaining his middle names after learning that another actor had a similar name to him, as it was considered inappropriate in the acting profession for two professional actors to share the same stage name. Christian later learned such an actor did not exist but decided not to change his name, formally, again.

Education

Christian attended primary and secondary schools in Coseley. At the age of 18, Christian moved to London. He attended the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, a world-renowned conservatoire in London, where he studied from 1984 to 1987, pursuing a postgraduate diploma in professional acting. Whilst at Guildhall, Christian also met and performed for the legendary American composer and conductor – Leonard Bernstein. Christian was awarded the Sarah Churchill Memorial Acting prize in 1985.

Christian went on to pursue a postgraduate diploma in dramatherapy from the University of Hertfordshire from 1994 to 1996. He was based in London for eighteen years before returning to Dudley, West Midlands. Christian also holds a diploma in Mindfulness, which was one of the very first classes he ever taught publicly. Christian is also a fellow of The Royal Society of Arts.

Earliest Influences / Earliest Works

Music, drama and art have always been huge passions in Christian’s life, as well as many other forms of dramatic play including puppetry and mask work. At the ages of eight and nine years old, Christian made puppets in primary school. At the age of twelve, he created rod puppets and donated them to other local schools. He went on to be trained to work on large-scale marionettes and perform intricate public performances in secondary school. Later he joined a local theatre group based in Netherton, Dudley, for three years called Jigsaw Youth Theatre between the ages of thirteen to sixteen.

In school, he was thoroughly involved in the arts: participating in school plays, the school orchestra and learnt to play the clarinet. With Jigsaw Youth Theatre, he worked on his first public production, a musical called ‘Oh What a Lovely War’, and performed it at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland, at the age of thirteen.

Christian won a place in the National Youth Theatre (NYT) after auditioning at the age of fourteen and participated for the next three years until the age of eighteen. Every summer, he would participate in semi-professional productions to paying audiences in several iconic London theatres.

He attended Stourbridge Art College from sixteen to seventeen whilst waiting to audition for drama schools. Alongside dramatherapy, Christian has since incorporated a myriad of art forms into his professional work whilst utilising a range of other creative expressions with clients of all ages, including shadow puppetry, mime, ritual theatre, playback theatre, poetry, dance, movement, creative writing, journaling, sculpting, printmaking, ceramics, filmmaking and photography.

Career

Therapy

Christian Dixon is a creative educational trainer, dramatherapist and actor. In 2021, Christian became a certified clinical supervisor, completing his training at The Royal Central School of Music & Drama.

Christian specialises in neurodiversity, PTSD, eating disorders, anger management, individual, couple, dyad and family dynamics, negative attachments, racism, gender identities, sexualities, mental health concerns and working creatively with clients. Christian and his team at The AoC and The AoC Trust (The Arts of Change) also supports clients from all areas of the Black Country: Dudley, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Coventry, Birmingham and surrounding areas.

Between 2003 and 2009, Christian was appointed one of the lead trainers for accredited training programmes for The National Probation Service for Great Britain.

Christian has also worked as a freelance therapist for many professional organisations and charities nationally and internationally.

He worked as an Associate Therapist at Core Assets – National Fostering Service. He also worked as an adult community learning tutor (ACL) teaching introduction to dramatherapy; Shakespeare; Mindfulness and Relaxation and Introduction to Counselling for the Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council before going ahead to be the Director and Lead Therapist at The Arts of Change.

In his career, he has also worked with patients with alcohol, drug and substance related problems and has also been involved with teaching adult offenders a wide range of life skills.

Other works of note: Christian set up a successful anger management service which ran for three years at Middlesex Hospital, and ran numerous therapeutic workshops at Charing Cross Hospital, Hammersmith, London for both day and secure in-patients in the psychiatric units. As mentioned earlier, Christian is currently the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Arts of Change and Trust. Christian founded The Arts of Change in 2014 and became the CEO in 2016. In 2017, The Arts of Change won the Best Local Counselling and Therapy service from Bark. In 2018, Christian expanded The Arts of Change Trust counselling and therapy services to support organisations as far as Southwark in Southeast London, who were struggling to access similar services.

In 2017, Christian was invited to support families using sensorial play and drama in Romania and Belgium.

In 2020, Christian launched two successful initiatives called The Lily Pad Counselling Project with Dudley Voluntary Council to assist all high-intensity user patients accessing incompatible National Health Service departments, thus draining their resources and establishing better and clearer pathways to accessing more appropriate mental healthcare, and The Creative Orchid Project, to assist adults with mental health concerns to engage in weekly creative arts support groups.

In 2021, Christian successfully qualified at The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama as a Clinical Supervisor. As a clinical supervisor, he supports other professionally trained therapists and counsellors of all modalities across the UK and other countries, online or face to face to oversee their clinical practice with their patients, clients and families, ensuring that they are treated ethically and safely.

Christian has also received support from leaders in the UK for The Arts of Change Trust, including local MP Marco Longhi, Lord Ian Austin and the Councillor Peter Lee, Deputy Mayor of Dudley. In 2022, Christian was invited to teach at Florida State University for the Spring 2023 Semester at the Central London school campus and has taught many professionals in Canada and Malaysia as a creative educational trainer, dramatherapist and actor.

Acting Career

Christian is also a professional actor and has held a rich and immersive acting career on stage, in film and television series. Christian won a coveted place at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music & Drama in Central London at the age of 18 and studied with international voice coach Patsy Rodenburg OBE. Christian has worked with many A-list actors, including Meryl Streep, Ralph Fiennes, Eddie Redmayne, Johnny Depp, Colin Firth, Colin Farrell, Angela Lansbury, Emily Blunt, and Julie Walters.

Christian is a fellow of The Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and has performed many times in London’s leading and West End theatres and with top theatre directors including with the Olivier and Tony Award winning director – Marianne Elliott, the late Jonathan Miller and Steven Pimlott, renowned theatres such as The Old Vic, Lyric, Hammersmith, The National Theatre Studio, The Noël Coward Theatre, formerly known as the Albery Theatre and The Barbican Theatre, London. Christian has once played a major leading role for The Royal Shakespeare Company under the direction of the late ‘Notting Hill’ and ‘The Buddha of Suburbia’ film director, Roger Mitchell. This production was performed at The Almeida Theatre and called ‘Kissing the Pope’ by Nick Darke.

Christian was sometimes known as Anthony Dixon in his early acting career, before changing his first name by deed poll. Christian has also performed in other notable and acclaimed plays including: The Donmar, London; Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith; The Royal Court Theatre, London; The Royal Exchange, Manchester and Sheffield Crucible: ‘The Little Foxes’ (2001) ‘Mogadishu’ (2011) ‘In Basildon’ (2012) and ‘The Winter’s Tale’ (2013) respectively.

Other acclaimed productions in which Christian has appeared in over the years include: Macbeth (1988), The Plantagenets (1988-9), Kissing The Pope (1989), Burn My Heart (2010), Richard lll (1988), The Tempest (2000), Much Ado About Nothing (2001), A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Park (1991) although the last two listed productions never reached public performances. As an actor, Christian has worked in several major motion picture films, namely Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them (2016) for Warner Brothers and Mary Poppins Returns (2018) for Walt Disney and for Channel 4 Television: Cucumber (2015).

Christian has been linked to other numerous theatre and television companies, film directors, producers, and production companies whom many have also won prestigious awards, including Sam Mendes, Jonathan Miller; Adrian Noble; Russell T. Davies; Declan Donnellan, and Rob Marshall.

Religion

Christian was raised Catholic but has also been a member of the Church of England. Currently, he is not affiliated with any religious organisation.

Personal Life

Christian Dixon is in a civil partnership with Shane Foxall and they have been together since 2004. They have no children.

Awards

• 2024: British Empire Medal (BEM) Award for 20 years of service to mental health in Dudley and the black country from King Charles the III.
• 2024: Best Counselling Service in Dudley, West Midlands – Quality Business Awards
• 2021: Best Creative & Innovative Award by The National Association for Child Contact Centres (NACCC) for services to children and their families or carers throughout the Pandemic of 2020 – Awarded with ACC Dudley Child Contact Centre.
• 2019: Certificate of Excellence Award - Bark.
• 2017/18: Twice Runner-Up for Best Local Service - Talent Match Awards.
• 2017: The Sparkle Award for Innovation and Creativity from Professor Sue Jennings PhD and along with distinction.
• 1985: The Guildhall School of Music & Drama (GSMD) – The Sarah Churchill Memorial Award for Acting.

Links

Notable theatre, television and film directors and producers Christian has worked with: Rob Marshall, Marc Platt (producer), John DeLuca (producer), Russell T Davies, David Yates, Jonathan Miller, Steven Pimlott, Marianne Elliott, Roger Michell, Declan Donnellan, Katie Mitchell, Adrian Noble, Dominic Cooke, Ron Daniels (director) and Matthew Dunster.

Notable Productions featuring Christian

Fantastic Beasts, Mary Poppins Returns, Cucumber (British TV series), Brum (TV series) and Play for Today.