Delegates of the 2025 European Federation of Art Therapy conference in London weave thoughts on a wooden loom, considering ‘the tension between Art Psychotherapy and Arts-on-Referral’.  Photograph © Diana Zuican.

Research, Public Speaking & Publications

I have an interest in the interplay between art-making, social justice, and public health.  As an artist-researcher, I enjoy supporting projects that focus on improving people’s lives and empowering communities through creativity and access to the arts.

Recent Publications

In 2024, I was commissioned by the British Association for Art Therapists to design, write and produce a Creative Health resource for Young People.  This outcome was the ‘Cultivating Creativity Calendar’, released in July 2025.

Recent Public Speaking

In July 2025, I was supported by the Gane Trust to present at the European Federation of Art Therapy‘s biennial conference in London on my practice as an Art Psychotherapist working within the field of Social Prescribing.  This gave me an opportunity to share and learn with others as our profession looks to continue supporting fairer, more equitable health and social care systems across the globe.

In October 2024, I facilitated an arts-based application of the INNATE framework, formulated by researchers at University College London’s ‘Social Biobehavioural Research Group’, inviting people to contribute to a collaborative group art work at the inspiring ‘Creative Health in Action’ conference at the Bristol Beacon.  This was an opportunity to take research data about creative health and put it back into practice, inviting people to use clay to consider what they feel are the ‘active ingredients’ needed to have positive experiences of ‘arts in health activities’.  You can read more about it here.

Recent Research Projects

In Spring 2025, I visited the Leach Pottery in St. Ives to share learning and practice around using clay in Social Prescribing ‘Arts-on-Referral’ initiatives.  I was fortunate to be awarded a grant by the West of England Combined Authority to fund this trip, which has since enriched my work in Bristol and North Somerset.  In anticipation of this exchange, I read Bernard Leach’s autobiography, ‘Beyond East & West’ to discover more about his social and spiritual motivations, which drew him to clay and to Cornwall and Japan.

Consultancy & Advisory Positions

I am currently consulting on the design, development and delivery of the first regional Arts-on-Referral service for Children and Young People working alongside creativeShift and Southmead Development Trust, and am an advisor for both the University of Bristol’s Create for Confidence project and the North & West Bristol Locality Partnership’s Children and Young People’s Mental Health Advisory Group.

I have been an advisor to the International Journal of Art Therapy (IJAT) and a contributor to the British Association Of Art Therapists‘s (BAAT) InSight publication, both of which publish peer-reviewed studies and articles on contemporary art therapy practice.  I also formed and co-facilitated BAAT’s first Special Interest Group for Art Psychotherapy trainees and students.

Links