Writing & Reflections – Research and Professional

Writing & Reflections

Research & Professional Work

Exploring practice, research and the development of embodied psychotherapy

Alongside my clinical work, I am involved in teaching, supervision, research and professional development. These different strands of my work continually inform one another and contribute to my understanding of embodied psychotherapy and movement-based approaches.

This section brings together some of that work, including research projects, publications, teaching and training, professional collaborations, and reflections on developing practice.

My particular interest is in the relationship between movement, the body, psychological experience and therapeutic practice. I am especially interested in the ways different approaches can overlap and inform one another, and in what becomes possible when we look beyond the boundaries of individual therapeutic modalities.

Some of the work here is academic or professionally focused, while other pieces are more exploratory. Where research is discussed, I aim to make the ideas accessible without losing sight of the complexity or uncertainty involved.

Exploring the connections

My professional work spans Dance Movement Psychotherapy, embodied and somatic approaches, movement practices, supervision, teaching and research. I value the opportunity to bring these perspectives into conversation rather than treating them as separate areas of expertise.

This is an evolving collection, reflecting work that is already underway as well as ideas I am continuing to explore.

  • Teaching, Research and Practice: Learning Across Different Roles

    I have always found it difficult to separate teaching, research and practice into completely distinct parts of my professional life. Each brings a different perspective, but they continually inform one another. My clinical practice gives me questions to think about. Research gives me new ways of understanding those questions. Teaching gives me the opportunity to…

  • From Research to Practice: What Research Has Taught Me About Therapy

    I have always been interested in the relationship between research and practice. As a practitioner, I value research. It gives us opportunities to ask questions, test ideas and develop our understanding of what might help people. But sitting alongside research has also taught me that what happens in therapy is rarely as straightforward as a…

  • Arts for the Blues: Creative Psychotherapy for Depression and Anxiety

    What happens when creative arts become part of psychological therapy? This is one of the questions at the heart of Arts for the Blues, a creative arts-based group intervention developed through research at Edge Hill and Salford Universities. The programme was originally developed to offer an alternative approach for people experiencing depression, low mood and…

  • Dance Movement Psychotherapy in Primary Schools

    Children don’t always have the words to tell us how they are feeling. Sometimes distress shows up in behaviour, relationships, difficulty sleeping, withdrawal, restlessness or simply a sense that something isn’t quite right. Sometimes a child knows that they are struggling but doesn’t know how to explain it. This is one of the reasons I…

  • Dancing With Health: Dance Movement Psychotherapy After Breast Cancer

    One of the research projects that has stayed with me was Dancing With Health, a European research project exploring the use of Dance Movement Psychotherapy (DMP) with women who had experienced breast cancer. I was one of a team of three Dance Movement Psychotherapists who facilitated the Liverpool arm of the project. My role involved…

  • Projects and Publications

    I’m very proud to be an Associate Tutor with some fine universities in the North West. I’ve facilitated movement psychotherapy sessions for a variety of research projects and contributed to writing papers and articles on the results. Edge Hill University, Ormskirk Dancing With Health was a Europe wide Dance Movement Psychotherapy research project with survivors…

  • Dance, Tai Chi and Embodied Psychotherapy: What Connects Them?

    Dance, Tai Chi and psychotherapy might seem like very different practices. One belongs to the world of artistic expression. Another comes from a Chinese martial art tradition. The third is a form of psychological therapy. Yet, in my experience, they have something important in common: they all invite us to pay attention to the lived…