Bio

I have been working as a therapist in private practice and in the statutory services for more than 18 years.

I am originally from Belgium where I initially studied international politics and the plastic arts, before training as an arts therapist in the UK.

I am registered as an arts therapist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and practice in accordance with their standards of ethics and professional practice. I am also a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), as well as certified in Trauma Treatments with the British Psychological Society, and in Somatic Approaches to Healing Trauma. In addition, I have undergone additional specialist training courses in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Body Psychotherapy, Interpersonal Psychotherapy, and advanced training in Working with Couples. I am also a certified Group Work Practitioner with the Institute of Group Analysis in London.

Between 2007 and 2021, I worked as a specialist arts therapist in a community adult mental health service in the NHS, providing individual and group treatment for clients with a wide range of emotional difficulties. I have developed an expertise in the treatment of low mood and depression, anxiety disorders, developmental and complex trauma, PTSD, attachment disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), psychosis, loss and bereavement, and relationship difficulties.

I hold a PhD degree in therapeutic autobiographical performance and meaning making from Anglia Ruskin University where I am also currently an associate lecturer. My current areas of research focus on therapeutic theatre, autobiographical performance, trauma, shared meaning, aesthetics, embodiment, intersubjectivity, otherness and spectatorship.

I am a professional member of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IEATA) and of the Somatic Experiencing Association UK (SEAUK). I have been actively involved in the development of the arts therapy profession in the UK as co-editor of the academic journal Dramatherapy. I have also been peer reviewer for other academic journals such as RiDE (Research in Drama Education).

Over the years, I have delivered a large number of expressive arts and creative interventions for vulnerable and marginalised individuals with the aim of helping them to improve health and well-being. This has included working alongside adults with learning disabilities, adults on the autistic spectrum, adults with addiction problems, families and young children, and refugees and asylum seekers. I delivered a number of expressive arts therapy programmes including:

• a therapeutic performance project for prison inmates at HMP Bedford based on the theme of the ‘key’ and on the internal power for change
• a group dramatherapy programme in a psychological and rehab therapy service for people with drug and alcohol problems in Luton, between 2013 and 2017
• an expressive arts therapy programme with Afghani unaccompanied minors entitled ‘Developing personal narratives, identity and belonging’ with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (the project evaluation report can be accessed here).
• a movement based treatment programme at Brookdale Care for adults on the autistic spectrum

I am the founder and director of the Theatre of Lived Experience, a visual, performance and literary arts practice aimed at opening public and creative spaces of dialogue.

I am also a trained musician and a qualified teacher.