I'm a writer, teacher and researcher, and I’ve been writing with people in education, health care and professional development for the past twenty-five years.
I’m the creator of Restorative Writing, an approach designed to restore us to ourselves, one another and our planet through embodied creativity.
My bestselling novels The Dress and Miss Mary’s Book of Dreams have been translated into eight languages. My poetry has received a number of awards including the Arvon-Jerwood Young Poets Award and the Elmet Prize for Poetry. My collection Refugee was informed by my work with the pioneering Write for Life group at Freedom from Torture.
I’m an Associate Professor at Teesside University in the North East of England. My academic page at Teesside is here.
Over the past twenty years, I've designed and led courses, workshops and writing communities, online and in person, for universities, businesses, voluntary organisations and in the community.
Drawing on my background in psychodynamic and mind-body therapies, I research the connections between creative writing and wellbeing and the ways in which writing and other creative practices can help us to think, learn, understand ourselves and other people, collaborate, innovate and grow. You can find out more about my current research here and Creative Writing Lab, our team of inspiring doctoral researchers here.
Mind-body approach
I draw on a wide range of approaches and a common thread runs through all of them. I am fascinated by the connections – and disassociations – between our minds and bodies.
My ballet training between the ages of 3 and 16 gave me a particular experience of the many ways in which our culture requires us to shape, subjugate or split off from our bodies. My journey back to my body through writing is an ongoing one.
In developing my approach, I draw on many different modalities and disciplines. I studied English Language at the University of Edinburgh (MA Hons) and then worked for Reuters for a number of years, where I developed some of the first professional online learning programmes in the world.
In 2001, I received full Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funding for my doctoral research and became a doctoral student of Dr Celia Hunt, a pioneer of writing and wellbeing, at the University of Sussex. My PhD thesis, Writing the body: Ways to facilitate a felt, bodily sense of self, developed a model for writing in education and health care settings.
I am a clinical hypnotherapist, and worked for seven years in private practice, including training students in a number of medical schools and psychiatric institutions in mind-body therapeutic approaches. I have also trained in mindfulness, somatics, yoga nidra and Emotional Freedom Technique, as well as psychodynamic approaches.