CV

Education:

  • 01/14-01/15: PG Cert Learning and Teaching (Higher Education), Anglia Ruskin University.
  • 09/13-09/14: MA Fine Art, Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University (Distinction).
  • 10/08-07/11 (graduated 2012): PhD, Contemporary French Philosophy, Art and Aesthetics, Jesus College, University of Cambridge (Pass, no corrections).
  • 10/07-07/08: MPhil ‘European Literature and Culture’ Jesus College, University of Cambridge (High Distinction).
  • 09/06-07/07: BA ‘Media, Culture and Communications’, Greenwich University (completed in 1 year, highest mark in cohort, 1stClass Honours).

Research, impact & practice:

  • 2024: Prinicipal Investigator, ‘A Creative Transformation’, funded by Arts Council England (National Lottery Project Grant).
  • 2024: ‘Hallucinosis’, feature-length documentary film about me (directed by Lars-Olaf Johannson, produced by Alison Ramsey).
  • 2023: Member, ‘Renewing Phenomenological Psychopathology’ International Advisory Board.
  • 2022: Co-founder, co-director, ‘Creative Nepal: Arts-Health Community’, creative health network in South Asia.
  • 2021-22: Project Manager, Qualitative Researcher, ‘CICADA-ME: Coronavirus Intersectionalities: Chronic Conditions and Disabilities and Migrants/Ethnic minoritisation, Social Research Unit, Institute of Education’, University College London. Funded by NIHR.
  • 2021: Principal Investigator, Grand Challenges, ‘Creative Lives: Tackling Inequalities’, University College London.
  • 2021: Research Fellow, ‘Online Art Groups for Women who have Experienced Domestic Abuse: A Focus Group Study involving Service Users and Art Professionals’, Department of Behavioural Science and Health, Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, University College London.

Creative Health consultant, evaluator, practitioner:

  • 2023: Evaluator, National Lottery Heritage Fund project at Hoxton Hall theatre, Hackney, London.
  • 2023: Evaluator, The effects of ‘Dreamachine’ art programme on participants’ wellbeing, Hackney, London.
  • 2023: Facilitator, creative stimulator, EC3R event ‘Developing as interdisciplinary researchers in arts, humanities and health’, University College London–University of Toronto Emerging Global Talents fund, York St. John University.
  • 2022: Co-founder, co-director, ‘Creative Nepal: Arts-Health Community’, arts-health network across South Asia.
  • 2021-22: Co-lead, Creative Health Community, UCL Health of the Public.
  • 2021: Panellist, Creative Consultant, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing (art and the Mental Health Act). 
  • 2021: Evaluator, ‘Arts & Heritage’, University College London Hospitals NHS Trust.
  • 2019-21: Disciplinary Expert, Member of Selection Group and Steering Group of MARCH Network. 
  • 2019-21: Area Representative, evaluator, Arts Health Early Career Research Network.
  • 02/20: TEDxCoventry: ‘How Creativity Revived Me’. https://youtu.be/smKOkjUfzHw
  • 2020-2021: Lead, ‘#BeCreative’ Art Workshops for adults, children, mental health service users, Covid-19 Lockdown.
  • 2018: Arts and Health Project Worker, Central and North-West London NHS Trust. 
  • 2017-18: ‘Making Sense: The Art Van’, art workshops for displaced ‘Adivasi’ tribes, Chhattisgarh, India.  
  • 2009-10: Art and ‘Hope of Children’, Battambang Province of Cambodia. 

Clinical work, consultant expert by experience:

Grants/Awards:

  • 2024: Principal Investigator, ‘A Creative Transformation’, Arts Council England (National Lottery Project Grant), £27,590.
  • 2022: UCL Arts and Humanities Faculty, Education Enhancement Projects, £1000 (for Creative Nepal project).
  • 2022: NHS Parliamentary Award for ‘Excellence in Mental Health Care’ (expert by experience).
  • 2022: Appointed Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health.
  • 2021: Project manager, NIHR-funded study, ‘CICADA-ME’, £700,000.
  • 2021: Grand Challenges, Age and Society: Life Through Generations, University College London, £9,000.
  • 2015: Appointed Fellow of Anglia Ruskin University.
  • 2015: Appointed Fellow of the Higher Education Authority.
  • 2010: Entente Cordiale Language Scholarship.
  • 2010: Elected life member of AICA (International Association of Art Critics).
  • 2009: UK Arts and Humanities Research Council Scholarship (Funding PhD.).
  • 2008: Foundation Scholarship, Jesus College, University of Cambridge (Funding MPhil.).
  • 2008: The Odette de Mourgues Scholarship, University of Cambridge (Funding MPhil.).
  • 2007: Gold Medal for Outstanding Achievement, University of Greenwich.

Teaching:

  • 2022: Lecturer, Co-Director, MASc Creative Health, Arts and Sciences Department, UCL.
  • 2021: Co-designer, Royal Society for Public Health Online Arts and Health Course. 
  • 2016: Artist-in-Residence and lecturer, MA Art Therapy Programme, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore 
  • 2015: ‘Art and Cognition’, Seminar series for PGCE students, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. 
  • 2014 – 2016: Lecturer, Course Leader, Media Studies, Art Theory and Contextual Studies, Anglia Ruskin University.
  • 2014-2015: Lecturer, Art Theory and Contextual Studies, Cambridge Regional College.
  • 2013: Lecturer, Art Theory, 2nd year arts degrees undergraduates, Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University.
  • 2012: Lecturer, ‘Modern and Contemporary French and Francophone Culture: Articulations of the Real’ (Contextual Studies), MPhil. students, University of Cambridge.
  • 2011-12: Lecturer (undergraduates, graduates), Sorbonne, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris III (Culture, Contextual Studies).
  • 2011-12: Lecturer (undergraduates), Université Panthéon-Assas, Paris II (Culture, Contextual Studies).

Founder, leader of the ‘Making Sense Hub’ – Creative Health movement:

  • 2013: ‘Making Sense 5: The Six Senses of Art’, The Metropolitan Museum, New York (with Robert Storr).
  • 2012: ‘Making Sense 4: EsSense Across Cultures’, Cité Universitaire, Paris (with David Black).
  • 2011: ‘Making Sense 3: Beauty, Creativity and Healing’, Whitney Humanities Center, University of Yale (with Elaine Scarry). 
  • 2010: ‘Making Sense 2: Théorie esthétique et pratique artistique’, Centre Pompidou, Paris (with Bernard Stiegler). 
  • 2009: ‘Making Sense 1: An international interdisciplinary colloquium for an effective aesthetics’, University of Cambridge (with Jean-Luc Nancy).

(Selected) talks/workshops on mental health, recovery and the arts:

  • 05/22. ‘Hidden Lives, Hidden Gems’ Conference (performance workshop).
  • 04/22. International Eating Disorders Conference (workshop).
  • 04/22. BEAT conference (workshop).
  • 06/21. International Conference on Eating Disorders (workshop).
  • 06/21. Lead, “Creative Lives” conference (UCL and global).
  • 05-07/21. Presenter/producer, “Creative Lives” podcast.
  • 05/21. Presenter at All-Party Parliamentary Group, political discussion about Mental Health Act, arts and creativity. 
  • 02/21. ‘The Butterfly Effect: Art, Creativity and Transformation’, Arts Play Health conference
  • 12/20. Talk and respresenting patient voice at NHSE meeting about risk and funding for eating disorders.
  • 12/20. Performance of my poem (‘What’s going on in my head’), at ‘What’s Going On In Your Head’ live poetry and performance jam.
  • 11/20. ‘Creativity, connection and mental health’, Instagrm Live, interviewed by James Downs https://www.instagram.com/tv/CHqTCVQpcbV/?igshid=utiizxaqqbyx
  • 11/20. Talk at the Royal College of Psychiatry, Faculty of Eating Disorders Annual Conference.
  • 11/20. Presenting the Patient Forum, Oxford Health NHS Trust Governance Event. Awarded.
  • 08/20. Interview with Dennis Relojo-Howell @psychreg on YouTube https://youtu.be/SZ3f1gqebLs
  • 07/20. Creative workshop at the Mental Health Blog Awards.
  • 07/20. TEDx Talk released on YouTube: https://youtu.be/smKOkjUfzHw
  • 04-08/20. ‘#BeCreative’ art workshops, responding to Covid-19 Lockdown.
  • 05/20. ‘Being Creative in Lockdown’, talk for Parker Hannifin employees.
  • 02/20. TEDxCoventry: ‘How Creativity Revived Me’.
  • 02/20 Panellist on ‘Mental Health and Loneliness’ Twitter discussion about eating disorders.
  • 02/20. Panellist (expert by experience), Mental Health Question Time: ‘Should art be prescribed on the NHS?’ University College, London.
  • 02/20. Talk on brain damage and mental illness, Bucks New University.
  • 02/20. Talk for ‘Time to Talk Day’ event in Aylesbury, Bucks.
  • 02/20. Leading art workshop at ‘One Recovery Bucks’.
  • 02/20. Talk at ’64 million artists’ roundtable event, Impact Hub, Islington.
  • 2020. Presenting a series of CBT-E groups, using lived experience, Cotswold House EDU, Warneford Hospital, Oxford.
  • 01/20. Talk to Bucks Healthcare NHSFT staff, Stoke Mandeville Hospital, about ‘Time to Change’ and mental health.
  • 12/19. Talk on ‘Time to Change’ to 5,000 fans, Wycombe Wanderers Football Club.
  • 12/19. ‘Experiences of treatment for Eating Disorders’, at Art and Science of Eating Disorders: A Global Vision to Help Eating Disorder Patients and Carers, Royal College of Psychiatry Faculty of Eating Disorders Psychiatry & European Chapter of Academy for Eating Disorders.
  • 11/19. Leading ‘Art in Mind’ workshop, Beaconsfield.
  • 11/19. Series of talks at Buckinghamshire Recovery College, on Time to Change – building a life without stigma and discrimination about mental illness.
  • 10/19. Women’s Institute, Summit on Mental Health, Oxford.
  • 10/19. Workshop and presentation, Arts, Creativity and the Global Crisis; Reimagining Identity, Otherness and the Possible’, Arts Therapies conference, Pratt Institute, New York.
  • 10/19. Talk on living at a healthy weight, my body’s own normal, Cotswold House EDU, Oxford. 
  • 07/19. Co-presenting the Oxford New Care Model to patients at Cotswold House EDU, Oxford.
  • 07/19. Part of Oxford Health Panel, presenting New Care Model to NHS England, at NHSE HQ.
  • 07/19. Leading art workshop: ‘‘Walking in my shoes: opening conversations about mental health’, artSmart School of Art, Beaconsfield.
  • 06/19. Lecture on Mental Health, St. Mary’s Fellowship, Chesham.
  • 2018-19. Lecturing and research with the medical team, on patients with co-morbidity in eating disorders. Cotswold House Ward, Warneford Hospital, Oxford.

Media appearances:

  • 12/21. Double page feature, The Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10231419/A-pioneering-approach-having-impressive-results-anorexia-patients.html
  • 08/21. Interview, BBC Radio Oxford, talking about my life, career and creativity.
  • 12/20. Feature in The Royal College of Psychiatrists magazine (middle page spread).
  • 07/20. Article in The Herald, Erin Lyons: ‘TEDx Talk on how art saved life of woman with anorexia’.
  • 03/20. Interview, BBC 3 Counties Radio, Eating Disorders Awareness Week.
  • 03/20. Interview, Radio Mix96, Eating Disorders Awareness Week.
  • 02/20. Interview, BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire, TEDxCoventry.
  • 02/20. Several appearances on Radio Mix96. Time to Talk Day 2020.
  • 02/20. Interview, BBC 3 Counties Radio. Time to Talk Day 2020.
  • 01/20. Interview, BBC Radio Oxford, about eating disorders.
  • 01/20. Interview, Radio Mix96, talking about mental health.
  • 01/20. Interview, Radio Wycombe Sound, talking about mental health.
  • 09/19. Featured on BBC Radio Oxford, speaking about suicide in children’s education.
  • 07/19. Featured in article on Adult Eating Disorders (and recovery), Insight, Oxford Health magazine.
  • 04/19. Interview on BBC Radio Oxford, about arts and health.
  • 24/02/19. Featured in article in Oxford Mail, ‘Former lecturer Lorna Collins speaks about 18-year battle with anorexia’.
  • 02/19. BBC1 ‘Inside Out’, featured in coverage of Eating Disorder Awareness Week.
  • 2018. ‘My Best Medicine’ podcast about art and healing, in Culture, Health and Wellbeing, December 2018.

Founder of the ‘Making Sense Hub’ – organising colloquia, leading aesthetic movement:

  •  ‘Making Sense 5: The Six Senses of Art’, 12/07/13, The Metropolitan Museum, New York (with Robert Storr).
  • ‘Making Sense 4: EsSense Across Cultures’, 17/12/12, Cité Universitaire, Paris (with David Black).
  • ‘Making Sense 3: Beauty, Creativity and Healing’, 5/11/11, Whitney Humanities Center, University of Yale (with Elaine Scarry). 
  • ‘Making Sense 2: Théorie esthétique et pratique artistique’, 19-20/10/10, Centre Pompidou, Paris (with Bernard Stiegler). 
  • ‘Making Sense 1: An international interdisciplinary colloquium for an effective aesthetics’, 25/09/09, University of Cambridge (with Jean-Luc Nancy).

Artist and filmmaker. Artwork exhibited/published and film screenings:

  • 2022. ‘Let’s tell a story’, performance, ‘Hidden Lives, Hidden Gems conference, London.
  • 2022. Writing the World Backwards, Young Creative Leaders Face Film Festival (international).
  • 2021. Writing the World Backwards, This Is My Brave International Mental Health Film Festival, Australia.
  • 2021. Writing the World Backwards, Reel Recovery Film Festival, USA.
  • 08/2021. Writing the World Backwards, world premiere, ArtBomb Festival, Doncaster.
  • 2021. Painting published on front cover of The practical handbook of eating disorders, PCCS Books.
  • February 2018. Psycho, artwork published in ‘Broken Grey Wires’, Issue 1, London.
  • October 2017. Touché, Experimenta Film Festival, India.
  • July 2017. Minding Mines in India, Impact DOCS Awards Festival, California.
  • May 2017. Minding Mines in India, Docs Without Borders Festival, Detroit. Won Award of Excellence.
  • April 2017. Minding Mines in India, TMC London Film Festival, London.
  • March 2017. Minding Mines in India, Arthouse Asia Film Festival, Kolkata, India.
  • February 2017. Touché (revised, new version), 3-Minute Film Festival, in Santa Barbara, CA.
  • January 2015. Touché screening at KHOJ International Artists Association, New Delhi, India.
  • October 2014. Trance (solo, blindfolded dance performance), Cultural Studies Association of Australasia Conference ‘Provocations’, University of Wollongong, Ausralia.
  • September 2014. Flashback (film and installation) at ‘Platform’, Masters Degree Show, Cambridge School of Art.
  • June 2014. Touché (16mm film), screening at ‘Changing Rooms/Changing Spaces’ exhibition, Grafton Centre, Cambridge.
  • April 2014. The Pulse of Prāṇāyāma performance-installation at ETHOS Hot Yoga Sports Studios, Cambridge.
  • April 2014. TRANCE performance at ‘Body Talk’ exhibition at ‘Changing Spaces’ gallery, Norfolk Street, Cambridge.
  • March 2014. Pulse exhibited in ‘I don’t know how to do this…’, at ‘Changing Spaces’ gallery, Norfolk Street, Cambridge.
  • February 2014. Touché (16mm film) screened at Cambridge Arts Picturehouse. World Première.