I am a lecturer and postdoctoral research fellow at University of Dundee. My research looks at the benefits of art making for babies and very young children. A particular focus is on the relational benefits when parents and infants are making art and how this may support attachment relationships. I am also an HCPC registered art therapist, running a parent-infant art therapy service in Dundee Contemporary Arts.

Together with Dr Josephine Ross I founded the Art at the Start project, working collaboratively with DCA to study the impact that art participation has upon the social well-being of infants and how shared art experiences help to build strong attachment relationships. This looked at art making from a variety of perspectives; studying the impact upon families with children who attend participatory arts activities as part of the DCA activity programme, measuring the efficacy of a specific arts psychotherapy intervention which targets families with infants where the attachment relationships are considered vulnerable, and looking at the wellbeing impact of giving families art boxes to use in their homes. This work has expanded accross new sites accross Scotland, working with galleries, charities and NHS services, developing and evaluating art based support for early relationships.

I completed a PhD in Psychology in May 2023 which can be found at the Discovery page Art at the Start: A mixed methods study of early art therapy intervention for attachments and wellbeing — Discovery - the University of Dundee Research Portal