Research Academy 2026 | Friday 24th April

🚩 Please note: The programme is being updated regularly and may be subject to change.
More information coming soon.
For any enquiries, please contact marketing@metanoia.ac.uk

Innovative Insights: Creative Approaches to Psychotherapy Research

• Applications to Practice – exploring research that directly informs and enhances therapeutic work, including decolonising practice through Ubuntu philosophy, movement‑based inquiry, and the creative use of clay and visual art to capture emotional and political dimensions.
• Qualitative Methods – delving into narrative and arts‑informed research techniques such as autoethnography, creative writing, and collaborative narrative inquiry, with a focus on giving voice to lived experiences and marginalised communities.
• Quantitative Methods – making data approachable and relevant through creative survey design, mixed‑methods integration, innovative use of statistics, and clinical trial designs that incorporate storytelling, puppetry, and guided imagery.

• Dr Nomsa‑Sandra Wayland – Decolonisation and epistemic justice in therapeutic research through Ubuntu philosophy.
• Dr Penny Osborne – Using movement and embodied artistic inquiry in research and practice.
• Dr Helena Kallner – How bodily knowledge shapes psychotherapeutic practice.
• Dr Fiona Hamilton – Creative writing as a research method.
• Dr Paul C. Mollitt – Autoethnography for exploring identity and marginalisation.
• Dr Steven Wells – Arts-influenced narrative inquiry with senior practitioners.
• Dr Alistair McBeath & Dr Sofie Bager‑Charleson – Creative use of surveys and mixed-methods research.
• Dr Margarita Chacin – Creative tools in a clinical trial with children with cancer.
• Dr Giovanna Bucci – Creative statistical approaches in neuroscience-based psychotherapy research.

Schedule and Information on Presenters

Qualitative strands:
Workshop summary, proposed exercise, and biography

Stream 1

1. Decolonisation and Epistemic Justice: Researching Creatively for a Diversified Therapeutic Service – Examples from the Ubuntu Philosophy
By Dr Nomsa Wayland

Workshop Summary:
This presentation explores how decolonising research methodologies can address epistemic injustice and broaden the scope of therapeutic practice. Drawing on the African philosophy of Ubuntu: “I am because we are”, the session considers how relational, collaborative, and community-centred approaches can challenge dominant Eurocentric paradigms and foster epistemic diversity. Participants will reflect on the limitations of traditional psychological research, particularly in the context of the replication crisis and the exclusion of indigenous knowledge systems. Ubuntu offers an alternative paradigm that emphasises interconnectedness, reciprocity, and shared humanity, shifting research from extractive inquiry to relational accountability. Practical examples of Ubuntu-informed research will be presented, alongside a discussion of its application in psychotherapy and co-produced projects. The workshop will close with a reflective exercise, enabling participants to explore how “power with” rather than “power over” can be enacted in their own research and practice, creating inclusive, ethical, and socially just therapeutic services.

Proposed Exercise:
Participants will take part in a reflective circle dialogue. In small groups, they will consider how well they know the communities they serve, whose knowledge is being centred and whose is overlooked, and how their work might shift from “power over” to “power with.” The dialogue will close with shared insights on how relational accountability can be enacted in practice.

Biography:
Dr Nomsa-Sandra Wayland is a HCPC, BPS, BACP Chartered Counselling Psychologist and Senior Lecturer at the Metanoia Institute. She is also a Clinical Tutor on the Clinical Doctorate at the University of East London (UEL), contributing to BSc and MSc programmes. Her research focuses on qualitative methodologies, racial trauma, moral injury, epistemic justice, and decolonising therapeutic practice. She is an advocate for minority communities and develops alternative psychological interventions, including Ubuntu-inspired models.

2. How may movement shape psychotherapists’ practical knowledge?
By Dr Helena Kallner, PhD/DCPsych

Workshop Summary:
This experiential workshop focuses on the role of practical and bodily knowledge in professional practice and how it can be researched. In a culture that privileges rational knowledge, other forms—such as bodily knowing—are often overlooked. In psychotherapy, much of what unfolds between people happens beyond words, through felt movement dynamics. The workshop draws on Dr Kallner’s PhD research “Forming Form: How Movement Shapes Psychotherapists’ Practical Knowledge”, integrating:

1. Focus groups and individual interviews with psychotherapists

2. Autoethnographic writing from her own practice

3. Theoretical concepts

Participants will explore movement as the root of experience, language, and knowing, particularly in creating holding within therapy—a bodily knowing essential for professional practice. Guided movement experiments will help participants deepen awareness of their own bodily experience.

Biography:
Helena Kallner, PhD, is a UKCP and EAGT accredited Gestalt psychotherapist, senior teacher, and supervisor of Developmental Somatic Psychotherapy™. Based in Stockholm, she runs a private practice and teaches internationally.

3. Using clay in research to develop expressive forms of therapeutic service
By Dr Lynne Souter-Anderson

Workshop Summary:
This workshop explores the use of clay in research as a medium for creativity and expression within therapeutic services. Drawing on Lynne’s own family history of potters, participants will reflect on how expressive, tactile materials can enrich research and practice. Challenges of pursuing underrepresented topics and heuristic research will be highlighted, alongside strategies for engaging with creative mediums in psychotherapy research.

Creative Exercise:
“From the heat of the molten lava at the centre of the earth to the passion at the genesis of your research.” Participants will undertake a creative visualisation and discussion, sculpting ideas with clay if available, or through imaginative exploration.

Biography:
Dr Lynne Souter-Anderson is a Senior Research Supervisor at Metanoia Institute and founder of the Clay Therapy Community. Her work integrates psychotherapy, expressive arts, and education, contributing globally to the development of clay therapy practice and training. Author of several books, she is a leading figure in creative arts therapies.

4. Autoethnography: Writing the Self, Illuminating the Social
By Dr Paul C. Mollitt

Workshop Summary:
Autoethnography uses personal experience to illuminate broader cultural, political, and relational dynamics. This session introduces autoethnography as a rigorous, creative, and emotionally resonant research methodology, especially for work with marginalised communities. Participants explore the method as an extension of the personal process underpinning clinical practice, complementing therapy while deepening understanding of the cultures of clients and researchers alike.

Proposed Exercise:
Participants will pair up for a reflective or creative writing prompt relating to self and identity in research. A group discussion will follow, exploring resistances, vulnerabilities, and the transformative potential of autoethnography.

Biography:
Dr Paul Mollitt is a BPC-registered and BACP Senior Accredited psychotherapist with 15 years’ experience in the NHS and higher education. His research focuses on autoethnography, minority stress, LGBTQ+ issues, psychodynamic practice, and dream analysis.

Stream B

5. Using movement in research and practice
By Dr Penny Osborne

Workshop Summary:
Dr Osborne explores movement-based practices as tools to generate, deepen, and communicate knowledge. Drawing on Embodied Artistic Inquiry (EAI), participants critically examine how embodied ways of knowing enrich psychological research and therapeutic practice.

Proposed Exercise:
Participants engage in guided movement-based interview exercises in pairs or small groups, alternating roles of non-verbal interviewee and witness-interviewer, followed by journaling and group discussion.

Biography:
Dr Penny Osborne is Senior Lecturer in Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy, a dance movement psychotherapist, and BPS-registered psychologist. Her work focuses on embodied and creative approaches to research and practice.

6. Using creative writing, arts and poetic methods in health research
By Dr Fiona Hamilton

Workshop Summary:
This workshop explores arts-based inquiry in health research, including poetry, drama, and creative writing. Three UK projects demonstrate arts-based methods to amplify participation, co-create plays, and enable narrative investigation of health perceptions among students.

Biography:
Fiona Hamilton is Head of Programme for Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes at Metanoia Institute. She specialises in collaborative arts-based projects focusing on lived experience and holistic practices.

7. The ‘politics’ of emotion, affect and the sensory in research and practice
By Dr Karen Wright

Workshop Summary:
This workshop focuses on art and images in research, exploring the politics of emotion, affect, and sensory experience. Reflexive and critical feminist approaches are used to examine structural power and knowledge creation.

Proposed Exercise:
Participants respond to research stories and images via Padlet, reflecting on emotions, thoughts, and knowledge generated collaboratively.

Biography:
Dr Karen Wright is an integrative psychotherapist and arts psychotherapist (HCPC, BAAT), with a PhD from Goldsmiths University. She works as a Senior Lecturer at Metanoia Institute and Regent’s University London, specialising in qualitative research and psychotherapeutic practice.

8. A collaborative arts-informed narrative inquiry into the stories of senior psychotherapy practitioners as they contemplate retirement
By Dr Steven Wells

Workshop Summary:
This workshop shares Dr Wells’ doctoral project using arts-informed narrative inquiry to explore therapists’ experiences of retirement. The collaborative methodology enabled participants to share and respond to creative outputs, enriching understanding and co-creation of knowledge.

Proposed Exercise:
Participants explore creative contributions (writing, poetry, images) and collaborative interaction to deepen understanding, replicating aspects of the DPsych research approach.

Biography:
Dr Steven Wells is a BACP Senior Accredited and GPC-registered psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, trainer, and practicing artist. His work combines psychotherapy with arts-informed research approaches.

Strand C: Quantitative and Mixed Methods Research

9. Introducing Basic Skills in/for Quantitative Research
By Dr Hannah Friend

Information pending.

10. The Benefits of Mixed Methods Research and The Creative Use of Online Surveys
By Dr Alistair McBeath and Dr Sofie Bager-Charleson

Workshop Summary:
The workshop explores mixed methods research in psychotherapy, integrating quantitative and qualitative data for mutual illumination. Topics include survey design, data analysis, and thematic integration.

Proposed Exercise:
Participants will produce a combination of closed, open, and story-completion questions.

Biographies:

• Dr Alistair McBeath – BPS Chartered Psychologist, UKCP Psychotherapist, researcher-practitioner, co-editor of Enjoying Research in Counselling and Psychotherapy.

• Dr Sofie Bager-Charleson – UKCP and BACP Psychotherapist, Senior Lecturer, Metanoia Institute, co-founder of the Metanoia Research Academy, expert in reflexivity and research methodology.

11. Bringing Science to Life: Creative Tools in a Clinical Trial with Children with Cancer
By Dr Margarita Chacín

Workshop Summary:
Novice researchers learn how to embed creative, age-appropriate methods like storytelling, puppetry, and guided imagery in psychoneuroimmunology-based trials with children.

Proposed Exercise:
Participants design a clinical trial using creative tools for engagement, ethics, and therapeutic benefit.

Biography:
Dr Margarita Chacín is a Chartered Clinical and Health Psychologist (HCPC, UK), researcher, and Senior Lecturer at Metanoia Institute. She has expertise in psychoneuroimmunology, chronic illness, and creative therapeutic interventions.

12. Making Emotions Count: Exploring the Value of Quantitative Research in Psychology
By Dr Giovanna Bucci

Workshop Summary:
The workshop explores facial emotion recognition research, comparing holistic versus analytic processing. Participants learn how experimental design and statistical analysis can inform clinical practice.

Proposed Exercise:
Participants design a simple quantitative study, selecting variables, outcome measures, and analysis approaches, discussing clinical implications.

Biography:
Dr Giovanna Bucci is a BPS Chartered Psychologist, HCPC Counselling Psychologist, UKCP Integrative Psychotherapist, and Senior Lecturer at Metanoia Institute. Her research bridges quantitative neuroscience with psychotherapy.