Dr Lisa Peacock

Lisa's research explores the impact of a group dramatherapy approach to wellbeing among veterans, people with cancer, medical students and other shared-interest groups. She is also a Specialist Dramatherapist with the NHS in Devon.

[email protected]

Background

Practicing as a dramatherapist in the UK and the US informs Lisa’s approach to individual and group work, attuning to intersectional differences. Conducting research with UK and US veterans informed her advocacy for co-production in all research and the experts-by-experience framework. Lisa is also interested in exploring the importance of the artist identity alongside an arts psychotherapist identity for safe practice.

Lisa is interested in working with medical students and medical practice to develop a whole person approach to wellbeing. She completed her training as a creative clinical supervisor in 2024 and provides clinical supervision for colleagues in the NHS, for dramatherapists in private practice and for medical students. She has also supervised MA students with their major projects.

Research interests

• Veterans
• Wellbeing
• Posttraumatic stress and posttraumatic growth
• People living with cancer
• Moral injury
• Creative expression for wellbeing

Areas of research supervision

• Dramatherapy Master’s Programme, ARU, Major Project Supervision
• Creative Clinical Supervisor for clinicians, MA students and medical students

Qualifications

• PhD Dramatherapy, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge
• Registered Arts Therapist, Health and Care Professions Council
• MA Sociology, University of Arizona, Tucson

Memberships, editorial boards

• Member, British Association of Dramatherapists
• HCPC Registered Arts Therapist

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

• Grantee. Empirical research grant, Drama Therapy Fund, $1,000, US, 2023
• Investigator. A clinical trial for the effectiveness of an integrative therapeutic program model for transitional housing for veterans with both a co-morbid condition and who are homeless. Funded by Ohio Mental Health and Addiction Service, $165,000, US, 2015-2016
• Co-Principal investigator. Research study of therapeutic community model of care for veterans recovering from homelessness. US, with Ding, K. 2013-2015
• Investigator. Enhancing veterans’ mental health with creative arts therapeutic programming. Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation, $15,000, US, with Ding, K., Slater, M., and Peacock, D. 2013-2014
• Investigator. Vet Art Project and Warriors Journey Home. Funded by the Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation. $7,500, US, 2012-2013
• Grantee. Open Meadows Grant. $1,500, US, 2013
• Grantee. Puffin Foundation. $4,000, US, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2015
• Grantee. Vet Art Project, Illinois Humanities Council. $1,500, US, 2009

Selected recent publications

Peacock, L. 2023. Story Medicine: A mixed methods approach to brief group dramatherapy with UK and US veterans. PhD. Anglia Ruskin University.

Peacock, L. 2020. Clinical comment: Claiming the identity of artist is a vital part of fitness to practice for dramatherapists. Dramatherapy Journal. 41(3), pp.135-141.

Peacock, L. 2018. Almost Paradise: A creative arts collaboration helping US veterans recover from homelessness, in Bent, C. and Colbert, T. (eds.) Working across modalities in the arts therapies: Creative collaborations. London: Routledge, pp.165-177.

Odell-Miller, H. and Winn, L. 2018. Evaluation of the impact and changes in attitudes to military mental health issues for the audience following the Shell Shock performance. Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research. Conducted thematic analysis.

Recent presentations and conferences

Writing for wellbeing: A resilience-building group approach for people living with cancer. Integrative & Personalised Medicine Conference, Complementary Therapies in Oncology panel, College of Medicine, Queen Elizabeth II Centre, London, 2024

Story Medicine: Co-production key to group dramatherapy with veterans, Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research, Public research lecture series, 2024

Story Medicine workshop featuring Tits Up, a creative exploration of the body landscape of cancer, Dramatherapy Southwest Conference, Bristol, 2023

Story Medicine workshop featuring original play Tits Up. Dramatherapy Southwest Conference, Bristol, England. 2023

Outside, In and Inside, Out: Choosing the narratives that inform identity after military service—a mixed methods study with UK and US veterans. British Association of Dramatherapists, Chester, England, UK. 2019

Triangulate, not strangulate: Getting a grip on mixed methods analysis of veterans in dramatherapy groups. ARU, Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research, PhD Seminar. 2019