Nicole is a person-centred, HCPC and BAAT registered Integrative Art Therapist. She was first drawn to Art Therapy at age 14, having found the imagery in her own artwork communicated difficulties she found challenging to verbalise. And so, many years later, through the use of symbols and creative products in the psychotherapeutic process, Nicole invites her clients to follow new pathways discovered in the artwork as a way to aid communication, catharsis and understanding.
Whilst training, Nicole became interested in Trauma Informed Practice, particularly the gaps in research including Art Therapy as a valuable tool. Nicole has written and presented research on touch and attachment-based trauma and the use of clay in revealing buried emotional material, facilitating communication, and externalising what we hold deep inside. Nicole passionately advocates for the role of sensorimotor art psychotherapy in facilitating the ‘bottom-up approach’ where through Haptic perception, we can be guided by our ‘felt sense’ in order to understand and heal from our experiences. In her practice, the hands in connection with clay, become a lens through which we can safely repair and contain our difficult experiences.
Nicole embodies an adaptive, supportive and person- centred approach, allowing her to walk alongside clients as they explore difficulties such as grief, depression, trauma, attachment-based trauma, neurodiversity, gender/sexuality, anxiety and CPTSD among other struggles.
Outside of the Art Therapy room, Nicole can be found either in a pottery studio, wild swimming in the sea or paddle boarding with her adventurous Ragdoll cat.