Professor Diane Waller, OBE
PhD/DCounsPsy Supervisor/Examiner
Department
School of Psychotherapy & Counselling Psychology
Faculty
HASS (Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences)
Professional affiliation(s):
- Registered Art Psychotherapist, Health
Professions
- Council and member of Council; President
British Association of Art Therapists
- UKCP registrant, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
section
- Vice President International Society for
Psychopathology of Expression and Art Therapy
- Chair, International Centre for Research in
the Arts Therapies, Imperial College.
Qualifications
- European Certificate of Psychotherapy,
EAP, Vienna
- DPhil: History of Art Therapy as a
Profession, University of Sussex
- Post Graduate Diploma in Group Analytic
Psychotherapy, LCP
- Psychodynamic Interaction (Foundation
Certificate) LCP
- Art Teacher’s Certificate, University
of London
- MA by thesis: Art Therapy, Dept
of Cultural Studies, Royal College of Art
- University Diploma in Fine Art, University of
Oxford, Ruskin School
- Institute for Learning: Full member (qualified teacher)
Biography
Diane’s background is in fine art, ethnography and group
analysis. A Leverhulme European Research scholarship enabled her to
spend a year in Bulgaria and Macedonia, studying the effects of
industrialisation on traditional arts. Later she pioneered training
in art, group and intercultural psychotherapy at Goldsmiths, and
helped to achieve statutory regulation for the arts therapies in
1997.
Diane worked extensively in Eastern Europe during the 1980s and
1990s, especially Bulgaria and former Jugoslavia, developing new
psychosocial services. She has worked with a wide range of clients,
including those with eating disorders, substance abuse, progressive
illness, cancer and engaged in research with these groups; in
parallel conducted sociological research into the development of
the psychotherapies in the UK and Europe. In 2007 Diane was awarded
an OBE for Services to Health. Other interests are in sport, dance,
visual arts and animal welfare.
PhD and Doctoral Research Supervision and Examining
- 3 completed PhDs (London and
Imperial College) 8 PhD students currently supervised.
- Areas: varied but mainly in
psychological therapies theory and practice, intercultural issues
in psychotherapy, relationship between traditional and
complementary therapies, institutional issues (systems);
introducing new elements into functioning systems.
- External examiner for universities
of Sussex (2) Durham, Edinburgh, Queen Margaret, Hertfordshire,
Birmingham (PhDs and one prof Doc Education)
- University of Brighton – as
Principal Research Fellow in Applied Social Sciences supervising
professional doctorate and PhD students.
Research Interests
- Diane’s recent research, with Imperial
College has been on evaluating group art therapy with people with
long term schizophrenia. Project Matisse was funded by the Health
Technology Assessment as a random control trial, conducted in 4
sites in the UK. The team is currently writing up and publishing
our findings. In 2009 she proposed and helped to establish a new
International Centre for Research in the Arts Therapies, based in
the Centre for Mental Health at Imperial College. The Centre is
designed to facilitate high level research in the arts therapies
and related fields.
- From 1996 to 2005 co-conducted a project
over 9 years, funded by the Alzheimer’s Society and the Health
Foundation, using both quantitative and qualitative methodology,
evaluating the impact of art therapy groups with older people with
moderate to severe dementia. The third phase of the project
(qualitative) identified a ‘Culture of Exclusion’, leading to
further exploration of the role that art therapy could play in
modifying the culture of care homes. Diane continued to
reflect on the findings of the whole project through papers and
presentations.
- A further project involving people with
early onset dementia in viewing and making art is being submitted
for funding with support from Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation
Trust.
- As a member of the University of Brighton
Age and Ageing Research group, Diane contributes to developing
projects that are designed to improve mental health and wellbeing
of older people.
Completed Research:
- Introducing new elements into already functioning systems: WHO
project, Sofia, Bulgaria, Medical Academy 1981-87, continuing
1995-in field of addiction.
- Changing cultures: introducing psychodynamic thinking and art
therapy training into a centre for training/treatment of substance
abuse: Centro Italiano di Solidarieta, Rome 1984-2000
- A multi-centre control group study of Art Therapy groups for
people with moderate to severe dementia. Co-Principal Investigator
with Prof J. Rusted, Univ. of Sussex 1996-2005, £210,000,
Alzheimers Society and Health Foundation.
- Multi-Centre control group study of Art Therapy groups with
people with schizophrenia. Funded £969,000, 2006-2010 by
Health Technology Assessment. Principal Investigator with Drs. M.
Crawford (Imperial) and H.Killaspy (UCL). Project completed 2011,
Report being written up.
- Narrative Enquiry: The Experience of Parkinsons’ – Words and
Images through Art Therapy. Brighton and Hove University NHS Trust.
Project completed, paper published in International Journal of
Art Therapy, Dec 2010. Research Capability Fund, Goldsmiths.
£15,000.
- Pilot to explore the impact of dance/movement sessions on older
people with dementia and their carers. Funding from
Community-Universities Fund, £500. Report being written up and
further funding sought.
Current research
- Focuses on obtaining further funding for above projects and
collaborative work with Sussex Partnership NHS Trust, Universities
of Brighton and Sussex, and Imperial College.
- Parallel research continues into the sociology of health
professions, especially arts therapies, psychotherapy and
counselling; and the ethnography of the Balkans: traditional
textiles and costume.
List of Publications
- 2010: Textiles from the Balkans, British Museum Press,
London. Includes introduction based on author’s research over past
20 years.
- 2005: Art Therapy and Cancer Care, with Sibbett, C.
McGraw-Hill, Maidenhead
- 2005: Arts, Therapies, Communication: Different
Approaches to a Unique Discipline, Vol. III (with Kossalapow, L and
Scoble, S) Lit Verlag, Munster (Vols. I and II in 2001 and
2003)
- 2002: Arts Therapies and Progressive Illness,
Brunner-Routledge, London and NY
- 1999: Treatment of Addiction (with Mahony, J) Routledge,
London
- 1998: Towards a European Art Therapy – Creating a
Profession, Open University Press, Buckingham
- 1996: Group Interactive Art Therapy: Its Use in Training
and Treatment, Routledge (Currently preparing 2nd Edition)
- 1992: Art Therapy: A Handbook of New Theories and
Practice (with Gilroy, A) Open University Press, reprinted and
being revised.
- 1991: Becoming a Profession: History of Art Therapy in
Britain. Routledge
Some Chapters and papers:
- Problems of Looking: an exploration of the art of the other
(2002) in Thomashoff, H (ed) Human Art Project: Art for
Anti-Stigma, Schattauer, Stuttgart and NY.
- Art Therapy Groups: An Interactive Approach (2003) In
Malchiodi, C: Handbook of Art Therapy, Guilford Publications, NY
and London (preparing 2nd edition).
- Art Therapy: Its introduction in the UK and USA (2003) in
Thomashoff, H-O and Sartorius, N. Art Against Stigma, Schattauer,
Stuttgart and NY.
- European Development of Psychotherapy: Problems of Identity
(2005) In European Identity and Psychotherapy (Ed) Milenkovic, S.
Jugoslav Union of Associations of Psychotherapy and Institute of
Mental Health, Belgrade.
- Art Therapy: How it leads to change (2006) In Jnl of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry, Vol II (2) April, pp 271-282
- A Multi-Centre Randomized control group trial on the use of art
therapy with older people with dementia (with Rusted, J and
Sheppard, L) in Group Analysis, Vol. 39 (4) December pp
517-536.
Dementia and the Process of Marginalisation (2007) In Hampe, R and
Stalder, P (Eds)
- Grensuberschreitungen: Bewusstseinswandel und
Gusundheitshandeln, Frank & Timme, Berlin
- The influence of culture on aesthetic preferences (2009) In
Thomashoff, H-O and Sukhanova, E: The Person in Art, Nova
Publishers, NY.
- Art Therapy (2009) In Geldof, M.(ed) New Textbook of
Psychiatry, Blackwells, Oxford.
- Demence et processus d’exclusion. (2010) In Sudres, J-L,
Exclusions et Art-Therapie, l’Harmattan, Paris.
- Provision and Practice of Art Therapy for people with
Schizophrenia: Results of a national Survey. With Patterson,
Debate, Anju, Crawford in Journal of Mental Health, 18 Feb
2011.
- (A full list of chapters and papers together with major keynote
papers may be supplied if needed)
Page last updated 4/13/2011