Lauren Clarke, (PhD Researcher)

Lauren graduated from Ulster University in 2019 with a BA in Fine Art, Printmaking before progressing on to receive her MSc qualification as an Art Psychotherapist in 2021. Her MSc dissertation focused on the impact of art psychotherapy and arts for wellbeing practices on women experiencing perinatal mental health difficulties and how creative practice could support women in the antenatal stage of pregnancy. Lauren has worked with individuals and groups including children, young people and adults across statutory and voluntary sectors and has a passionate interest in promoting awareness for perinatal mental health care and the role of  creative practice in supporting women’s mental and emotional wellbeing. Lauren currently facilitates group arts for wellbeing sessions for Queen's University Nursing and Midwifery students and is a Teaching Assistant for the praxis and research module of the MSc Art Psychotherapy course at Ulster University

Lauren is currently completing her second year as a Ph.D. Researcher within Ulster University’s Belfast School of Art. Her project, entitled “Tattooing, Memory, and the Designed Surface”, is informed by her knowledge and experience of art as a powerful tool for growth and communication. The project incorporates ethnographic, practice-led research methods to explore contemporary tattoo culture and how these indelible images may act as marks of embodied meaning-making whilst offering the potential to preserve microsites of cultural heritage.

Art Psychotherapy & Perinatal Mental Health

Contemporary Printmaking as Practice-Led Research

Tattoos as Cultural Heritage & Embodied Meaning-Making

Printmaking & Tattoo Practices as an Alternative Archive