Rate My Professor Sue Holttum

Dr Sue Holttum is a Reader and senior lecturer in applied psychology research at Canterbury Christ Church University’s Salomons Institute for Applied Psychology, within the School of Sciences. She holds a PhD on the psychological components of depression. Her research interests encompass psychological therapies including arts therapies, social determinants of mental distress and wellbeing, and psychosis experiences or psychosis-related diagnoses. Holttum supervises PhD students and clinical psychology doctorate research projects, and provides research methods consultations to qualified clinical psychologists and art therapists. She works four days per week at the university and half a day per week as Research Officer for the British Association of Art Therapists, supporting research in art therapy and consultation of experts by experience in mental health research. Social inclusion is a key focus in her work, and she authored the Research Watch feature for the journal Mental Health and Social Inclusion for ten years.

Holttum has an extensive publication record, with key works including 'Artway: gallery art therapy group for young people with mental health difficulties' (Scott, W., Holttum, S., Fischer, M., 2024), 'Primary school mentalisation-based art therapy (Primary-smART): a Person-based approach optimisation study' (Kavermann, S. et al., 2024), 'Therapist and client experiences of art therapy in relation to psychosis: a thematic analysis' (Holttum, S., Barrett, H., Wright, T., 2022), 'Seeing through the façade of Anorexia: A grounded theory of emotional change processes associated with recovery from Anorexia Nervosa' (Drinkwater, D. et al., 2022), 'Art therapy with people diagnosed with psychosis: therapists’ experiences of their work and the journey to their current practice' (Holttum, S., Wright, T., Wood, C., 2021), 'A systematic literature review of the impact of art therapy upon post-traumatic stress disorder' (Schnitzer, G., Holttum, S., Huet, V., 2021), and 'Primary-school-based art therapy: Exploratory study of changes in children’s social, emotional and mental health' (McDonald, A., Holttum, S., Drey, N., 2019). In 2018, she received the Emerald Literati Awards Outstanding Paper honour for 'Mental health of people in the military depends on social inclusion: why not for all of us?', marking the second consecutive year she won this award. She currently leads the Service Configurations for Psychosis project at Canterbury Christ Church University.