Dr Sue Jennings PhD is Professor of Play, a life-time award from the European Federation of Dramatherapists. She is Senior Research Fellow of the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, Distinguished Scholar of the University of the Witwatersrand and Honorary Fellow of Roehampton University. She has previously held academic posts at the Universities of Coleraine, Leeds Beckett, Derby, York St John, Roehampton and Hertfordshire, Adjunct Professor NYU, and Visiting Professor at HELP University, Kuala Lumpur.
Dr Sue’s doctoral field work was with the Temiars, a tribal people who live in the Malaysian rainforest. This research is her greatest influence on the development and establishment of Neuro-Dramatic-Play and has had a profound impact on all her education and therapeutic work. It was here that she realised that a society could have their own integrated system of both preventative and curative arts including drama, dance and music.
The other major influence on Dr Sue’s life and work is Williams Shakespeare and his plays and poetry. Her research at Stratford-upon-Avon, her schools work in Education and Shakespeare, and her own performances have enriched her understanding of imagery, poetry, rhythm and metaphor. She performed The Nurse’s Tale on the Edinburgh Fringe and on tour throughout the UK.
Sue is responsible for establishing the British Association of Dramatherapists, an endeavour she later shared with fellow pioneer Gordon Wiseman. Together they created many projects and training programmes in UK and overseas in Holland, Germany and Greece. She has also innovated the training and practice of Dramatherapy and the Playtherapy Method in UK, Malaysia, Romania, Korea, Greece and Turkey.
Dr Sue has published over 50 books on different aspects of dramatherapy and play therapy, NDP, EPR, resilience, attachment, social and emotional intelligence, self-harming, trauma, dementia, depression and play. She is co-editing with Dr Clive Holmwood three International Handbooks for Routledge Publishers, on Dramatherapy (2018), (which won an academic award); Play, Therapeutic Play and Play Therapy (2020); and Therapeutic Stories and Story Telling (2021). Also for Routledge, Sue is completing her Selected Works, entitled Thither and Back Again: Journeys from Chaos to Order.
Recently Sue has established herself as a children’s author and broadcaster with a weekly programme on Glastonbury FM and a series of books for young children about the characters of Moose and Mouse.
Dr Clive Holmwood PhD is an NDP Practitioner and Trainer, a drama practitioner and a registered dramatherapist with over 30 years’ experience in the public, private and voluntary sectors.
Clive has worked closely with Sue Jennings, NDP’s founder, for a number of years and co-edited three Routledge International Handbooks with her on dramatherapy, play and therapeutic storytelling. He has written widely and actively researches in the fields of Dramatherapy, Creative Arts Education and NDP. Recent NDP research includes:
Holmwood, C. (2020) Neuro Dramatic Play and a Hero’s Journey, a Play based Approach in a Junior School in Jennings S. Holmwood, C. (Eds) The International Handbook of Play, Therapeutic Play and Play Therapy. London: Routledge.
Holmwood, Clive (2021), Older people, dementia and Neuro-Dramatic-Play: A personal and theoretical drama therapy perspective. Drama Therapy Review, 7:1, pp. 61–75, doi: https://doi.org/10.1386/dtr_00061_1
Holmwood, C. (IN PRESS 2022) I’m going on a Bear Hunt’, Neuro-Dramatic Play, Multi-Sensory Informed, Storytelling Approaches to Working with Children Under Five in Jennings S. Holmwood, C. Jacksties, S. (Eds) Routledge International Handbook of Stories and Therapeutic Storytelling. London: Routledge
He is currently writing Games for Strengthening Attachment Bonds: Playful Activities for the Early Years to be published within the Early Years & Play Series edited by Sue Jennings for Hinton House Press.
Clive is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Therapeutic Arts at the University of Derby - where he teaches dramatherapy and supervises PhD students. He is currently developing research in NDP with people with young onset dementia in conjunction with the Universities of Derby and Northampton. He runs his own private practice where he offers dramatherapy to adults and children with mental health needs and learning disabilities: www.creativesolutionstherapy.org
Bridget Rees (MA Art Psychotherapy; PGCE; BA (Hons) Fine Art) is an Art Psychotherapist registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and a member of the British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT). She is a recognised Supervisor with training organisations that are approved by HCPC, UKCP and BACP, and a Certificated Trainer for Neuro-Dramatic-Play®.
Bridget has a background in Art Teaching, in both mainstream and specialist settings. Her creative ethos, training and experience enables Bridget to adapt the way she works with clients.
Within the NDP Diploma, Bridget teaches an introduction to art therapy illustrating image making.
Dr Rowan Mackenzie PhD is both practitioner and academic. She is Artistic Director of Shakespeare UnBard and facilitates a number of theatre companies for those with experience of the criminal justice system (both inside and outside the walls of prison): The Gallowfield Players, Emergency Shakespeare and Beyond the Walls. These are the first permanent theatre companies of their kind in the UK; entirely collaborative between Rowan and the participants with all decisions made democratically as they work together to edit and perform full-length Shakespeare productions.
Her PhD focused on creating space for Shakespeare with marginalised communities including those with mental health issues, learning disabilities, lived experience of the criminal justice system and of homelessness. She has won international awards for her work including a Butler Trust Commendation, Shakespeare Association of America Public’s Shakespeare, Inspirational Educator of the Year and Prisoner Learning Alliance Outstanding Individual. She is currently working on a monograph for Arden’s Shakespeare and Social Justice series, has published in a number of journals and has several forthcoming book chapters.
She is described by one of the actors she works with as ‘a force of nature who saves lives, rebuilds lives, sees beyond the labels and creates hope’.
Rowan teaches theatre and performance and the therapeutic use of masks for NDP.
