My artworks explore the relationship between memory, landscape, and identity, using drawing, painting and photography. Artworks develop over time - with the surface worked into, pigment removed and then re-applied to create layers of shifting tone. Returning to the image periodically over many years, each subsequent day changes the experience of the object and the meanings this holds - all remain unfinished. My practice is influenced by my work as an art therapist (HCPC AS02614), which has focused on bereavement, loss and palliative care.  I am Chair of the British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT), and on the Academic Board of the Institute for Arts in Therapy & Education (IATE). I served as Course Director of the MA in Integrative Arts Psychotherapy for 13 years, External Examiner for the art therapy trainings at the University of Chester and Derby, and as a Lead Assessor for UKCP. I was an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Art Therapy (IJAT) and I've co-edited books on art therapy - Integrative Arts Psychotherapy (2022) and the Routledge International Handbook of Art Therapy Practice (2025). From February 2024 to March 2025, I Chaired the Executive Oversight Group of the NHSE Commission for Art, Drama, and Music Therapy. I am a member of the Institute of Directors and have a longstanding interest in responsible leadership, governance, and designing creative sustainable systems that enable organisations in the arts, education, and health sectors to thrive. 

Alongside my art practice, I offer lectures and workshops about art therapy, leadership, creativity and wellbeing in the UK and abroad - most recently on the art therapy training at Metafora in Barcelona. I also currently offer a limited number of consultancy and private sessions each week for art therapy, clinical supervision, or mentoring.

- Claire Louise Vaculik (née Leyland)