I was born in Zimbabwe, did my first degree (OT) at University of Cape Town in South Africa (1978) and later did my MA (2000) at the Tavistock Clinic, London, UK in ‘Psychoanalytic Approaches to Working with Organisations’. This interest in using psychoanalytic thinking in OT led onto my PhD (2010) at Centre of Psycho-Social Studies at University West England, Bristol UK.

I have an ongoing interest in psychoanalysis in relation to clinical work and research methodology, e.g. the use of free association narrative interview methods (FANI). I think of occupational therapy in two parts; therapy as a lived relationship which can emphasise the use of the therapist’s intersubjective knowledge - and occupations as potentially being used to defend people against inner anxiety. In other words I am interested in exploring when activities (doing) can act as a container (i.e. a place to think) or become an unhelpful (or manic) defence (i.e. a way of avoiding feelings/thinking or intimate/love relationships)

Carolissen, R. , Bozalek, V. , Nicholls, L. , Leibowitz, B. , et al. (2011) 'Bell hooks and the enactment of emotion in teaching and learning across boundaries: A pedagogy of hope?'. South African Journal of Higher Education, 25 (1). pp. 157 - 167. Nicholls, LE. , Leibowitz, B. , Bozalek, V. , Carolissen, R. , et al. (2011) 'Learning together: Lessons from a collaborative curriculum design project'. Across the Disciplines, 8 (3). Download publication Leibowitz, B. , Bozalek, V. , Carolissen, R. , Nicholls, L. , et al. (2010) 'Bringing the social into pedagogy: Unsafe learning in an uncertain world'. Teaching in Higher Education, 2 pp. 123 - 133. doi: 10.1080/13562511003619953 Swartz, L. , Rohleder, P. , Bozalek, V. , Carolissen, R. , et al. (2009) ''Your mind is the battlefield': South African trainee health workers engage with the past'. Social Work Education, 28 (5). pp. 488 - 501. doi: 10.1080/02615470802129872 Nicholls, L. (2008) ''Touching the void'. Mountains as transitional objects, climbing as a defence against anxiety'. Psychodynamic Practice: individuals, groups and organisations, 14 (3). pp. 249 - 262. doi: 10.1080/14753630802164446