Laura Fischer

Laura is a Survivor Researcher, Lecturer, Artist, Consultant, and the Founder & CEO of Traumascapes, a survivor-led organisation dedicated to changing the ecosystem of trauma and creating new horizons for survivors through art and science.

Her research focuses on the embodied experience of childhood trauma and novel body-based interventions. Her art practice explores the reclaiming and rewriting of the sociocultural narrative of trauma on survivors’ own terms. Her consultancy spans trauma-informed and trauma-sensitive practice; survivor research and lived experience involvement; and arts for health. She is Visiting Lecturer on the MASc Creative Health at UCL and the MSc Creative Arts and Mental Health at Queen Mary University of London; Patient and Community Involvement Lead for the NIHR ARC National Priorities Programme – Mental Health Implementation Network; and Editorial Advisory Board Member of The Lancet Psychiatry.

Laura trained as a dancer with the Ballet de la Côte in Switzerland and studied arts at Central Saint Martins; mental health sciences at Queen Mary University of London; and traumatic stress at the Justice Resource Institute. She was also awarded Improvement Leader Fellow by NIHR CLAHRC NWL for the development of her Trauma-Focused Movement Language (TFML), a survivor-led and body-based approach to healing trauma. She has worked with many universities, NHS Trusts, NHS England, the NIHR, Public Health England, Wellcome, and others.

At KCL, Laura is currently working with Angela Sweeney to develop a small survivor-led study based in the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health and SURE; and she is conducting a PhD in Psychology on the embodied experience of childhood trauma and its impact on survivors’ relationships with themselves and others, funded by the LISS DTP.

To find out more, see Laura Fischer: The Art and Science of Transforming Trauma in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Research Interests

• Childhood trauma and complex trauma: neurobiological underpinnings and subjective experiences
• Creative, body-based, and survivor-led approaches to healing trauma
• Trauma-informed and trauma-sensitive practice
• Survivor research and activism
• Arts-based research methods and arts for health

Teaching

• Seminar Lead in Women’s Mental Health

Expertise and Public Engagement

Laura actively explores ways of bridging research and public discourse. Importantly, she curates exhibitions where art, science, and activism intersect and she uses her art practice to open conversations and shift sociocultural narratives. She also translates research data into creative outputs (see https://www.traumascapes.org/creative-research-outputs) and regularly facilitates workshops, gives talks, speaks on podcasts, and writes blogs, articles, and social media posts.

Laura has spoken widely and exhibited internationally, including at the V&A, Whitechapel Gallery, Royal Albert Hall, and BFI, and some of her artwork is in the Central Saint Martins Museum Collection.

Key Publications

Fischer & Kneebone (forthcoming). ‘Embodying mental health: making arts intrinsic to training and practice.’

Dykxhoorn, Fischer, et al. (2022). ‘Conceptualising Public Mental Health: Development of a conceptual framework for public mental health,’ BMC Public Health.

Chevous, Fischer, Perôt, Sweeney (2020). ‘Safe, Seen, Supported: How to reach and help children and young people experiencing abuse in their household’, VAMHN.

Duncan et al. On behalf of the NIHR SPHR Public Mental Health Programme. (2020). ‘Delivery of community centred public mental health interventions in diverse areas in England: a mapping study protocol’, BMJ Open.

Fischer, L. (2019). ‘Trauma-Focused Movement Language’, The Lancet Psychiatry, 6(12), pp.991-993.

Fischer, L. (2019). ‘Violence and Trauma: A societal reality we are all responsible for’, in Perriman, B. Doorways. London: House Sparrow Press, pp.96-103.

Matthews, Green, Myron, French, Barber, Dionne, Sandra, Fischer (2019). ‘Connections: the power of learning together to im- prove healthcare in the UK,’ Organizational Behaviour in Healthcare. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.129-167.