Deborah is Programme Leader within the School of Creative Arts Therapy at Whitecliffe College (New Zealand) where she coordinates Research Practice. She gained her Honours Degree in Drama Studies and her Postgraduate Diploma and Master of Education in South Africa where she worked in educational/community theatre, community development, lifeskills/AIDS education and counselling, and adult education within the South African University and Health sectors (1990 to 2004). Following this she gained her Clinical Master of Arts in Arts Therapy through Whitecliffe College. She was awarded her Doctorate by the University of Auckland in 2016 for a thesis exploring her creative arts therapy practice during the Canterbury earthquakes. She is an avid and active arts-based and autoethnographic researcher and has published papers and chapters on various aspects of her arts therapy and research work in a range of international academic journals and books and has presented at conferences/symposia in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada and the UK.