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Dr. Anna Walker is an artist, researcher, writer and psychotherapist. She is drawn to the liminal spaces, bridging ancestral memory, embodied arts practice, and creative healing. Her methodology has evolved through decades of lived experience - navigating personal and collective trauma and the question of how we cope with and walk through rupture.
THE STORY
Anna began working as a visual artist in New York City. Upon returning to London to care for her father before his death, and then her mother, she confronted what her art practice alone couldn't process: how to talk about dying, how to metabolize grief, how to address the unspoken traumas moving through family lines. This led her to train as a psychotherapist in CORE Evolution/Biodynamics (2004-2007) and Body Psychotherapy (2006-2010). Working specifically with trauma she developed PATH (Programme for Arts and Health), integrating creative practice with therapeutic work, then pursued a PhD at Plymouth University (completed 2017) to deepen her artistic practice with academic rigor. Her doctoral research explored trauma and memory through visual arts, investigating how the body holds and releases overwhelming experiences. Throughout these years, she continuously ran workshops - for artists, writers, people in grief, and communities processing collective trauma - refining methodologies that weave together creative practice, somatic awareness, and ancestral wisdom. Anna has trained with Thomas Huebl since 2013 and continues this ongoing professional practice. In 2018, she founded Arts Research & Ecology (ARE), a monthly practice-research community exploring ecological crisis, ancestral knowledge, and creative response - a gathering she has convened consistently for over six years. |
WHY ANCESTRAL PRACTICE FOR WRITERS AND ARTISTS?
Creative people know that their best work doesn't come from the mind alone - it emerges from something deeper, older, more mysterious. Anna's workshops, for writers, artists and healers, offer frameworks for accessing that deeper source through ancestral practice. Her unique combination of artistic training, psychotherapeutic knowledge, and years of facilitating creative containers means she understands:
Participants don't just learn techniques; they experience how ancestral practice deepens their creative work, giving it resonance and rootedness that purely contemporary approaches can't access. |
WHY WORK WITH INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANISATIONS?
Organisations are facing unprecedented disruption from AI integration, ecological crisis, staff burnout, and the erosion of human connection under technological pressure. Anna's work moves beyond surface solutions, to address the deeper ancestral, embodied, and relational dimensions of collective resilience.
Her methodology offers organisations:
WHAT MAKES ANNA'S WORKSHOPS DISTINCTIVE?
Anna's work integrates therapeutic frameworks with creativity, artistic practices with trauma literacy. Her practice is grounded in what she calls "Embodied kinship practice" - treating methodology itself as a creative act, where the frameworks are living, responsive, and constantly in movement.
She works from deep respect for Indigenous knowledge systems, Buddhist contemplative traditions, and mycelial intelligence - not appropriating but learning from these wisdoms to develop practices that draw on her ancestral background, appropriate for contemporary Western contexts struggling with rupture and disconnection.
ANNA OFFERS...
She has edited 2 books: ARE journal. Winter 2024/2025 and Invocation: The Shape of Things, She has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals including Technoetic Arts, Journal for Artistic Research, Body Space and Technology, and many others. Anna is also a practicing artist, and storyteller and has incorporated performance storytelling into her arts practice, creating work that bridges visual art, sound, embodied practice, and the spoken word. Her performances and installations have been exhibited internationally, from Switzerland to Malta to India. www.anna-walker-research.com
To explore working together, please get in touch by filling out the form below or email: [email protected]
Organisations are facing unprecedented disruption from AI integration, ecological crisis, staff burnout, and the erosion of human connection under technological pressure. Anna's work moves beyond surface solutions, to address the deeper ancestral, embodied, and relational dimensions of collective resilience.
Her methodology offers organisations:
- Frameworks for conscious change: How to integrate new technologies and navigate disruption with integrity
- Embodied discernment practices: Training the somatic intelligence that helps people distinguish between automated/generated responses and genuine relational knowing
- Collective trauma literacy: Understanding how unmetabolized trauma moves through systems (both familial and institutional) and practical tools for organisational healing
- Ancestral wisdom for longer timescales: Reconnecting organisations with the deeper patterns and consequences beyond quarterly reports
WHAT MAKES ANNA'S WORKSHOPS DISTINCTIVE?
Anna's work integrates therapeutic frameworks with creativity, artistic practices with trauma literacy. Her practice is grounded in what she calls "Embodied kinship practice" - treating methodology itself as a creative act, where the frameworks are living, responsive, and constantly in movement.
She works from deep respect for Indigenous knowledge systems, Buddhist contemplative traditions, and mycelial intelligence - not appropriating but learning from these wisdoms to develop practices that draw on her ancestral background, appropriate for contemporary Western contexts struggling with rupture and disconnection.
ANNA OFFERS...
- Ancestral Practice Workshops: introductory sessions and year-long seasonal journeys for individuals (online and in person)
- Institutional & Organisational Programmes: bespoke workshops, training series, and consultancy for organisations navigating change
- One-to-One Sessions: therapeutic, ancestral and/or creative practice support
- Performance and Storytelling: creating and sharing mythic work that addresses collective themes
She has edited 2 books: ARE journal. Winter 2024/2025 and Invocation: The Shape of Things, She has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals including Technoetic Arts, Journal for Artistic Research, Body Space and Technology, and many others. Anna is also a practicing artist, and storyteller and has incorporated performance storytelling into her arts practice, creating work that bridges visual art, sound, embodied practice, and the spoken word. Her performances and installations have been exhibited internationally, from Switzerland to Malta to India. www.anna-walker-research.com
To explore working together, please get in touch by filling out the form below or email: [email protected]
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