Dr Henry Bowen is the Research and Training Lead at Military and Emergency Services Health Australia (MESHA), a charity of the Hospital Research Foundation Group. Located on the traditional lands of the Kaurna people in South Australia, MESHA is a not-for-profit collaborative research institute that operates across Australia dedicated to delivering high quality research and programs to positively impact the mental health and well-being of our current and former military and emergency service personnel and their families. Working closely with the Hospital Research Foundation – Creative Health, MESHA provides a suite of arts-based programs in Australia designed specifically for defence and emergency services personnel with Post-Traumatic Stress symptoms and their families, including children.

Henry holds Bachelor’s degree in Psychological Science and Health Science from Flinders University and the University of South Australia, a Graduate Diploma in Psychology (Advanced) from Flinders University and completed their PhD from University of South Australia in 2022. Their PhD explored the foundations of robust research practice for art therapy in Australia, investigating trauma-focused art therapy for defence and emergency services personnel with post-traumatic stress.

Henry specialises in understanding the mechanisms of how military and first responder culture and identity impact well-being, and the practical implementation of preventative and interventional care. In their current role, they work towards communicating the value of creative health interventions for military and first responders for well-being and the importance of introspectively understanding identity. They are passionate about building the awareness and quality of care provided by creative health practitioners.

Growing from the findings of their PhD, Henry was recently commissioned by ANZACATA to create and set professional standards and core competencies for master’s level creative health graduates across Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region. This is provided open access and can be downloaded by clicking below.

Henry comes to JoCAT with an academic focus. They are published widely, with articles in journals such as International Journal of Art Therapy, Australian Journal of Psychology, and Australian Journal of Psychology, and book chapters in books such as Exploring the Leisure–Health Nexus: Pushing Global Boundaries. They have presented at conferences nationally and internationally about their art therapy research.

Outside of work, Henry is an avid creative writer, participating in National Novel Writers Month every year, and a lover of tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons.

We are delighted to welcome Henry aboard. 

List of publications

Bowen, H., Hutchinson, C., Kernot, J., Baker, A., Posselt, M., & Boshoff, K. (2024). Social value of culturally informed art therapy for military and emergency services. International Journal of Art Therapy, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/17454832.2024.2313732

Peel, N., & Bowen, H. (2022) Intersection between art and health evolution. In H. Maxwell, R. McGrath, N. Peel, & J. Young (Eds.), Exploring the leisure–health nexus: Pushing global boundaries. CAB International.

Bowen-Salter, H., Kernot, J., Baker, A., Posselt, M., Hutchinson, C., Boshoff, K. (2021). Towards creating a description of art therapy for adults with trauma in Australia: A client-centred intervention. JoCAT, 16(1). https://www.jocat-online.org/a-21-bowensalter

Bowen-Salter, H., Whitehorn, A., Pritchard, R., Kernot, J., Baker, A., Posselt, M., Price, E., Jordan-Hall, J., Boshoff, K. (2021). Towards a description of the elements of art therapy practice for trauma: A systematic review. International Journal of Art Therapy. 27(1), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/17454832.2021.1957959

Bowen-Salter, H., Kernot, J., Baker, A., Posselt, M., Boshoff, K. (2021). Self-reported outcome measures for adults with post-traumatic stress disorder: Towards recommendations for clinical practice. Australian Journal of Psychology, 73(3), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049530.2021.1893615