
Overview
Background
Dr Veronique Richard earned her doctoral degree in Sport Science from the University of Montreal and subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Sport Psychology at Florida State University. Specialising in performance psychology and creativity, she has extensive experience in both research and applied settings.
Currently a research fellow at the University of Queensland, Dr Richard conducts pioneering research that integrates creativity and movement sciences to enhance performance, health, and wellbeing. Her research interests stem from her dual engagements with high-performance sports and circus arts. In her previous roles as a mental performance consultant for Canadian national sports organisations and Cirque du Soleil, Dr Richard observed the complexities of balancing high-level performance with wellbeing among athletes and performers.
To address these challenges, she designs enriched movement activities aimed at fostering creativity-supportive environments and investigates their impact on cognitive, affective, and socio-cultural variables related to creativity. Her research aspires to promote holistic growth by creating spaces where individuals can use their physicality to experiment, discover, connect, and express themselves.
While sports organisations remain a significant area of her research, Dr Richard is expanding her focus to other high-performance domains such as the medical field, educational institutions, and health and wellbeing organisations. She is also exploring how creativity-supportive environments can enhance equity, diversity, and inclusion within organisations.
Availability
- Dr Veronique Richard is:
- Available for supervision
Qualifications
- Masters (Research), University of Montreal
- Doctor of Philosophy, University of Montreal
Research interests
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Creativity, performance and wellbeing
Balancing high-level performance and wellbeing can be challenging. My research examines how designing creativity supportive environments in various contexts (sport, school, health, etc.) can contribute to performance while fostering cognitive, affective and socio-cultural factors associated with wellbeing. Specifically, I examine the impact of implementing enriched movement activities on performance and well-being variables.
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Performance psychology
Applied expertise: I have worked as a mental performance consultant with various national Canadian sport organisations and with Cirque du Soleil. In addition to help athletes and artists develop mental skills, I design risk friendly environments to encourage them to navigate sport-related uncertainties and ambiguities and grow psychologically from it.
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Creative movers
Much can be learned from observing those that use their body to create breathtaking moments. Specifically, my interest is to better capture the processes supporting movement creativity in dancers, circus artists, figure skaters, and all those that create through the body.
Research impacts
While societies are in constant motion, requiring creativity to adapt, our bodies have never been in such a state of inertia. Our research is impactful because it tackles two essential human needs; to create and to move. By shifting towards creativity, sport, education, and health organisations will offer rich landscapes of opportunities to ignite individuals' motivation to live a healthy life, but also equip them with the skills needed to creatively confront societal issues, thereby contributing to economic sustainability.
Works
Search Professor Veronique Richard’s works on UQ eSpace
2021
Journal Article
Supporting holistic wellbeing for performing artists during the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery: Study protocol
Stuckey, Melanie, Richard, Véronique, Decker, Adam, Aubertin, Patrice and Kriellaars, Dean (2021). Supporting holistic wellbeing for performing artists during the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery: Study protocol. Frontiers in Psychology, 12 577882. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.577882
2020
Journal Article
Factor structure of play creativity: A new instrument to assess movement creativity
Richard, Veronique, Aubertin, Patrice, Yang, Yan Yun and Kriellaars, Dean (2020). Factor structure of play creativity: A new instrument to assess movement creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 32 (4), 383-393. doi: 10.1080/10400419.2020.1821567
2020
Book Chapter
Sport
Richard, Veronique (2020). Sport. Encyclopedia of Creativity. (pp. 500-505) edited by Steven Pritzker and Mark Runco. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier BV. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-809324-5.23730-9
2019
Journal Article
Does Engaging in Creative Activities Influence the Use of Coping Skills and Perception of Challenge-Skill Balance in Elite Athletes?
Richard, Veronique, Yang, Yanyun, Runco, Mark, Abdulla, Ahmed M. and Tenenbaum, Gershon (2019). Does Engaging in Creative Activities Influence the Use of Coping Skills and Perception of Challenge-Skill Balance in Elite Athletes?. IAFOR Journal of Psychology & the Behavioral Sciences, 5 (si), 3-20. doi: 10.22492/ijpbs.5.si.01
2019
Book Chapter
Giftedness
Richard, Veronique (2019). Giftedness. Dictionary of Sport Psychology: Sport, Exercise, and Performing Arts. (pp. 115-115) edited by Dieter Hackfort, Robert J. Schinke and Bernd Strauss. New York, NY United States: Academic Press. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-813150-3.00007-3
2019
Book Chapter
Group coordination
Richard, Veronique (2019). Group coordination. Dictionary of Sport Psychology: Sport, Exercise, and Performing Arts. (pp. 119-119) edited by Dieter Hackfort, Robert J. Schinke and Bernd Strauss. New York, NY United States: New York, NY United States. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-813150-3.00007-3
2019
Book Chapter
Grit
Richard, Veronique (2019). Grit. Dictionary of Sport Psychology: Sport, Exercise, and Performing Arts. (pp. 117-117) edited by Dieter Hackfort, Robert J. Schinke and Bernd Strauss. New York, NY United States: Academic Press. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-813150-3.00007-3
2018
Journal Article
Developing cognitive and motor creativity in children through an exercise program using nonlinear pedagogy principles
Richard, Veronique, Lebeau, Jean-Charles, Becker, Fabian, Boiangin, Nataniel and Tenenbaum, Gershon (2018). Developing cognitive and motor creativity in children through an exercise program using nonlinear pedagogy principles. Creativity Research Journal, 30 (4), 391-401. doi: 10.1080/10400419.2018.1530913
2018
Journal Article
Do more creative people adapt better? An investigation into the association between creativity and adaptation
Richard, Veronique, Lebeau, Jean-Charles, Becker, Fabian, Inglis, Erik R. and Tenenbaum, Gershon (2018). Do more creative people adapt better? An investigation into the association between creativity and adaptation. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 38, 80-89. doi: 10.1016/j.psychsport.2018.06.001
2017
Journal Article
Effects of an improvisation intervention on elite figure skaters' performance, self esteem, creativity, and mindfulness skills
Richard, Véronique, Halliwell, Wayne and Tenenbaum, Gershon (2017). Effects of an improvisation intervention on elite figure skaters' performance, self esteem, creativity, and mindfulness skills. Sport Psychologist, 31 (3), 275-287. doi: 10.1123/tsp.2016-0059
2014
Journal Article
Toward an interactionist explanation of the development of sport excellence Vers une explication interactionniste du développement de l'excellence sportive
Richard, Véronique and Halliwell, Wayne (2014). Toward an interactionist explanation of the development of sport excellence Vers une explication interactionniste du développement de l'excellence sportive. Staps, 104 (2), 23-38. doi: 10.3917/sta.104.0023
Funding
Current funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Veronique Richard is:
- Available for supervision
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Media
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