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
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
Looking for a supervisor? Read our advice on how to choose a supervisor.
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
The Impact of Environmental Factors on the Distribution of Talent Hotspots within Queensland Olympic and Paralympic Populations.
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Emma Beckman
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Doctor Philosophy
Stadium to stage: Advancing Western actor training with sport psychology and pedagogy
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Cliff Mallett, Associate Professor Steven Rynne
Completed supervision
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2025
Master Philosophy
Training talent to thrive: Piloting the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment protocol in a Western drama school
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Steven Rynne, Professor Cliff Mallett
Media
Enquiries
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