Research

My research is a living practice — formed through dreamwork, story, land-based knowledge, and disciplined inquiry.

It explores the intersection of Anishinaabeg cosmology, quantum consciousness, and expressive arts therapy.

Dreamwork as Research Methodology

This research began with a waking dream on November 18, 2018. Anishinaabeg cosmology holds that we must research our dreams — to understand what they are telling us, warning us about, for the community and for the earth. That responsibility became the direction of eight years of sustained inquiry — through dream journalling, land-based practice, expressive arts, and graduate research — arriving finally at this thesis.

In 2019, six months of dream journalling became the methodological ground from which this entire body of work emerged — directing inquiry simultaneously toward quantum physics and consciousness discourse, and toward Anishinaabeg cosmology as the epistemological framework that holds both.

All nine books of the Aki and the Dreamworlds series arose from that six months. The series was not planned. It was received.

Dreams, ceremony, and arts-based practices strengthen emotional awareness and socio-ecological relationality. Findings from this research indicate that integrating Indigenous cosmology, scientific inquiry, and expressive arts methodologies into therapeutic, educational, and community contexts advocates for mutual respect and relational coexistence with Gitche Manitou Aki — the Great Spirit Mother — and the cosmos.

Aki: Birthing Dreamworlds

Acrylic, marker, and mixed media on Coroplast  |  4 × 6 feet  |  2023

This painting was not planned. It was received.

It emerged during a 30-minute Core Group session (Period 1, online, 2023), humming with eyes closed to NASA’s recording of the sun’s frequency. As the humming continued, a memory arrived — a child’s face turned toward the sun, eyes closed, before the age of three, playing outside in the warmth. That pre-verbal knowing — the body remembering what it felt before language existed — became the ground of the work.

Standing on one side of the Coroplast, humming and singing with the sun, then moving to the other side and continuing — the painting emerged through somatic movement rather than conscious design. Primary colours only — acrylic, marker, mixed media — because that is what was available. Low skill, high sensitivity. The body leading.

The work was also touched by Barbara Hielscher-Witte’s talk on resonance during Core Group — it awakened a curiosity about what lies beneath, something present beneath the smoky haze, unseen but felt by the body.

When the painting was complete, a large bowl of water was poured over its surface and left to dry for three days. Aki — Earth Mother, water, time — participated in her own birthing.

The substrate carries memory. This Coroplast had been used for other works before, wiped clean and reused. This was the painting that was kept.

The image emerged from six months of dream journaling (2019) and reflects relational resonance explored through expressive arts methodology. It functions as both image and inquiry — symbolically representing relational flows between Indigenous cosmology, consciousness studies, and expressive arts practice. Rather than asserting synthesis, it invites dialogue.

This work appears as Figure 1 in the EGS Master’s thesis Aki: Birthing Dreamworlds — A Journey Through Anishinaabeg Cosmology, Primordial and Quantum Consciousness, and Expressive Arts Therapy (McLeod, 2026). It is an example of somatographic inquiry — the original embodied research methodology developed by Diane-Lee McLeod in which body, land, sound, water, dream, and creative process move as a single relational field.

Living Theory

Living theory names a research approach that stays close to lived experience. It values accountability, reflection, and relationship — how knowledge is formed in real time through practice, community, and the land.

Indigenous Cosmology and Knowledge Systems

My work is informed by Anishinaabeg cosmology, teachings carried through story, and the responsibilities of relationship. I approach this with respect and restraint: sacred knowledge is not extracted, replicated, or offered outside proper context.

Resonance, Memory, and Coherence

I research resonance as both a scientific and relational principle — how pattern, rhythm, and coherence shape perception, learning, and change. This includes curiosity about quantum thought, complex systems, and the ways coherence can be felt and practiced.

Story as Method

Story is not treated as decoration. It is method — an epistemology. Narrative can hold complexity, reveal pattern, and transmit knowledge across generations. My novels and research inform one another without collapsing into the same form.

Arts-Integrated and Embodied Inquiry

My inquiry includes expressive arts and somatic awareness as tools for reflection, integration, and learning. These methods support attention to sensation, emotion, image, and meaning-making without forcing interpretation.

Somatographic Inquiry

Somatographic inquiry is an original methodology developed through my EGS Master’s research in expressive arts therapy at the European Graduate School. It integrates three streams: embodied observation, reflective writing, and creative articulation — practised together as a unified form of relational knowing.

This method treats the body, story, and creative process as legitimate epistemological sources — not supplements to research, but its living centre. It draws on Anishinaabeg relational accountability, expressive arts methodology, and six years of structured dream journaling originating in Treaty 3 Territory, Lake of the Woods.

Somatographic inquiry does not extract meaning from experience — it moves with it. Knowledge emerges through sustained attentiveness to sensation, image, narrative, and land. This methodology is documented in full in my thesis Aki: Birthing Dreamworlds (European Graduate School, 2026), and it informs all aspects of my therapeutic practice, coaching, and ongoing research.

Ethics and Accountability

My research is grounded in consent, care, and responsibility. I hold boundaries between public writing and protected teachings, and I centre relational accountability in all work involving community, story, and healing practice.

Published Research

Full abstracts, keywords, and citation information are available through the Scholars and Collaborators space.

Visit Scholars and Collaborators

Research inquiries, speaking requests, or collaboration proposals may be sent through the Contact page.