Dr. NAN Kin Man Joshua

Associate Professor of Practice
Felizberta Lo Padilla Tong School of Social Sciences
Key Research Areas
  • Emotion regulation
  • Body-mind interaction
  • Nonverbal & verbal processes in social work/therapeutic practice
  • Art therapy and implied neurological processes
  • The Expressive Therapies Continuum
  • Life-death education & hospice care
  • Clay art therapy creative/expressive arts therapies & holistic wellbeing
  • Depth psychology & integration with art therapy

 

 

 

 
Core Areas of Expertise
Dr. Nan specializes in art therapy and social work, focusing on emotional regulation, body–mind interaction, and expressive arts for mental health. His work integrates psychological theory, neuroscience, and creative practices to explore therapeutic processes, particularly using clay and multimodal art to enhance wellbeing, resilience, and holistic personal development.

 

 Recent Publications
2026
  • Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC) across creative arts practice: Integrating theory and application (ed.) Routledge.
  • Expressive Therapies Continuum arts-based supervision approach
  • Expressive modalities for adults with adverse life experiences
2023
  • Effects of clay art therapy on emotion regulation and hair cortisol concentration for youth with emotional problems
2022
  • Effects and mechanisms of an online short-term audio-based mindfulness program on positive affect: A randomized controlled trial including exploratory moderator analyses
  • Effectiveness of an online shortterm audiobased mindfulness program on negative emotions during the COVID19 pandemic: Latent growth curve analyses of anxiety and moderated mediation effects of anxiety between mindfulness and negative affect

 

 Awards & Patents
2023
  • The Best Paper. The American Art Therapy Association (2023), for "The effects of clay art therapy on emotion regulation and hair cortisol concentration for youth with emotional problems", Art Therapy: J. of the Amer Art Therapy Asso. DOI: 10.1080/07421656.2023.2202289.
2022
  • Nomination for The President's Award -- Teaching (2022), Hong Kong Baptist University.
2015
  • Recognition of selected early-career researcher. Society of Behavioral Medicine, US (2015). Oral Presentation on "Promoting and Restoring Emotional Well-Being: Effects of clay art therapy for depressed patients" 
  • The Best Poster. Post-Graduates Research Conference, Fac of So Sci, HKU. (2015), on "Therapeutic effects of clay art therapy for patients with depression".