Our postgraduate research programmes offer the possibility to work with and be supervised by a range of academics, who have international reputations and outstanding publications in their areas of expertise. Clinical and Health Psychology The expertise of our academics in Clinical and Health Psychology cover the whole of the lifespan, focusing on childhood to adult and older adult mental health and emotional wellbeing as well as the psychological impact of chronic physical ill health. Our research involves national and international collaborations, with many projects involving NHS partnerships. Supervisor Specialties: Forensic Psychology Research InterestsEmily NewmanOnline offending and viewing child sexual abuse images.Media portrayal of relationships and its influence on intimate relationships and attitudes to partner violence.Fay HuntleyStructured risk assessment; the use of HCR-20; how formulation can be helpful in supporting people.Supporting the transitions between services to reduce risk.Supporting those in forensic settings detained as a result of psychosis and offending.Ingrid ObsuthSchool exclusion, delinquency, violence, victimisation, and their links with trauma, PTSD, and complex PTSD.Attachment theory and developmental criminology. Jessica HafetzChildren and families' experience family court.Separation and divorce.Making family court more child-centered.Jo WilliamsPsychological risk factors for childhood animal cruelty.Links between animal cruelty and human-directed violence and abuse.Karen GoodallPolice and prison service.Police perceptions of trauma-informed working.Trauma-informed interviewing for vulnerable witnesses.Assessment of intervention to improve police-public interactions.Suzanne O'RourkeCognitive contributions to offending behaviour and risk.Relevance of pre-natal alcohol exposure (PAE) or Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) to involvement with criminal justice.Prevalence of FASD in these services, risk assessment and how FASD might increase risk of contact with criminal justice. Health Psychology Research InterestsZsofia Garai-TakacsPhysiological measures of cognitive processes, emotion regulation, mindfulness and spirituality.Abigail PickardEating behaviours in children and young people.Cognitive mechanisms underpinning food rejection.Eating behaviours of young children that are associated with adiposity risk.The development of persistent fussy eating in childhoodCaroline BrettIntersection between health psychology and positive psychology.Determinants of wellbeing (subjective, eudaimonic, or psychological).Traits, characteristics, and processes that help maintain wellbeing in the face of difficulties; constructs such as personality, resilience, and sense of coherence.Relationship between individual differences (such as personality) and all aspects of health.Behaviour change interventions and techniques.Ewelina Rydzewska-FazekasHealth needs/inequalities experienced by autistic people with/without co-occurring intellectual disabilities (eg. mortality, physical or mental health conditions, socioeconomic variables, risk behaviours, healthy ageing, barriers to healthcare access).Systematic review/meta-analyses, secondary data analysis, big data, data linkage and qualitative approaches.Emily NewmanBody image and disordered eating; consuming social media content; nature of online content.Emily PachecoPsychological and social dimensions of health.Response of individuals and communities to adversity and stress.Psychosocial, behavioural, and contextual factors that shape health outcomes.How evidence-based psychological approaches can support resilience, adaptation, and recovery across diverse populations.Health inequalities, trauma, and global health challenges.Ingrid ObsuthAdolescent mental health across the life-span.ADHD, emotion regulation, trauma, and staff wellbeing in education and children’s services.Digital health; app development; intervention evaluation.Jessica HafetzPrevention of injuries and illness in children and adolescents.Influence of parent-child interactions on health, wellness and injury outcomes for children and young people.Jo WilliamsImpact of physical health conditions, including injuries, on children's development.Children's concepts of health and illness.Development of children's knowledge of specific illnesses with age and experience.Educational interventions relating to health literacy in children and adolescents.Karri Gillespie-SmithMechanisms and processes influencing mental health outcomes (eating disorders, depression, anxiety etc) in Autistic groups and groups with Intellectual Disabilities.Psychosocial aspects including relationships, trauma, self regulation, intersectionality and coping strategies.Autistic people who use alternative communication (historically referred to as non-speaking).Trans/Non-binary Autistic people. Leonor Rodriguez-EstradaImpact of chronic illness on children, adolescents and families.Rare illnesses such as hemophilia, and also cancer.Measuring wellbeing in children with chronic illness.Designing and evaluating interventions; participatory, arts-based and technology-based research.Maria GardaniSleep and insomnia as public health concerns.Exploring the link between sleep and physical health.Investigating lifestyle factors to improve sleep and wellbeing.Monica Truelove-HillContributors towards, outcomes of, and protective factors against parental stress and burnoutMonja KnollWellbeing, emotional intelligence, burnout and mental health outcomes in residential care and mental health servicesMental health, communication skills and emotional intelligence in parents including foster parents and kinship carersPaul Graham MorrisWellbeing benefits of nature; gardening, walking in nature or engaging with wildlife.Preventative health approaches to reduce risk of distress or mental health difficulties.How differing eco-emotions relate to variables such as environmental behaviour or values.Engagement with psychological services; benefits and barriers to public engagement with existing psychology services; public views on reducing barriers to engagement.Behaviour changes and improvements in valued living and wellbeing. Experimental Psychology Research InterestsZsofia Garai-TakacsMindfulness induction and emotion induction experiments.Conducting experiments on spirituality.Conducting lab- and school-based experiments.Meta-analyses.Elizabeth KirkhamNeurocognitive mechanisms of mental illness and early life stress.Neurocognitive mechanisms of obsessive-compulsive disorder.Task-based measures (e.g. responding to emotional facial expressions, stop-signal task); neuroimaging measures; questionnaire-based measures.Emily PachecoUnderstanding human social cognition, identity, and behaviour.Applying experimental methods to real-world questions, especially in relation to stress, adaptation, and decision-making under uncertainty.Translation of experimental findings into practical applications, particularly within disaster, health, and global settings.Ingrid ObsuthAdolescent emotion regulation.Physiological measures such as heart rate, cortisol, and skin conductance to examine stress reactivity, recovery, and attachment processes. Jessica HafetzTransportation psychology. Increasing the safety of the transportation system safer for children and young people.Young drivers and child passenger safety.Karen GoodallExperimental studies relating to mindfulness-interventions, emotional experience and adult attachment.Ecological momentary assessment studies involving attachment security priming and brief mindfulness interventions.Monja KnollAcoustic speech analysis and methods development in relation to social interactions and attachment across the lifespan Exploration of infant- and child-directed speech in a variety of different contexts (parental, residential care, schools) and its impact on socioemotional and linguistic developmentExploration of pet-directed speech and its relation to owner/animal wellbeingTahcita Medrado MizaelUnderstanding and reducing prejudice, such as race/ethnic, gender stereotypes, and LGBTphobia.Behaviour analysis; Relational Frame Theory (RFT). Developmental Psychology Research InterestsZsofia Garai-TakacsDevelopment of self-regulation: emotion regulation, executive function skills and broader cognitive skills.Neurodivergence, especially ADHD.Cross-temporal meta-analysis assessing temporal changes in children's behaviours.Subclinical levels of behavioral and emotional problems.Abigail PickardCognitive development.Neurodevelopmental conditions.Alice GrittiGender Identity and Intersectionality.Mental health and Psychosocial support for refugee children.Angus MacBethIntergenerational Mental Health; perinatal mental health, infant mental health.Developmental Psychopathology; attachment; mentalization and metacognition.Longitudinal designs; interventions; data linkage.Ewelina Rydzewska-FazekasLifecourse transitions for autistic people with/without co-occurring intellectual disabilities.Challenges and inequalities associated with lifecourse transitions (e.g., transition to adulthood, transition to older age, daily transitions between different everyday life contexts etc.).Elizabeth KirkhamImpact of early life stress on the development of the brain; relation to mental illness.How neurodivergence, especially autism, interacts with mental illness.Obsessive-compulsive disorder.Developmental research regarding (young) adult populations.Delphi studies; questionnaire-based research; neuroimaging; task-based experimental paradigms.Emily PachecoImpact of adversity, displacement, and sociocultural change on individual growth, adaptation, and meaning making.Development of identity; relating to emotional, cognitive, and social processes.Cultural, environmental, and relational influences on identity.Integrating developmental theory with applied research and context-sensitive approach.Resilience, belonging, and the long-term impacts of early life experiences. Fay HuntleyParenting factors and their prospective associations with child outcomes.Parental mental health/personality difficulties.Ingrid ObsuthHow attachment and key social contexts shape development from childhood through adolescence.Teacher–student relationships, experiences of victimisation and abuse, care experience, and patterns of emotion regulation.Disorganised attachment.Longitudinal studies; app development.Relationships/attachment to AI from childhood to young adulthood.Relationships/attachment to AI in clinical populations.Jamie Kennedy-TurnerAttachment, family dynamics, and child and adolescent mental health, especially youth self-harm and suicidality, family communication, and parenting behaviours.Attachment and mentalization theories.Quantitative and qualitative analyses; mediation/moderation; path analysis. Jessica HafetzSeparation and divorce among co-parents with children.Relational aggression as a tool to harm relationships between parents and children.Jo WilliamsTypical and neurodivergent development (including autism, ADHD, and dyslexia).Child and adolescent mental health.Human-animal interactions (HAI); effects of pets on child development and health; animal-assisted interventions for mental health; animal cruelty.Karen GoodallAdverse childhood experiences/trauma; relationship to mental health outcomes, emotion regulation and attentional control.Parental attachment style. Child dispositional mindfulness.Karri Gillespie-SmithDevelopmental trajectories of social cognition and wellbeing in Autistic children and children with Intellectual Disabilities.Contextual variables (i.e. relationships, coping strategies, emotion regulation, parenting) and their relationship with socio-cognitive processes and wellbeing.Leonor Rodriguez-EstradaDevelopmental impact of chronic illness.Developmental impact of bereavement.Research methods and ethics of child and adolescent research.Impact of age, gender and individual differences on death.Bereavement interventions and death education.Designing and evaluating interventions; participatory, arts-based and technology-based research.Monica Truelove-HillThe impact of parental stress and burnout on childrenMonja KnollSocio-emotional and linguistic development across a wide range of lifespan stages Long-term mental health outcomes in looked after and accommodated childrenParent-child interactions and their impact on mental health and relationshipsEmotional intelligence and pet relationships as protective factors for children’s and young people’s mental healthSuzanne O'RourkePre-natal alcohol exposure (PAE) or Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).Neurodevelopmental disorders if inclusive of FASD.Relevance of pre-natal alcohol exposure (PAE) in increasing the risk of other neurodevelopmental conditions or the misdiagnosis of FASD.Prevalence or relevance of PAE or FASD in high-risk groups. Clinical Psychology Research InterestsZsofia Garai-TakacsAnxiety, including clinical and subclinical levels in both adults and children and young people.Experimental manipulations (e.g. mindfulness).State anxiety.Alice GrittiMental health and psychosocial support interventions in at-risk groups (refugees and displaced populations in Scotland).Aid workers’ mental health.Global mental health.Widening access to mental health support.Angus MacBethComplex mental health; personality disorder; psychosis; trauma; depression; anxiety.Intervention development and evaluation.Mentalization and metacognitive therapies.Working with parents; parenting interventions.Global mental health.David GillandersAcceptance and Commitment Therapy.Psychological Flexibility.Adjustment to ill health.Cancer survivorship, particularly Prostate Cancer.Palliative care, end of life, and bereavement.Training and competency development in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.Ewelina Rydzewska-FazekasAssessment, diagnosis, and treatment of co-occurring conditions/disorders experienced by autistic people with/without co-occurring intellectual disabilities.Intersection of various psychological, biological, and social factors contributing to the state of ill-health or wellbeing in autistic people.Elizabeth KirkhamObsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD); neural correlates of OCD; neurocognitive mechanisms which contribute to the onset or maintenance of OCD; factors involved in chronicity.Treatment and relapse of OCD.Affective neuroscience of early life stress and its relationship to mental ill health.Quantitative research; Delphi method; questionnaire-based research; EEG; experimental tasks. Emily PachecoExperiencing/interpreting/recovering from psychological distress; context of trauma, displacement, and adversity.Culturally-responsive approaches to understanding mental health; how social context, identity, and structural factors shape clinical presentations and pathways to care.Using evidence-based frameworks; remaining critically engaged with questions of access, equity, and relevance across diverse populations.Emily TaylorAttachment and interpersonal functioning.Preventative and curative interventions for young people who experience significant early life adversity.Care-experienced children and young people.Fay HuntleyWorking clinically in forensic settings, risk assessment, eating disorders and formulation.Relational models and how these may support those in distress.Helen GriffithsApplication of mentalization theory; impact of mentalization-based approaches on delivery of therapy and service provision.Therapist/clinician mentalizing; optimising service environments to sustain and/or enhance clinician mentalizing.Impact of therapist mentalizing on therapist-patient interactions.Influence of therapist/clinician mentalizing on clinical outcome and process.Service responses to help-seeking individuals with complex presentations.Helen SharpeExploring risk and resilience processes in the development of eating disorders using large surveys.Development and evaluation of prevention and early intervention approaches for eating disorders.Ingrid ObsuthAdolescence in the context of life-span development.Neurodiverse adolescents (such as adolescents with ADHD).PTSD; complex PTSD.Emotion regulation.Clinical assessment; attachment-based intervention; adolescent services; app development. Jamie Kennedy-TurnerPsychological characteristics of those in mental health professions, especially in attachment and mentalization.Influence of characteristics on professionals' interactions and communication, and therapeutic effectiveness.Reflective practice and its use in healthcare professions.Quantitative and qualitative analyses; mediation/moderation; path analysis. Karen GoodallPsychosis; associations between negative symptoms and childhood experiences; attachment style, childhood adversity and trauma.Attachment-based interventions for staff working with inpatients.Trauma-informed working across services, eg. substance use services.Laura CariolaLanguage and mental health; dyadic interactions, psychotherapeutic processes, and intervention outcomes.Minority populations and mental health.Representations of mental health in public discourse.Developmental experiences in migrant youth (including Third Culture Kids).Developmental experiences in LGBTQIA+ youth.Lived mental health experiences and media portrayals of mental health, and implications for stigma and support.Maria GardaniOnset and maintenance of sleep and circadian difficulties across the lifespan.Association of sleep with mental health and wellbeing in addition to physiological and environmental factors.Designing tailored sleep intervention programs to improve sleep and mental health outcomes across different populations.Mark HoelterhoffIntersection of clinical psychology, positive psychology, and higher education.Wellbeing, resilience, and transformative learning.Strengths-based and relational approaches.Psychological growth in individuals and systems, especially within university communities.Intrapersonal strengths, identity development, and systemic factors.Paul Graham MorrisWellbeing benefits of nature; reducing distress or mental health difficulties among clinical populations; gardening, walking in nature, or engaging with wildlife.Outdoor Psychological Therapy; conducting psychological therapy outdoors, evaluating provision of outdoor psychological therapy.Reducing or prevent eco-emotions from reaching levels that have a substantial negative effect upon mental and/or physical health.Sue TurnbullNeuropsychological assessment, rehabilitation, support and adjustment to dementia and neurological conditions including functional neurological conditions. Neurodiverse older adults in mental health and dementia assessment and support.Tahcita Medrado MizaelAcceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT); Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy (CBT); Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP); Process-based Behavior Therapy (PBBT).Clients from minoritised backgrounds.Cultural competence.Assessing and improving psychological therapies for non-White, LGBTQIA+, autistic and other minorisited groups.Feminist approaches to psychotherapy and affirmative therapy.Tim BirdDevelopment of psychopathology.Mediators of change in psychological therapies.Mentalising; relationship between mentalising and wellbeing in psychological therapy trainees; impact of therapist mentalising on therapist-patient interactions in psychological therapies. Counselling Studies The expertise of our academics in Counselling and Psychotherapy specialise in qualitative, reflexive and critical approaches to research, and have particular expertise in practice-based research that draws directly on practitioners' own therapeutic work, on the client's experience of therapy, and in narrative, reflexive and auto-ethnographic methods. We are especially keen to encourage research concerned with the interface between counselling, psychotherapy and social, cultural and political life. Supervisor Specialties: Health in Social Science Research InterestsProf Amy ChandlerSuicide StudiesSelf HarmCommunity healthQualitative methodsDr Andy HarrodNature & HealthNature-based InterventionsCritical Green Social PrescribingIndividual, Community & Ecological WellbeingRelational Selves (Being & Belonging)Critical Therapeutic Landscapes ExperiencesPerson-centred Psychotherapy InquiryDr Sarah HuqueSuicide StudiesDisability StudiesCommunity healthAccess to blue and green spacesParticipatory research methodsDr Mariya LevitanusQueer and Trans LivesLGBTQIA+ StudiesDecolonial StudiesSexuality and relationship diversity within counselling and psychotherapyNarrative inquiryDecolonial queer and trans approachesQueer ethicsDr Hazel MarzettiSuicide StudiesLGBTQIA+ StudiesHealth inequalitiesInterdisciplinary approachesQualitative methodsDr Anna RossDrugs recoveryDrugs useDrug PolicyAlternative healthCritical health policySpiritualityDr Paula JacobsDisability StudiesIntellectual disabilityCare-relationshipsCare-experienced children and young peopleEthics of careQualitative researchDr Katey WarranCommunity healthArts-Based MethologiesCultural sociologySociology of health and illnessQualitative methods Counselling and psychotherapy Research InterestsDr Andy HarrodNature & HealthNature-based InterventionsCritical Green Social PrescribingIndividual, Community & Ecological WellbeingRelational Selves (Being & Belonging)Critical Therapeutic Landscapes ExperiencesPerson-centred Psychotherapy InquiryDr Nini KerrPsychoanalytic inquiryPsychosocial StudiesDecolonial StudiesCritical theroy and postcolonial criticismCreative methodologiesPsychoanalytically-informed cultural analysisDr Fiona MurrayFeminist inquiryPost-humanist inquiryAutoethnographyWriting as a method of inquiryResearch-creation and multimodal projectsPornographyRelationships in counselling and psychotherapyDr J. Karen Serra UndurragaDecolonial StudiesNeoliberalism in Everyday Life(Neo)colonialism and neoliberalismDecolonisation in Higher Education in the UKDr Zoi SimopoulouResearch relationshipsPsychoanalytic inquiryDeath StudiesArts-based methologiesRelational psychoanalysisChildhood; living losses; grief; death and dyingIntergenerational hauntings; spiritualityProf Jonathan WyattPost-structural, post-humanist, new materialist, and 'post-qualitative' inquiriesAutoethnography ('assemblage/ethnography')Writing and collaborative writing as inquiryThe experience of lossThe therapeutic encounter Social, political, and cultural issues Research InterestsDr Marisa De AndradeSocial inequalitiesCommunity healthCommunity-led approaches to tackling inequalitiesDr Sarah HuqueSuicide StudiesDisability StudiesCommunity healthAccess to blue and green spacesParticipatory research methodsDr Nini KerrPsychoanalytic inquiryPsychosocial StudiesDecolonial StudiesCritical theroy and postcolonial criticismCreative methodologiesPsychoanalytically-informed cultural analysisDr Mariya LevitanusQueer and Trans LivesLGBTQIA+ StudiesDecolonial StudiesSexuality and relationship diversity within counselling and psychotherapyNarrative inquiryDecolonial queer and trans approachesQueer ethicsDr Edgar Rodríguez-DoransLGBTQIA+ StudiesPerformance StudiesDeath StudiesUses of lived experience in theatre and performanceDance and movement at the intersection of mental healthCreative approaches to counselling and psychotherapyDr J. Karen Serra UndurragaDecolonial StudiesNeoliberalism in Everyday Life(Neo)colonialism and neoliberalismDecolonisation in Higher Education in the UK Innovations in qualitative inquiry Research InterestsDr Hazel MarzettiSuicide StudiesLGBTQIA+ StudiesHealth inequalitiesInterdisciplinary approachesQualitative methodsDr Fiona MurrayFeminist inquiryPost-humanist inquiryAutoethnographyWriting as a method of inquiryResearch-creation and multimodal projectsPornographyRelationships in counselling and psychotherapyDr Edgar Rodríguez-DoransLGBTQIA+ StudiesPerformance StudiesDeath StudiesUses of lived experience in theatre and performanceDance and movement at the intersection of mental healthCreative approaches to counselling and psychotherapyDr Zoi SimopoulouResearch relationshipsPsychoanalytic inquiryDeath StudiesArts-based methologiesRelational psychoanalysisChildhood; living losses; grief; death and dyingIntergenerational hauntings; spiritualityProf Jonathan WyattPost-structural, post-humanist, new materialist, and 'post-qualitative' inquiriesAutoethnography ('assemblage/ethnography')Writing and collaborative writing as inquiryThe experience of lossThe therapeutic encounterDr Katey WarranCommunity healthArts-Based MethologiesCultural sociologySociology of health and illnessQualitative methods Health in Social Science Our staff in Health in Social Science embrace a range of academic disciplines and offer a focus on innovative and cross-disciplinary health and social care research. From these perspectives we examine the overlapping concerns of research, policy and practice in health and social care. We welcome projects utilising a range of research designs and have special interests in qualitative and collaborative research and innovative methods. We are keen to encourage research around the interface between social and cultural aspects of health, and the policy and practice contexts of healthcare delivery. Nursing Studies Our main areas of research activity and development in Nursing Studies currently relate to the themes of experience of health and illness, and organisation and policy for person-centred care. We have expertise in a range of qualitative and quantitative and mixed methods research approaches. An important aspect of our work concerns knowledge transfer and effective engagement with NHS, social care and lay organisations. Supervisor Specialties: Workforce Development Research Interests Professor Aisha HollowayGlobal Nursing WorkforcePolicy development, policy influence, Human Resources for Health, early career development, practice, regulation, legislation, attraction, retentionLeadership development, political leadership, workforce pay negotiationsTrials, Qualitative, Mixed Methods, Process EvaluationsDr Catherine ClarissaGlobal Nursing WorkforceNursing Mental Health and WellbeingLeadership developement in early career nursingProfessor Tonks FawcettClinical decision makingDr Elaine Haycock-StuartEducation of workforcePrimary care community-leadership and workforceDr Marti BalaamWorkforce Wellbeing: self compassion, burnoutRepresentations of nurses in the media, gender, sociologyQualitative methods, social constructionism, hermeneuticsDr Lissette AvilesGlobal nursing workforceNursing emotion management and wellbeingEvidence-based nursing education in practiceDr Jenni TocherInterdisciplinary simulated learningDr Sarah RhynasStudent nurse educationTransition to newly qualified nursing rolesSkills acquisition and simulation in curricular developmentCoaching approaches in nurse educationCreative approaches to nurse educationDr Susanne KeanWorkforce: nurses in critical care issues Acute Critical Trajectories to Recovery and Rehabilitation Experience Research Interests Professor Tonks FawcettCancer care issuesPainDr Lissette AvilesStroke and acquired brain injury rehabilitation's experiencesExperiences of organ donation and transplantationFamily and person-centred care in critical care and practiceDeath and dying in critical care contextsDr Susanne KeanPerson and family centered care (PFCC) in critical careRecovery and/or survivorship after critical illness Experiences of families and patients with acute and/or chronic critical illnessIntervention studies in critical careDr Catherine ClarissaPost-stroke rehabilitation for young adultsMultidisciplinary team in critical carePatient experience of intensive careDr Jenni TocherLiver, renal and/or pancreatic surgeryNurses experiences of approaching relatives for organ donationPain in critical careDr Colin ChandlerNeurorehabilitation Global Public Health Research InterestsProfessor Aisha HollowayGlobal Public Health: LMICs, Alcohol, NCDs, Development, Implementation and Evaluation of Complex Health InterventionsDr Elaine Haycock-StuartBreastfeedingMaternal healthChildhood injuryDr Divya SivaramakrishnanIntervention development and evaluationPhysical activity and sedentary behaviourHealthy ageingDr Glenna NightingaleEpidemiologyEvaluation of public health interventionsModelling Longitudinal health related dataDr Andrew James WilliamsChild and adolescent health and rightsComplex systems and health (health creation)Dr Stephen MaldenChildhood obesityDr Sarah RhynasDementia and ageingDelirium, older peopleAlcohol related harm, homelessnessCreative research approaches Marginalisation and Health Research InterestsDr Richard LowrieMultimorbidityClinical trials of pragmatic interventionsSubstance misuse including technological innovations to prevent overdoseRespiratoryDr Stephen MaldenHomelessnessProf Sarah JohnsenHomelessness and inclusion healthDr Rosie StenhouseMental healthGlobal mental healthPower/discourse analysisSocial determinants of mental healthDr Leah MacadenAgeing Dementia including pedagogical approaches to workforce development, sensory impairments, dignityEnd of life careDr Sarah RhynasDementia care, ageingAlcohol related harm, homeless and marginalised groupsReaching marginalised populations with creative research approaches