Biography
I am currently a Research Fellow working on a collaborative project between ENU and NHS Lothian focused on acute and complex mental health care. My main research interests focus on schizophrenia and psychosis, in the areas of childhood trauma, emotion recognition and regulation, and thought and communication disorder.
After completing my PhD at ENU in 2021 in trauma, emotion regulation and psychosis, I began working as trial manager on two of the first umbrella trials in mental health. Both trials received funding from the Chief Scientists Office and delivered interventions for adults with a diagnosis of psychosis. The DEC:IDES trial offered interventions to support treatment decision making capacity, and the PICASSO trial offered interventions to treat the symptoms of Complex PTSD in those with psychotic symptoms. These trials involved multidisciplinary collaboration with colleagues from the NHS across Lothian, Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Lanarkshire, Pennine, and Lancashire & South Cumbria, along with academic colleagues from Universities of Glasgow, Lancaster and Manchester.
My research to date has primarily investigated causal pathways from childhood trauma to psychotic symptoms, and the development of theoretical models to explain these. My clinical research has used an interventionist-causal paradigm to deliver interventions improve psychotic symptoms. I am interested in continuing this work in future with a particular focus on thought and communication disorder. I am keen to continue working with novel methodological processes to accelerate research, intervention development and testing.