Autumn 2023 - 5-day workshop on the Feeling Safe Programme

The focus of my work is to develop more effective and easily accessible interventions for people experiencing distressing delusions and hallucinations. This involves identifying and testing the mechanisms underpinning psychotic experiences. Then using this theoretical understanding to develop effective treatments to enable people to feel safer, to feel happier and to reengage with the world. Finally, harnessing innovations in technology, such as virtual reality, to increase access to effective psychological interventions to patients throughout the NHS.

Three exciting projects I am currently involved in are the SleepWell trial, the gameChange project, and the Feeling Safe Study. In the SleepWell trial we hope to find out if treating sleep problems can prevent the onset of serious mental health problems in young people aged 14-25 years. The gameChange project aims to transform services for patients with psychosis by providing psychological therapies using immersive virtual reality. This NIHR invention4innovation funded project involves collaborations with the Royal College of Arts, the McPin Foundation, NIHR MindTech, OxfordVR, and multiple NHS trusts and universities across the UK. The Feeling Safe Study is a randomised controlled trial of a novel tranlsational psychological treatment for persecutory delusions. 

Within the Wellcome Clinical Doctoral Fellowship, I will be working to develop a new psychological treatment to build self-confidence. Our self-concept is how we think and feel about ourselves. It shapes our interactions with the world and underpins many mental health problems, including psychotic experiences. To-date clinical research has typically focused on reducing the negative self-concept, yet this is only half the picture. This research will develop a treatment to build the positive self-concept.

Previously I worked on the Better Sleep Trial and SleepWell case series. Both projects tested psychological interventions targeting sleep: a key factor contributing to distressing psychotic experiences.  

I am an HCPC registered Clinical Psychologist and completed my clinical doctorate at the University of Oxford. Prior to clinical training I worked on studies evaluating CBT for people at ultra-high risk of psychosis and developing approaches to promote recovery in early psychosis.

Oxford Cognitive Approaches to Psychosis