Personal Statement
I joined the University of Liverpool, Institute of Psychology Health and Society from the Division of Psychiatry, University of Nottingham in September 2012. I have held previous academic appointments in the School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester and Dept. of Psychology, UCL.
I am based in the department of Primary Care and Mental health where I work 3 days a week in a research and teaching capacity.
I sit on the department's Research Committee and lead the research theme Sustainable Approaches to Mental Health and Wellbeing. I play a lead role supporting mental health and wellbeing research and practice within NIHR ARC North West Coast and co-lead the public mental health work package in the Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre Coast. I am interested in the way that community an society impacts mental health and wellbeing and the interaction of these wider determinants with psychological mechanisms associated with mental distress and wellbeing. I am particularly keen on increasing the knowledge base about how our living, social and built environment impacts our ability to feel good and function well. I supervise doctoral students on the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and those pursuing PhD programmes.
I'd be happy to hear from potential postgraduate students with an interest in studying the psychological, social and/or environmental determinants of mental health and wellbeing.

Research Overview
My research focuses on psychological, social and environmental mechanisms and determinants of mental distress and wellbeing. In particular I am interested in social cognition and on how our living environment affects our ability to feel good and function well. As an applied social scientist, my mission is to put research findings into practice. I do this by combining my work at the university with my work as a co-director of Prosocial Place , a social enterprise that specialises in putting wellbeing and mental health at the heart of place-making and regeneration. In this capacity I have worked on several national programmes such as the NHS Healthy New Towns Initiative and with DLUHC, DCMS and Design Council.
My work in social cognition involves both 'clinical' and non-clinical groups of people where I have a particular interest in the psychosis spectrum, common mental distress and the autistic spectrum.
I use diverse methods within quantitative and qualitative approaches including real world and realistic evaluation, quasi-experimental and neuroscientific techniques.