After studying Psychology (PPSIS) at undergraduate, I trained as a Mental Health Nurse and have been practicing for 6yrs in NHS Child and Adolescent Mental health Services. In 2024 I started in a part-time role a Senior Practitioner in South London & Maudsley Recovery College. Funded by London Interdisciplinary Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (ESCR) https://liss-dtp.ac.uk/, I started at King’s in 2020 as a masters’ student on the Mental Health Studies MSc at King’s College London. In 2021 I began my PhD in the Qualitative Research Group, supervised by Professor Vanessa Lawrence and Professor Claire Henderson.
Research interests
Whilst at KCL, I have been working alongside the RECOLLECT team furthering the evidence basis for Recovery Colleges in England. Recovery Colleges take a coproduced, adult education approach to promote personal recovery in mental health and encourage recovery-oriented practice. In line with these aspirations, I have aimed to use coproduction and participatory research methods where possible.
My PhD focuses on family carers’ experiences of Recovery Colleges, using participatory research methods to explore ways Recovery Colleges can improve inclusion of family carers.
My special areas of interest include coproduction and participatory research methods, qualitative and arts-based research methods, family carers of those with mental ill-health, and Recovery Colleges (nationally and internationally).
Public engagement and impact
I worked alongside the NIHR Carer’s Steering Group to develop some resources for carers and researchers on involving carers in research.
Together with three family carer coresearchers, following our focus group study, we held an internationally attended webinar with over 70 attendees on how Recovery Colleges might involve family carers further. We codeveloped and disseminated the following resources as a result of our webinar and research:
- Understanding the experiences of carers, friends and family attending Recovery Colleges: A focus group study
- Ideas for Recovery Colleges to better include family / carers
- In collaboration with Imroc and Lincolnshire Recovery College, we wrote a briefing paper on including family carers in Recovery Colleges.
Since starting my PhD, I also undertook and Overseas Institutional Visit in 2023 as an adjunct research fellow at La Trobe University, Melbourne, working with Professor Lisa Brophy and Professor Richard Gray. We organized a collaborative seminar discussing Recovery Colleges and potential for their collaboration with universities, with 12 speakers from community organizations and services across Australia, and over 100 attendees online/in person.
Working alongside Peter Bates – Peter Bates, we recently collaborated with the Joint Research & Development Office of IoPPN and SLaM | Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience | King’s College London( to find ways research governance systems can improve their systems for involving peer researchers from the community in conducting research, see our blog Peer researchers in NHS research: approved in principle, undermined in practice?.
I am also involved in Inspiring Ethics | QUAHRC who work to bridge the divide and challenging barriers between community and academia, looking at new more equitable ways of conducting research.
Finally, our most recent research project with Oxfordshire Recovery College and four family carer coresearchers which led to the coproduction of a Recovery College course ‘Nurturing Creativity Whilst Caring’, won the King’s Engaged Research Award for National Participatory Research (View the full list of King’s Engaged Research Awards 2025 winners) and a poster prize at the recent Refocus on Recovery Conference 2025 Nurturing Creativity whilst Caring: Participatory Action Research with family carers and a Recovery College. You can also read our blog here “Now it’s time for the carers to be involved”: Exploring participatory action research with carers and recovery colleges | ARC South London
