I am an NIHR Research Professor and Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Manchester. I am also an Honorary Consultant Clinical Psychologist in GMMH.

My professorship focuses on developing digital care pathways and using digital remote monitoring and intervention methods to improve detection and treatment of severe mental health problems. I am involved in research projects funded by all the major UK research funders. Our current focus is on delivering the CONNECT study. CONNECT is a ground-breaking Wellcome Trust funded study across six UK universities. The aim of the study is to develop and validate a personalised risk prediction algorithm for psychosis relapse. In the future, we hope to be able to use the digital data capture platform we develop in this study to help service users in a timely manner.

I am also interested in understanding the psychological and social causes involved in the development and maintenance of psychotic experiences. Along with Professor Katherine Berry, I am Editor of the British Psychological Society journal Psychology and Psychotherapy, Theory, Research and Practice.

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I am a Professor in Clinical Psychology at The University of Manchester. My research interests include the role of insecure attachment (a common consequence of adverse life experiences) in those with complex mental health difficulties.

I have carried out extensive research into the psychological and social causes of psychosis and have published a large body of work on attachment theory and therapeutic relationships.

This includes editing three books on attachment theory (Danquah, A. & Berry, K. 2013. Attachment theory and adult mental health: A clinical guide; Berry, K, Bucci, S., & Danquah, A. 2019. Attachment theory in psychosis. Current perspectives and future directions and O’Shaughnessy, R., Berry, K., Dallos, R., & Bateson, K. (2023). Attachment Theory: The Basics. Taylor & Francis.).

My research also focuses on the development, evaluation and delivery of psychological interventions to improve the wellbeing of people with psychosis and severe mental health needs.

Along with Professor Sandra Bucci, I am Editor of the British Psychological Society journal Psychology and Psychotherapy, Theory, Research and Practice. 

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I am a lived experience researcher and mental health activist and a previous NIHR Postdoctoral Research Fellow. I currently work as a Service-User Research Manager at the Psychosis Research Unit in GMMH and am an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester.

I draw on my own experiences of recovery from trauma and psychosis to promote person-centred approaches to complex mental health problems that emphasise the lived experience and expertise of service-users.  My research interests are the relationships between voice hearing, trauma, and dissociation, and I have published and lectured internationally on these issues. Along with Dr Charlie Heriot-Maitland, I am the co-author of Relating to Voices Using Compassion Focussed Therapy: A Self-Help Companion, and am currently joint Chief Investigator of the Talking With Voices II trial, in addition to PPI collaborator on the Study of Trauma and Recovery (STAR) trial and the Avatar-Mediated Therapy for Hallucinations Superiority (AMETHYST) trial.

I am a research clinical psychologist. I support the day to day running of specific projects, as well as providing clinical support.  

I currently work on i-Minds, an NIHR funded feasibility clinical trial of an app based intervention to support young people who have had distressing sexual experiences online; and RESTART, a project looking at the feasibility and acceptability of trauma focussed interventions for people at high risk of developing psychosis.  

My previous clinical work focussed on working on delivering new therapies for people experiencing psychosis, or at risk of developing psychosis or bipolar disorder as part of clinical trials. I have also worked in hospital-based settings with people experiencing complex and enduring mental health difficulties.  

I am a Research Clinical Psychologist in GMMH. I provide clinical and operational support for specific projects at C-TRU, primarily the CONNECT study. CONNECT aims to use digital tools to develop and validate a personalised risk prediction algorithm for psychosis relapse. I am also currently undertaking a NIHR funded PhD at the University of Manchester. My PhD focuses on investigating the factors that influence the implementation of digital innovations in clinical services for people experiencing severe mental health problems.

Previously, I have worked as Therapy Coordinator on a Wellcome Trust funded multi-site research trial investigating the effectiveness of a novel, digitally assisted therapy (AVATAR therapy) for people who hear distressing voices. I have also worked clinically in secondary care mental health services and have delivered training and supervision for NHS clinicians on a range of psychological and psychosocial interventions for people experiencing psychosis.

I am a senior trial therapist and clinical psychologist. I currently work on the ChUSE study, a feasibility randomised control trial of a novel brief CBT and compassion-focused intervention for children with distressing sensory experiences (e.g., hearing voices, seeing visions) and their parents and carers.

Prior to this role I worked in specialist CAMHS services supporting young people, and the families of young people, who present with complex mental health needs including emotion dysregulation and high-risk behaviours, eating disorders and those at risk of developing psychosis or bipolar disorder. I have also worked with adults who are experiencing a first episode of psychosis or bipolar disorder.

I am a Research Fellow within C-TRU, and I support the day-to-day running of the unit. My research interests include non-diagnostic ways of understanding mental distress, trauma-informed care, psychological interventions for trauma-related difficulties, supporting the psychological wellbeing of health and social care staff, and qualitative research. As a member of the LGBTQI+ community, I am passionate about supporting equity, diversity, and inclusion, with the aim of helping our research to be as accessible and meaningful as possible to people from a diverse range of communities. I am also a Freedom to Speak Up champion within our NHS Trust.

I am currently project manager for the Staff TIME study, which is an interview study exploring how best to support staff working on acute mental health inpatient wards, following distressing and traumatic incidents, which has a particular focus on how to improve support for staff following experiences of racism and other types of discrimination. I am also working with the wider health and care system to inform ways of better supporting health and social care staff more broadly, following the Resilience Hubs Evaluation which explored services set up to support staff affected by their work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I am a post-doctoral researcher with C-TRU. I support the day-to-day running of the research unit, including the coordination of our Lived Experience Advisory Panel.

My research interests include the development, evaluation and delivery of psychological interventions to help improve the wellbeing of children and young people, and their families, in particular those affected by trauma. 

Previously, I worked on developing and evaluating parenting support interventions aimed at reducing post-traumatic stress and emotional and behavioural difficulties in children affected by displacement and war. My current work focuses on managing the i-Minds project.

This project aims to develop and evaluate a digital intervention to improve the mental health of young people who have experienced online sexual abuse and help them stay safe on the internet.

Within this project, I am also the patient and public involvement lead which includes setting up and running the young person lived experience advisory panel with whom the intervention will be co-produced.

I am an Assistant Clinical Research Practitioner for C-TRU as well as the Youth Mental Health Research Unit. I assist with the recruitment of trial participants to RESTART and ChUSE, supporting clinical teams to familiarise themselves with our studies and communicate our research to service users.

Prior to this post, I worked part-time as a research assistant on the TULIPS project, doing qualitative work that was coordinated with my MSc dissertation at the University of Manchester. Before coming to the UK to pursue my postgraduate education and career in mental health research, I worked as an honorary research assistant at the Amsterdam Interdisciplinary Centre for Emotion on a study examining the facial expression of emotion.

Alongside my academic interest in psychology, my own mental health and life experiences have provided me with profound empathy for our study participants. In my work as a first source of information and contact to clinical services and their users, I aim to ensure that their experiences with the research and academic field is as positive and inspiring as possible.

I am an Assistant Clinical Research Practitioner working with C-TRU and the Psychosis Research Unit, where my responsibilities include participant recruitment for the CONNECT and Talking with Voices trials. I collaborate closely with clinical teams to ensure they are well-versed in our studies and effectively communicate our research objectives to service users.

Prior to my current role, I worked as an honorary assistant psychologist within a community mental health team while pursuing my MSc in Clinical Psychology. My dissertation explored the causal pathways of anxiety and depression from an existential terror management perspective. My current research interests include pragmatic approaches to trauma informed care and understanding complex PTSD in persecuted minority ethnic groups.

I am a Research Assistant on the NIHR funded ‘Mindfulness for paranoia’ study hosted within CTRU and sponsored by the University of Southampton. My role involves facilitating recruitment, conducting research assessments and managing the day to day running of the project in the Manchester site.

Prior to joining CTRU I worked as a Research Assistant at the Perinatal mental health and Parenting research unit on the Digital assessment of wellbeing in new parents (DAWN-P) study. In this role, recruited diverse participants from Manchester and Merseyside before the recruitment deadline and retained participants for follow-up assessments. I completed my MSc in Clinical Applications in psychology with distinction at the University of Hull. I was employed after the program as a research assistant on a study that investigated intrusive memories in depression.

I am interested in research that aims to improve mental health outcomes, the development ofmental health interventions, and the inclusion of minority populations in research. I am also actively engaged in mental health advocacy and destigmatising mental health especially in minority populations.

I’m a third year psychology student from The University of Manchester doing a placement as an honorary research assistant. I help out on a range of studies, including Staff TIME, RESTART, STAR, Soteria & more.

I am deeply interested in the link between identity, relationships and emotional regulation. In particular the way that early developmental traumas highlight this. My research interests centre around qualitative approaches to investigating complex post-traumatic stress disorder (cPTSD), attachment theory in later life and codependent coping mechanisms. I am also keen on contributing to the equal and easy accessibility of research for all people.

Previously, I’ve helped the Child Study Centre conduct infant and adult electroencephalograms (EEGs) to investigate language processing in early life. At C-TRU I’m hoping to gain further experience to pursue a career in research and hopefully one day will coordinate my own.

I am an Honorary Research Assistant at C-TRU where I support various studies including RESTART, StaffTIME, STAR and older adult trauma. This role is part of my placement year as an undergraduate psychology student at the University of Manchester.

I have a keen interest in non-diagnostic approaches to mental health care, trauma-informed care and non-medical treatments of psychosis – all of which I’m gaining more experience in throughout this placement. I aspire to work in trauma research after completing my undergraduate degree and work towards becoming a clinical psychologist.

We wanted to get involved and have remained involved because:

• We want to help research that can ultimately improve services and the wellbeing of people who use services.
• We believe in the research the Unit is conducting.
• What we say makes a difference and we can see changes made based on our feedback.
• The work gives us hope.

We contribute significantly to a number of activities including:

• The preparation of research project funding applications to make projects more meaningful, valuable and of potential benefit to those they are intended for.
• The delivery of research projects, such as supporting the training of new research assistants, facilitating recruitment and meaningful engagement of research participants and helping C-TRU staff to resolve ethical and other sensitive issues.  
• The development of guidelines for researchers on how they should sensitively ask research project participants about distressing life events as part of research project assessments and how they should respond to disclosures compassionately and safely.
• The promotion of PPIE in mental health services in the NHS by presenting at the research unit’s conferences.
• The recruitment of new staff to the research unit.

If you are interested in becoming a member of LEAP, please contact Aidan Flinn and Alison Branitsky.

Email: CTRU@gmmh.nhs.uk

Aidan and Alison will arrange for you to meet with a member of C-TRU staff and a member of the LEAP to find out more and have any questions you might have answered. We are keen to hear from underrepresented groups.

• Download the LEAP roles, responsibilities and expectations (PDF)

Our LEAP roles, responsibilities and expectations document has been co-produced with the LEAP and researchers, outline the role and responsibilities of members and the practicalities and expectations of being involved.

Other ways to be involved

There may be times when we need to consult additional people with specific experience on particular issues and we would welcome your help and input.

If you are interested in becoming involved in this capacity, without becoming a member of the LEAP, please get in touch.

The Mind-P study enrolled its first set of participants in 2024 and the team is excited to recruit more people to the trial in the New Year.

To find out more about the MIND-P study, visit our major research projects page.