Associate Professor in Research in the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology Programme

Overview: I co-lead the Family Wellbeing and Attachment Relationships research stream in the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology Programme. I undertake research informed by systemic and narrative therapy approaches. 

My research focus is on parental and family wellbeing, primarily in the following areas:

1. Parental mental health: A programme of research within the field of parental and perinatal mental health. This includes qualitative research, involving both parents who experience psychological distress and their children, and focuses in particular on how families communicate together about parental mental health concerns and how families make meaning together and individually about these difficulties.

2. Parental and family loss and bereavement: I collaborate with a number of 3rd sector organisations to research parental journeys through loss and bereavement, including ambigious loss (birth mothers whose children are taken into care or adopted); anticipated loss (parents of children with progressive or life limiting illness) and parental and family bereavement (parental loss of a child).

3. Family meaning-making and communication: Research that investigates how families make sense of and communicate about challenging life events, for example parental mental health contexts, chronic or life limiting illness, or family transitions.

In addition, I undertake research with a focus on:

Diversity and social inclusion: I am committed to research that addresses discrimination and marginalization within training contexts, the wider profession of clinical psychology and within society. This has included qualitative research investigating the experiences of those who experience homelessness and who experience cuts to their disability benefits; as well as the experiences of those from minoritised groups within the profession of Clinical Psychology.

Lizette teaches within the areas of:

• Research Methodology

• Qualitative research methods
• Research processes
• Systemic and Family Psychotherapy and Narrative Therapy approaches
• Equity and inclusion in mental health and social care