Sussex Mindfulness Centre Researchers
Kate Cavanagh
Kate is a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the University of Sussex, and Honorary Clinical Psychologist in Sussex Partnership NHS Trust. Her research interests include increasing access to evidence-based psychological therapies, including cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness-based interventions, in particular via e-mental health and other self-help resources. Kate is the University of Sussex lead for the Sussex Mindfulness Centre, and collaborates with Dr. Clara Strauss on research projects exploring briefer mindfulness-based interventions and mindfulness-based self-help approaches.
Helga Dittmar
I am an applied social psychologist, working at the University of Sussex. My research focuses on how consumer culture influences people’s well-being and mental health, outlined in my book Consumer Culture, Identity, and Well-being. I am working with Kate Cavanagh and the two SMC Directors, Clara Strauss and Robert Marx, on a research study examining whether mindfulness can help make people more resilient against consumer culture pressures. This mindfulness intervention, a randomised control trial, has received funding from the School of Psychology at Sussex. I am now a qualified mindfulness teacher for Adapted Mindfulness-Based Interventions.
Sussex Mindfulness Centre Doctoral Students
Charlotte Dunkeld
Charlotte’s PhD focuses on factors which affect engagement with digital mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) (such as smartphone apps and websites), and is supervised by Dr Clara Strauss and Dr Kate Cavanagh. The research is half-funded by the widely-known digital MBI, Headspace.
Alison Roberts
Alison is undertaking a PhD at the University of Sussex, supervised by Helen Startup and Clara Strauss with Claire Rosten and Richard de Visser. She has been a clinical psychologist for 14 years and has worked in the NHS since 1999. She works part-time clinically in the neurobehavioural service and part-time as a doctoral researcher at the University of Sussex. People diagnosed with ‘Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder” can experience enduring and intense emotions and high levels of distress. It can be hard to get access to the right kind of psychological treatment and health practitioners working with this group of people often find it hard to know what to offer. The diagnostic label itself can sometimes be stigmatising and a barrier to treatment. We know that Mindfulness Based Interventions can be acceptable and effective for some people and this may be by helping them to be less troubled by emotional states. Alison’s research project will explore what kind of adaptations might need to be made to standard Mindfulness Based Interventions to increase their acceptability, suitability, safety and effectiveness for people with this diagnosis. She will review the existing research literature before consulting with relevant staff and people with lived experience. She hopes to go on to adapt a standard MBI protocol and run a feasibility and acceptability trial and subsequent qualitative interviews. The hope is that this will increase the options available for people diagnosed with “Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder” so that they can more easily access psychological help.
Heather Taylor
Heather is a final year PhD student at the University of Sussex, supervised by Clara Strauss and Kate Cavanagh. Heather’s research is focusing on evaluating mindfulness-based self-help resources.