Profile

I live near Bath with my husband and children (they are 8 and 10). We don’t have any pets although my children are constantly asking for some rabbits.  I would love to have some rescue rabbits again, we will see!

I love travelling and have taken the children to Canada and Lapland.  They loved it and so did I.  It was truly beautiful and we even saw the Northern Lights.  That was out of this world and make you feel really small in the scheme of nature and life.  I also really loved the snow and definitely want to visit Scandinavia again in the winter.  The sledging was amazing, you are never too old!

I also really like being outdoors and try and go for a social walk at lunchtime with colleagues if I can.  I also like running although would not describe myself as a runner.  I am pretty slow but really like running in green areas, pavement running bores me.  I always have to have music unless I am running with a friend.

I like cooking if I have time and make a mean banana loaf.  It’s my fail safe thing to make.  It’s pretty much guaranteed not to go wrong!

I am a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath.  This means that my job involves teaching and research.  I am also a Health Psychologist.  I teach mostly on the Masters in Health Psychology.

Research wise, I do research which helps to better understand how having long term pain affects children and adolescents as well as their family members.  My work helps to look at how we can better support young people who experience pain and their families.  I work closely with healthcare professionals who offer treatment services for young people with ongoing pain and their parents.

I suppose that a typical day involves teaching.  I teach on the Masters in Health Psychology at the University of Bath.  I try and make my teaching as interactive as possible and use lots of youtube clips to bring concepts to life.  Sometimes I even ask my children to help me to prepare pictures or material for lectures I want to give to my students.  The Build A Bear scene below was a lot of fun for them!

If teaching in the morninng then I try and go for a walk at lunchtime with people that I work with.  It’s a good chance to chat and be outside plus do some exercise (ish).  We are quick walkers!  After lunch I usually check on recruitment of studies we are running or talking with one of my PhD students about their projects and how things are going.  After all that, I will do some writing about my research.  This might mean writing part of a scientific paper I am preparing to send to an academic journal to describe the results of a research study I have conducted or working on an application for funding for future research.  I usually write in my office although sometimes write in coffee shops if I really need to focus and not get distracted.

When I get home I like to hear what children and husband have been up to all day.  Once my children are in bed I might watch some tv (The Apprentice is a guilty pleasure) or catch up on adult household stuff!