Research Community

Professor Paul Farrand is Professor of Evidence Based Psychological Practice and Research, and Director of the Low-Intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (LICBT) portfolio within Clinical Education, Development and Research (CEDAR), Psychology University of Exeter. He holds several Expert Advisor positions and at an international level acts as a Scientific Advisor regarding worldwide developments in Low-Intensity CBT. He is an internationally renowned expert in LICBT (CBT self-help) and has substantial expertise CBT self-help interventions, especially in a written and mobile phone app format and adapting the interventions for specific groups, such as Armed Forces Veterans, Muslims, Informal Carers and several physical health populations. Paul is currently working on an OVA-funded research project adapting an AI-driven mobile phone app (Iona) to ensure acceptability and effectiveness for ex-servicewomen. 

Professor Sir Simon Wessely FRS is a Psychiatrist and Epidemiologist. He started his psychiatry training at the Maudsley in 1984, and has been at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurosciences, King’s College London, ever since. He established the King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) in 1996 and remains the Co-director alongside Professor Nicola Fear. His main areas of research have been in unexplained symptoms/syndromes, military health, epidemiology, clinical trials and how populations and people react to adversity.

Professor Cotterill is the lead for the Centre for Human Performance Research, His specific area of expertise is the psychology of human performance, and he is both an active practitioner psychologist and researcher in this field. He is experienced as a practitioner psychologist working with a range of military populations focused on psychological performance, mental health and wellbeing. In addition, Prof Cotterill's research seek to better understand factors that impact upon service personnel role performance. Including sleep, resilience, mental health and wellbeing, addiction, stress and coping and performance under pressure. He is also interested in transitions within the military and out of the military into civilian life.

Professor Karatzias, is a Professor of Mental Health at Edinburgh Napier University, UK and a Clinical & Health Psychologist at the Rivers Centre for Traumatic Stress, Edinburgh, UK. He is the Director of Research at Edinburgh Napier University. He is a former Chair of the British Psychological Society Scotland Working Party for Adult Survivors of Sexual Abuse (BPSSS) and is a current member of the Committee of the British Psychological Society (BPS) Crisis, Disaster & Trauma Section and UK Psychological Trauma Society (UKPTS). He has spent his entire clinical and academic career working in the field of psychological trauma. In collaboration with national and international research partners he has developed a special interest in the effects and treatment of psychological trauma on physical and mental health; on prison populations; and on people with learning disabilities. He has published widely in these areas.

As a social scientist within Robert Gordon University, Professor Zoe Morrison worked to further the application of business and management studies to policy driven change programmes. Her work aimed to inform leadership and human resource management theory through understanding individual experiences of change, including changing expectations of work, careers and employment, and adoption and implementation of technological innovation. Her interpretivist research agenda was curiosity inspired and theoretically driven, drawing on the sociology of work and organisations, and military and family sociologies. Zoe worked in three areas: health, defence and carbon emissions mitigation, often referred to as decarbonisation. Zoe has now moved role to be the Lead Specialist in Culture and Experience at NHS Grampian. 

Dr Samantha Brooks is a researcher at the King’s Centre for Military Health Research at King’s College London. She has a PhD in Social Psychology, with a thesis focusing on how accountability is negotiated in talk about body image and disordered eating. She is experienced in qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches as well as evidence synthesis and literature reviews. Her previous research has spanned topics such as non-deployment stressors; stigma and help-seeking in the Armed Forces; secondary traumatic stress in veterans’ significant others; the effectiveness of a mobile app to support veterans’ mental health; the impacts of trauma; the development of trauma-informed interventions; and mental health in the workplace. She currently works on the AFTER study, exploring the psychosocial and sexual experiences of veterans and their partners affected by genital injuries sustained in combat. 

Sarah Rabin is a PhD student within King's Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) looking at the health and well-being of UK LGBT+ Serving and ex-Serving military personnel. Before she started her PhD, she was a Research Assistant within KCMHR and held a dual role working with the NHS Check project and the Academic Department of Military Mental Health. Sarah received her Master's from King's College London in War and Psychiatry, where her dissertation focused on the final withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and its impact on UK Serving and ex-Serving military personnel. She also holds experience researching suicide prevention within US Veteran communities.

Siobhan is a fully funded PhD candidate at the Veterans and Families Institute for Military Social Research, at Anglia Ruskin University. Her research explores the experiences of military mobility for young people from British Army and RAF families, both overseas and within England, drawing on primary data that centres youth voice. Alongside her doctoral work, Siobhan works for SSAFA Community Health, supporting British Forces Overseas as a visiting Children and Young People’s Mental Health Community Nursing Practitioner and ADOS 2 Assessor. From her ongoing PhD research, she has developed a booklet sharing young people’s advice on navigating mobility, which is widely used to support families across the UK and overseas. Siobhan holds an undergraduate degree in Applied Social Science and Social Policy, a master’s degree in Psychology, and a master’s degree in Mental Health Nursing. Her personal, academic and professional work is grounded in supporting the wellbeing of the Armed Forces community.

The work of the Stress, Trauma, and Related Conditions (STARC) Research Centre focuses on the psychological well-being and mental health of those who have experienced stress, adversity, and trauma. The team focus on exploring and understanding predictors, correlates, and impacts of a range of psychological disorders including, but not limited to, PTSD, Depression, Anxiety, and Dissociation and work with a range of different populations (healthcare workers, emergency services, Armed Forces, children and adolescents, as well as the general adult population). Additionally, recent efforts have focused on exploring the concept of post adversity psychological resilience.

Tamara Obradovic is a PhD student at the King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR), King’s College London. Tamara's PhD is a mixed methods study exploring the prevalence and impacts of Military Sexual Trauma in ex-Serving females in the UK, with a particular focus on the implications for mental health and help-seeking. Before joining the King’s Centre for Military Health Research, Tamara completed a masters in psychology at the University of Bristol. Her research interests include women's mental health, the mental health impacts of trauma, and occupational mental health.

Tara Zammit is a PhD Candidate in the Department of War Studies at King's College London. She has been awarded the SSHRC-CRSH Department of National Defence MINDS Initiative Doctoral Award to undertake her research. Tara’s research is situated within the fields of ontological security, feminist security studies, and war studies. She is developing a framework for better understanding the interconnectedness of these subjects through an ontological security lens and an analysis of diverse service experiences with the aim of influencing policy to better support women and LGBTQ+ individuals pursuing careers in defence and security.

The Centre for Military Research Education and Public Engagement is a research, education, public engagement, and practice unit in Scotland dedicated to the Armed Forces. It is based in Edinburgh Napier, a recognised Gold Covenant University, and works with key military stakeholders across Scotland, the UK and internationally through various networks related to armed forces transition, mental health, and wellbeing. At the heart of the centre is a multidisciplinary team of academics, practitioners, veterans, and key military personnel from tri-services with a reputation and demonstrable track record for innovation and flexible approaches to project management, quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methodologies