People

I completed my undergraduate degree at Queen’s University Belfast in July 2017 and enrolled onto the Psychology MSc course at the University of Birmingham later that year. I was based at the Cerebra Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, conducting longitudinal research exploring risk markers for the presence of self-injury in a population of individuals with autism spectrum disorder. I am currently completing my PhD at the Richards Lab, supervised by Dr Caroline Richards and Dr Andrew Surtees, working alongside a multidisciplinary team exploring the impact of prematurity on social understanding (IPSU). This research involves investigating the social cognitive profile of individuals born late-preterm.

I am a PhD candidate with overseas funding and supervised by Dr Andrew Surtees and Prof Sarah Beck. I am currently working on the reasoning in autism using experimental methods. I previously completed my BSc in Psychology at Istanbul University and my MSc in Child and Adolescent Mental Health at King’s College London. Besides my research background, I have clinical experiences both in Turkey and in the UK, most recently as an Assistant Psychologist in a Neurodevelopmental Team at the NHS. My main interests are reasoning, decision-making, thinking, and autism.

I am a doctoral researcher at the School of Psychology of the University of Birmingham. I completed my undergraduate and postgraduate with a major in Psychology. I started my career at Missionaries of Charity as a Psychologist where I was responsible for assessing patients’ behavioural and psychological needs and taking case history and mental status examinations. I was also associated with organising social events, conducting activity sessions, and providing training for carers. I also worked as a Researcher for almost 6 years at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), in Mumbai. I have been a part of several research projects, such as UNICEF Rajasthan Research Project on Access and Utilisation of Mental Health services by the Tribal, Violence against Women, and a UNFPA-funded project on holistic adolescent mental health program in India.

I am a doctoral researcher at the University of Birmingham at the School of Psychology. I completed my undergraduate degree in 2020 and went on to complete the Clinical Psychology MRes in 2022, both here at the University of Birmingham. It was during my MRes placement that I began my research into hoarding disorder, a topic that has become the centre point of my research. During this time, I began collaborating with Clouds End CIC, a social enterprise that aims to help those with hoarding issues. My main areas of interest are how we conceptualise hoarding issues and how we can best support those facing these challenges.

I’m Cat Gercs, a second-year Trainee Clinical Psychologist at the University of Birmingham. I completed my BSc in Psychology at the University of Liverpool and went on to complete an MSc in Foundations in Clinical Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. Prior to starting the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, I worked in the NHS for 6 years as an Assistant Psychologist and Research Assistant across CAMHS and Adult services – both community and inpatient. I have an interest in trauma-informed approaches alongside therapeutic models including Systemic, DBT, and CFT.

I am a second-year student on the MSci Psychology & Psychological Practice course at the University of Birmingham. I have been working with the Surtees Lab on a voluntary basis since March 2021. Besides this, I have clinical experience as an ABA Therapist working with an autistic adolescent across home and community settings.

I am completing a BSc Psychology degree with a year abroad at the University of Birmingham which I find so interesting. I have been working with the Surtees Lab on a voluntary basis since March 2021.  In addition to this, I have experience as an Assistant Psychologist and volunteer work at a domestic abuse organisation and with young, vulnerable children and adults.

I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at the School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham. I completed my undergraduate and master’s degree in Psychology at the Universita’ degli Studi di Napoli – Luigi Vanvitelli. To gain some research experience I worked as a Research Assistant at the University of East London where I collaborated on projects on muscle activity and face recognition. After, I started a PhD in Psychology at the University of Kent. During my PhD, I explored social cognitive abilities and their relationship with executive functions by using a variety of techniques such as eye-tracking and EEG.

I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate with funding from Baily Thomas Charity and working with Dr Andrew Surtees, Dr Caroline Richards, and Dr Wieske Van Zoest. I am currently working on joint attention in autism using experimental methods. I previously completed my BSc in Neuroscience at University of Sussex, my MSc in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at University of York, and my PhD in Psychology at University of Birmingham. My main interests are neurodiversity, open scholarship, joint attention, language, autism, dyslexia, and stammering. 

I am a third-year trainee clinical psychologist. I completed my Psychology undergraduate and MRes degrees at Loughborough University. I went on work in a Learning Disabilities service as an Assistant Psychologist then as a trainee psychological wellbeing practitioner in IAPT before gaining a place in training. My interests include the construct of empathy and factors which may lead to changes in our ability to be empathic.

I’m a third-year clinical psychology doctorate trainee at the University of Birmingham. Prior to my training, I completed my undergraduate in Psychology at the University of Liverpool, graduating in 2011 and working in various settings as an assistant psychologist and research associate following this. A number of these roles offered me the opportunity to work with people experiencing psychosis (early intervention teams, forensic settings) and heightened my interest in this area; in particular, those experiencing their first episode of psychosis.

I completed my undergraduate degree in psychology at Nottingham Trent University. After graduating, I wanted to pursue a career in clinical psychology. I worked as a healthcare worker and assistant psychologist in secure inpatient hospitals before starting the DClinPsy at the University of Birmingham. My interests include studying the effects of anxiety on social cognition in both children and adults. More broadly, I’m interested in factors that affect and enhance performance in sports and organisational settings.

Prior to my ClinPsyD training, I completed an undergraduate degree in psychology and a Clinical Psychology MRes at the University of Birmingham. My Master’s research project related to staff understanding of, and response to negative symptoms in inpatient settings. My first assistant post was within an inpatient unit for adult females with chronic and enduring mental health difficulties. I later worked in older adult services within a memory assessment service and on a dementia ward. Research was routinely conducted as part of this role, most of which involved evaluating the efficacy of psychological interventions to reduce stress and distress in dementia. Additionally, I considered the utility of ‘Mild Cognitive Impairment’ as a diagnostic label and went on to publish a systematic review titled ‘Patient Perspectives about Mild Cognitive Impairment’.

I gained my 2:1 BSC in Applied Psychology, from Durham University in 2012. Before working in a variety of NHS Assistant Psychology positions, in areas ranging from Children and Adolescent Services to Adult Learning Disabilities. However, as I started in a Child and Adolescent service’s Neuro-developmental team, this area (child and young people’s mental health) has remained an area of significant interest to me, particularly the Autism assessment process. I next completed a Master of Science gaining a merit in Forensic Psychology at Coventry University. Before putting this research experience into practice, at a private psychological consultancy, helping author research papers. Following one final NHS position, I gained a place on the University of Birmingham’s Clinical Psychology Doctorate programme.