School of Health Sciences and Social Work

Profile

Background

From 2000-2003, Karen read Psychology at the University of Southampton (BSc  1^st Class). Karen was then awarded a 1+3 ESRC postgraduate award to complete her MSc Research Methods in Psychology, followed by a PhD, which she completed in 2007. Her thesis was entitled ‘The Reconciliation of Traumatic War Memories throughout the Adult Lifespan: The Relationship between Narrative Coherence and Social Support’.

After a brief stint in the commercial market research sector, followed by a Research Assistant post at the University of Reading, Karen joined University College London as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in 2008. At UCL, Karen worked on the SHIELD (‘Support at Home: Interventions to Enhance Life in Dementia’) research programme, led by Professor Martin Orrell. In this role she helped to develop and manage one of the psychosocial interventions within the programme, which was a multisite pragmatic Randomised Controlled Trial concerning peer support for family carers of people with dementia alone and in combination with reminiscence group work. She also served as the Qualitative Methods Advisor across the programme.

Research Interests

Her research interests include the impact of war experience of formerly serving military personnel and the role of social support in coping with these experiences. And, more generally, the  physical, mental, and emotional changes that occur throughout the adult lifespan, with a particular focus on how events in life challenge perceptions of the self and world, and how these challenges can be overcome through psychosocial and narrative interventions.

Karen is currently part of the PEOPPLE (Putting Evidence for Older People into Practice in Living Environments) project, which aims to work with local older people to address some of the unmet needs of older people living in the community. 

Recent Publications

More recent publications