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Our Mental Wellness is a lecture series that focuses on mental health topics of broad interest to staff, students and Mental Health logo image of head surrounded by colourful bubblesalumni. This fourth talk in the series, on the topic of Overcoming Mistrust and Paranoia, will be presented by Daniel Freeman, Professor of Clinical Psychology.

A Q&A panel discussion will follow, chaired by Cathy Creswell  (Professor of Developmental Clinical Psychology), and include:

About the talk:

The world can certainly feel a dangerous place. We don’t talk about it nearly enough, but every day each of us must decide whether or not to trust other people. There’s no way around these decisions: they’re an inevitable part of life. Paranoia is excessive mistrust of other people. Many people have a few paranoid thoughts, a few have many paranoid thoughts. This talk will cover a number of key questions: What is paranoia? How common is it? What is the latest scientific understanding of the causes? And what can we do to tackle it?

About the speaker:

Daniel Freeman's work aims to make significant advances in the understanding and treatment of mental health disorders, particularly the problem of paranoia. Drawing on a variety of approaches, including epidemiological studies, psychological experiments, clinical trials, and a ground-breaking virtual reality laboratory, he uses theoretical knowledge to develop carefully tested psychological treatments that will truly make a difference. In particular, he pioneered the use of virtual reality (VR) to assess, understand, and treat paranoia, and he has led work designing and testing new automated VR psychological therapies for mental health disorders.

About the Series:

We have come to realise the importance of mental health issues and the impact they can have on individuals as well as on society at large. But, can you separate the facts from the myths? Do you know how to promote your own mental wellness and help those around you?

At Oxford, we have some of the world’s leading researchers helping us understand the causes of mental conditions and develop effective evidence-based treatments. We are bringing them together in a new series – Our Mental Wellness – to share their knowledge and answer your questions about how we can look after each others’ mental wellness in our community.

Our Mental Wellness talks will take place twice per term. 

Do you have a question you'd like to ask the panel?

When you register, you will be given the opportunity to submit a mental health question related to the topic of the talk for the panel to answer. Alternatively, please email your question to Halley Cohen (Public Relations Officer).

How to register and other practical information: 

Registration is required and only students, staff and alumni at the University of Oxford are invited to attend. Please note that for security reasons, we will only be able to accept registrations from those with an Oxford University email address that ends in @ox.ac.uk. If you don't have an Oxford email address, you will be able to attend the live stream via our YouTube channel.

If you'd like to attend, please click on the registration button below. After you register, you will be sent a unique login link for you to use on the day and please be aware that you won't be able to join the event without it.

The Zoom Waiting Room will open at 9:45am on the day of the talk and attendees will automatically join the talk at 10:00am.

Register now