Felicity Waite

The focus of my work is to develop more effective and easily accessible interventions for people experiencing distressing delusions and hallucinations, including working with young people at risk of psychosis. This involves identifying and testing the mechanisms underpinning psychotic experiences. Then using this theoretical understanding to develop effective treatments to enable people to feel safer, to feel happier and to reengage with the world. Finally, harnessing innovations in technology, such as virtual reality, to increase access to effective psychological interventions to patients throughout the NHS.

Current multicentre projects include Sleeping Better and Feeling Safer. In Sleeping Better we hope to find out if treating sleep problems can prevent the onset of serious mental health problems. This builds on the work of the SleepWell trial and  Better Sleep Trial  which both tested psychological interventions targeting sleep: a key factor contributing to distressing psychotic experiences. Feeling Safer tests an expanded guided online version of our effective psychological treatment for persecutory delusions – Feeling Safe. This exciting project will welcome participants from multiple NHS trusts across the country. 

Previous work includes the gameChange project in which we set out to transform services for patients with psychosis by providing psychological therapies using immersive virtual reality. This NIHR invention4innovation funded project involved collaborations with the Royal College of Arts, the McPin Foundation, NIHR MindTech, OxfordVR, and multiple NHS trusts and universities across the UK. gameChange is now being used in mental health services in the UK and USA. 

Within the Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre, I lead work on understanding, measuring, and modifying mechanisms underpinning mental health problems in children and young people as part of the Mental Health in Development theme. 

Within the Wellcome Clinical Doctoral Fellowship, I will be working to develop a new psychological treatment to build self-confidence. Our self-concept is how we think and feel about ourselves. It shapes our interactions with the world and underpins many mental health problems, including psychotic experiences. To-date clinical research has typically focused on reducing the negative self-concept, yet this is only half the picture. This research will develop a treatment to build the positive self-concept.

I am an HCPC registered Clinical Psychologist and completed my clinical doctorate at the University of Oxford. I received the British Psychological Society May Davidson Award in 2022.