Research groups
Colleges
Felicity Waite
BSc(Hons) DClinPsy PGCert CPsychol AFBPsS
Research Clinical Psychologist
- Deputy Lead, Oxford Cognitive Approaches to Psychosis (O-CAP)
- Wellcome Trust Clinical Doctoral Research Fellow
- Consultant Clinical Psychologist - Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
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.
Key publications
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A targeted psychological treatment for sleep problems in young people at ultra-high risk of psychosis in England (SleepWell): a parallel group, single-blind, randomised controlled feasibility trial.
Journal article
Waite F. et al, (2023), Lancet Psychiatry, 10, 706 - 718
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Body image concerns in patients with persecutory delusions.
Journal article
Waite F. et al, (2023), Psychol Med, 53, 4121 - 4129
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Comparison of a theoretically driven cognitive therapy (the Feeling Safe Programme) with befriending for the treatment of persistent persecutory delusions: a parallel, single-blind, randomised controlled trial.
Journal article
Freeman D. et al, (2021), Lancet Psychiatry, 8, 696 - 707
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Automated virtual reality therapy to treat agoraphobic avoidance and distress in patients with psychosis (gameChange): a multicentre, parallel-group, single-blind, randomised, controlled trial in England with mediation and moderation analyses.
Journal article
Freeman D. et al, (2022), Lancet Psychiatry, 9, 375 - 388
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Treating Sleep Problems in Patients with Schizophrenia.
Journal article
Waite F. et al, (2016), Behav Cogn Psychother, 44, 273 - 287
Recent publications
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Social jetlag and sleep habits in children and adolescents: Associations with autonomy (bedtime setting and electronics curfew) and electronic media use before sleep.
Journal article
Illingworth G. et al, (2025), Chronobiol Int, 1 - 12
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The social media scale for depression in adolescence
Journal article
Twivy E. et al, (2025), International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 30
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Potential research priorities for understanding and treating severe paranoia (persecutory delusions): a priority-setting partnership between patients, carers, mental health staff, and researchers.
Journal article
Sher DA. et al, (2024), BMJ Ment Health, 27
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Supporting movement and physical activity in people with psychosis: A qualitative exploration of the carer perspective.
Journal article
Diamond R. et al, (2024), Int J Soc Psychiatry, 70, 1525 - 1532
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Theory driven psychological therapy for persecutory delusions: trajectories of patient outcomes.
Journal article
Jenner L. et al, (2024), Psychol Med, 1 - 9