Alisha O'Neill

Profile

I joined the University of Leeds as a Lecturer in Psychology in Education, where I teach across the BSc Psychology with Education programme and contribute to research at the intersection of psychology and education.

I completed my PhD in Psychology at the University of Manchester. My doctoral research explored how adolescents understand emotional distress and make sense of help-seeking, developing a typology of young people's causal understandings using qualitative and longitudinal data from the HeadStart programme. This work continues to underpin my research, which examines the social and emotional lives of young people and how relationships, identity, and wider social contexts shape experiences of mental health and wellbeing.

Alongside my doctoral research, I have collaborated with the Anna Freud Centre and BeeWell on projects exploring young people's mental health, help-seeking, and wellbeing. My work also explores sexuality and gender, language, identity, and belonging, with a particular interest in how young people make sense of themselves and their experiences within educational and community contexts. More recently, I have been developing a programme of participatory research using collaborative poetry and other creative qualitative methods to explore queer experiences, language, identity, and wellbeing. This work builds on a successful pilot project, Poetry as Process, and is intended to grow into a larger programme of research co-designed with young people.

Across my research, I use qualitative, creative, and participatory approaches to work alongside young people, with the aim of generating research that is theoretically robust, grounded in young people’s experience, and meaningful for educational practice.

Research interests

My research sits at the intersection of psychology and education and explores the social and emotional lives of young people. I am interested in how young people understand emotional distress, seek support, and make sense of identity, belonging, and wellbeing within educational and community contexts.

A central thread running through my work is an interest in young people's own understandings and experiences. Drawing on qualitative, creative, and participatory methodologies, my current research is seeks to explore how relationships, language, and wider social structures shape experiences of mental health, sexuality and gender, and social justice.

Qualifications

• PhD Education
• MEd Psychology of Education
• BA (Hons) in English

Professional memberships

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Student education

I teach across the BSc Psychology with Education programme. My teaching is informed by my research and centres on helping students think critically about psychological theory and its application to real-world educational contexts.

I am particularly interested in creating engaging and collaborative learning environments where students are encouraged to question assumptions, engage with diverse perspectives, and connect theory with lived experience. My teaching draws on qualitative and creative approaches, with a focus on participation, reflection, and developing students' confidence as critical consumers and producers of psychological research.

I welcome undergraduate and postgraduate research projects in areas including children and young people's mental health and wellbeing, identity and belonging, sexuality and gender, qualitative methodologies, and psychology in education.