Dr Elizabeth Roxburgh

I graduated in 1997 with a BSc Psychology (Hons) degree from Staffordshire University and then pursued a career in clinical psychology in the National Health Service where I worked in both community and secure mental health settings with diverse complex clients. I am a qualified counsellor and have volunteered for MIND.

In 2010 I was awarded my PhD in Psychology by the University of Northampton for research exploring the psychology and phenomenology of spiritualist mediumship. I was particularly interested in what could be learnt from this group of individuals that might be useful for people who become distressed by hearing voices or seeing visions. I was also interested in how some individuals who hear voices come to label these experiences as instances of mediumistic communication.

I then worked as a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Northampton from 2010 until 2018 where I specialised in teaching and supervising research on the phenomenology of anomalous experiences, mental health, counselling, and qualitative research methods. I was course leader for the BSc (Hons) in Psychology and Counselling degree, Deputy Subject Leader (Student Experience), and a member of the Psychology Ethics Committee. Between 2018 and 2020 I worked as a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Nottingham Trent University where I developed a BSc (Hons) Psychology with Counselling degree.

I completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education in 2012 and a Postgraduate Certificate in Research Degree Supervision in 2013 at the University of Northampton. I also completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy at the University of Derby in 2012 and a Postgraduate Diploma in Counselling Psychology at Keele University in 2013.

I am a Senior Lecturer in Psychology in the School of Psychology and Life Sciences at Canterbury Christ Church University. I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and my subject expertise is counselling, mental health, psychology of anomalous experiences and beliefs, and qualitative research methods. I supervise both undergraduate and postgraduate research projects.

My research interests fall under the broad remit of wellbeing with a focus on critical and contemporary approaches to mental health, anomalous experiences and beliefs, and sensory processing sensitivity.

I undertook research for the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham, in collaboration with Dr Michael Larkin and the University of Birmingham, using an approach to service development championed by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement called Experience Based Co-Design.

I am interested in anomalous experiences as psychological, social, and cultural events and have received external funding to research synchronicity in the therapeutic setting, counselling for anomalous experiences, and sensory processing sensitivity, anomalous experiences, and precognitive performance. 

• Keynote speaker at The Wellcome Trust supported Conference ‘Other Psychotherapies – across time, space, and cultures’ at the University of Glasgow in April 2017.
• Volunteered for the Spiritual Crisis Network and was keynote speaker at their 2nd annual conference ‘Mending the Gap: Global collaboration towards a more humanistic understanding of mental health and anomalous experiences’ at the University of Westminster in 2016.
• In 2015 she attended the ‘First Transpersonal Research Colloquium: Gathering Our Research Community Together’ in Milan, Italy.
• Elizabeth is interested in international collaboration and in 2014 was awarded funding to visit colleagues in the Psychology department at the University of São Paulo
• Participated in the third meeting of experts on clinical parapsychology hosted by the Institut Métapsychique International in Paris, April 2012 and co-organized by The Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health, Germany and a Dutch foundation, Het Johan Borgman Fonds.
• Reviewer for Qualitative Research in Psychology, British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, Journal of Parapsychology, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research
• Parapsychological Association Research Endowment Committee Member and prior elected Board Member (2-year term)
• Volunteered as a counsellor for MIND and the Northampton Counselling Service