Meet the team behind The Calming Minds Project
As a dedicated group of experts from the UK, Germany, and the USA, we’re combining our diverse skills and academic expertise to develop new and better ways to improve mental health treatment and prevention. But who are we? Find out more about the team driving The Calming Minds Project, our backgrounds, and where we work.
Professor Ed Watkins
Professor of Experimental and Applied Clinical Psychology, University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Professor Michelle G. Craske
Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Professor Thomas Ehring
Professor of Clinical Psychology and Psychological Treatment, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany
Dr Sarah Morgan-Trimmer
Senior Research Advisor, Population Health Sciences, University of Southampton, UK
Lived Experience Advisory Panel
Dr Henrietta Roberts
Research Fellow, University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Christina Cordes
Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner, University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Jenny Stefanova
Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner, University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Prue Yeoman
Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner , University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Gurs Sond
Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner, University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Martin Howard
Project Manager, University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Katie Joyce
Trial Manager , University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Dr Sabrina Meechem
Research Fellow, University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Dr Katie Wood
Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Dr Sarah O’Rourke
Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Joanna Hunsmann
PHD candidate, Munich
Dr Julia Funk
Research Fellow, Munich
Kayla Drazan
Research Co-ordinator, UCLA
Ed Baxter
Data Systems Manager, Exeter Clinical Trials Unit (CTU), Devon, UK
Diana Kylymnyk
PhD researcher (psychology and computer science), University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Helen England
PhD researcher (psychology), University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Who we work with
Our partners
The Calming Minds Project involves the collaboration of world-leading institutions and academics.
These partnerships ensure that our research is comprehensive, advanced, and impactful, helping us to shape better mental health interventions and outcomes globally. The Wellcome Trust has funded the project with a share of £47Million made available through its Looking Backwards, Moving Forwards award.
Project lead
University of Exeter, Devon, UK
As part of the Russell Group, the University of Exeter is a leading UK education provider renowned for its excellence in world-leading research. The research group is based on the main campus at The Mood Disorders Centre, a partnership between the NHS and the University of Exeter. It’s mission is to conduct psychological research alongside assessment, treatment, and training to benefit people who need it.
Our partners
The Wellcome Trust
Wellcome supports science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone. We support discovery research into life, health and wellbeing, and we’re taking on three worldwide health challenges: mental health, infectious disease and climate and health.
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA
The University of California, Los Angeles, is a prestigious public research university known for its academic excellence and research facilities. Michelle Craske leads the UCLA STAND for Community Colleges Innovation Center, part of the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge, which aims to halve the global burden of depression by 2050. Established in 2022 with National Institute of Mental Health funding, the Center, co-led by Dr Kate Wolitzky-Taylor, focuses on optimising and implementing STAND for underserved community college students while engaging stakeholders, providing training, and exploring opportunities for adoption of the STAND model by other community colleges.
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich (LMU), Germany
LMU Munich is one of Europe’s leading public research universities and is highly regarded for its accomplishments. The research group led by Thomas Ehring is based at LMU’s Department of Psychology. The group’s main focus is translational research to improve psychological interventions for posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, and depression by mainly concentrating on transdiagnostic processes, such as repetitive negative thinking and emotion regulation.
Lived Experience Advisory Panel
Our lived experience advisory panel are working with us throughout the project to consult and coproduce various elements. They ensure that all the work we do stays relevant to those it’s aiming to support.
Dr Sarah Morgan-Trimmer
Senior Research Advisor, Population Health Sciences
University of Southampton, UK
Sarah is a social scientist with over 20 years’ experience in qualitative methods, mixed methods, theory-based evaluation, behaviour change, and social inequality. She has led methodological aspects of studies across a range of study designs, from large programme grants and randomised controlled trials to ethnographic studies.
The overall focus of her work is to understand how complex interventions operate, through examining how interventions are implemented, how they produce change in participants, and how they are affected by contexts.
She has conducted research in various fields including primary care, mental health, surgery and public health. Before academia she led evaluations of public and voluntary sector programmes addressing child poverty, unemployment and substance abuse.
Find out more on Sarah’s University of Southampton profile page >
Jenny Stefanova
Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner
University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Jenny is a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner on the Calming Minds Project. She is supporting research participants and the digital delivery of interventions.
Jenny has worked in clinical and education administration roles in the past. In her most recent role, Jenny worked as a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner for NHS Talking Therapies in Devon, supporting the local community and university students.
Prue Yeoman
Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner
University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Prue is a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner on the Calming Mind Project. Her role involves delivering interventions and supporting research participants.
Prue has worked as a Colleague Wellbeing Practitioner supporting health, social care and police staff, as a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner in Talking Therapies, as an NHS Health and Wellbeing Coach and as an E-therapy co-ordinator helping people with digital CBT programmes. Prue is also trained in solution-focused approaches and is passionate about providing warm, supportive therapeutic environments where people can flourish.
Gurs Sond
Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner
University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Gurs is a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner in The Calming Minds Project. His role involves delivering guided self-help to participants to help combat rumination and overthinking.
They hold an undergraduate and masters qualification in Psychology, and have worked in a wide range of clinical settings. Their previous role was in the NHS Talking Therapies working within the community to support people with depression and anxiety.
Katie Joyce
Trial Manager
University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Katie is the Trial Manager for the Calming Minds Project and joined the project team in June 2025. Katie has worked for the Exeter Clinical Trials Unit at University of Exeter since January 2024 and prior to this was a Trial Manager at Bristol Trials Centre at the University of Bristol. Katie has worked in clinical trial management for over 7 years and has experience managing clinical trials across many different clinical areas including mental health, COVID-19 vaccines, cardiac surgery and cancer.
Ed Baxter
Data Systems Manager
Exeter Clinical Trials Unit (CTU), UK
Ed Baxter is a Data Systems Manager at the Exeter Clinical Trials Unit (CTU), where he develops and maintains the research systems and databases used to support clinical trials. He joined the CTU in 2025 and has since been working on the Calming Minds Study, where he developed the study database and integrations with the intervention platforms. Prior to joining Exeter CTU, Ed worked at the University of Bristol on research systems supporting a variety of studies. Before moving into research systems, he worked in research coordination and fieldwork roles.
Dr Sarah O’Rouke
Postdoctoral Research Associate
University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Sarah is a Postdoctoral Research Associate working on the Calming Minds Project. Her work involves investigating what strategies help to reduce worry and rumination. Sarah’s PhD focused on designing, delivering and implementing a novel weight loss intervention that draws upon motivational interviewing and multi-sensory imagery. Her work centres around implementation science, qualitative analysis, as well as realist methodologies.
Sarah’s a qualified Social Worker and her previous roles within research included neuro-cognitive assessment tools, developing and implementing new pathways into Child Protection within Local Authorities, a large-scale project looking at inclusion and exclusion from Primary Care due to digital inequalities and also a large-scale mindfulness implementation project. She has also worked within Adult Mental health services, children and family support and with the unhoused population.
Diana Kylymnyk
PhD researcher
University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Diana Kylymnyk is a PhD researcher investigating how artificial intelligence can be used to strengthen digital mental health support. Her research applies Natural Language Processing (NLP) to text from online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) platforms to better capture therapeutic progress and outcomes, with a particular focus on rumination and depression.
She is especially interested in creating ethical and transparent AI tools that work hand-in-hand with clinicians to improve care. With a background in computer science and machine learning, Diana also enjoys exploring the wider intersections of AI, health technology, and computing.
Christina Cordes
Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner
University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Christina is a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner on the Calming Mind Project. Her role involves delivering interventions and providing support to research participants.
Christina has worked in various clinical and academic settings in the past. In her previous role, Christina worked as a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner for NHS Talking Therapies with a focus on supporting people with long-term physical health conditions.
Aside from her role in the Calming Minds Project, Christina works as an Assistant Psychologist for an NHS Neuropsychology Service.
Professor Ed Watkins
Professor of Experimental and Applied Clinical Psychology
University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Ed is a research clinical psychologist with an MSc and Chartership in Clinical Psychology (1995) and a PhD (1998) from the Institute of Psychiatry, London. From 1995 to 2003, he worked as a cognitive therapist at the Maudsley Hospital’s Affective Disorders Unit, specialising in the treatment of depression in adults across various settings. He was also a core supervisor for the Cognitive Therapy Diploma Course at the Institute of Psychiatry from 1998 to 2003.
In 2004, Ed received the British Psychological Society’s May Davidson Award for outstanding contributions to clinical psychology. He served on the NICE Guidelines for Depression in Adults from 2015-2022. Ed is currently the director of the SMART lab at the Mood Disorders Centre at the University of Exeter and the project lead for The Calming Minds Project.
His main research interests include cognitive and behavioural approaches to depression, ruminative thinking, depression and anxiety prevention in young people and digital interventions, with over 25 years experience of treatment development, delivery and evaluation in adults and young people.
Professor Michelle G. Craske
Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Michelle is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at UCLA and Director of the Anxiety and Depression Research Center. She has published over 570 peer-reviewed articles and numerous books on fear, anxiety, and depression.
As co-director of the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge, she developed the STAND programme for screening, tracking, and treating anxiety and depression. She’s also Editor-in-Chief of Behaviour Research and Therapy and a highly cited researcher.
Find out more on Michelle’s UCLA profile page.
Professor Thomas Ehring
Professor of Clinical Psychology and Psychological Treatment
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany
Thomas is a Clinical Psychology and Psychological Treatment Professor at LMU Munich and head of the Outpatient Treatment Center. A psychotherapist specialising in CBT, he has extensive experience in psychotherapy research and has served as an editorial board member for several prominent journals.
After completing his PhD at King’s College London in 2004, Thomas held positions at the University of Münster, Universiteit van Amsterdam, and the University of Bielefield, becoming division head at LMU in 2015. Thomas also has over 100 peer-reviewed articles alongside numerous books, contributions, and other publications.
His main research interests include the aetiology and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, repetitive negative thinking, and experimental psychopathology.
Find out more on Thomas’s LMU profile page.
Dr Henrietta Roberts
Research Fellow
University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Henrietta is a Research Fellow at the University of Exeter. Her research focuses on understanding what causes people to ruminate or worry, which factors influence whether RNT is more or less helpful, and effective strategies to exit spirals of ruminating or worrying. Henrietta’s PhD focused on understanding the causes and consequences of rumination in adults experiencing symptoms of depression. Since then, she has worked on a variety of research projects studying rumination and worry in both adults and young people. She has additionally spent over 2.5 years working in NHS adult mental health services.
Alongside her work for The Calming Minds Project, she’s a Research Fellow on an NIH-funded project led by Ed Watkins and Scott Langenecker. This project examines the neural mechanisms by which rumination-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (RFCBT) is effective in reducing rumination and worry in adolescents at risk of depression.
Find out more on Henrietta’s University of Exeter profile page.
Dr Sabrina Meechem
Research Fellow
University of Exeter, Devon, UK
As a mixed-methods researcher on the Calming Minds Project, Sabrina will work alongside our panel of lived experience experts to integrate their experiences into our clinical trial to reduce rumination, worry, and repetitive negative thinking.
Previously at the national charity SafeLives, she worked on a co-production project which focused on understanding the needs of young people exhibiting early signs of abusive behaviour and how current support approaches could be improved. Further projects she worked on at SafeLives included evaluating a whole-family support intervention for domestic abuse and working on a co-production project alongside three by-and-for organisations which aimed to adapt current support programmes for specific ethnic communities. Sabrina completed her PhD at the Centre for Appearance Research, her thesis explored young people’s use of social media and the relationship between body image, wellbeing, and psychosocial functioning.
Find out more on Sabrina’s University of Exeter profile page.
Dr Katie Wood
Postdoctoral Research Associate
University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Katie is a Postdoctoral Research Associate on The Calming Minds Project. Her work involves investigating what strategies help to reduce worry and rumination. Katie has worked on a variety of research projects studying wellbeing, learning, and behaviour in both adults and young people. and investigates active components of Rumination-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (RF-CBT) that effectively target these mechanisms.
Katie’s PhD involved developing and exploring innovative measures of habitual versus goal-directed behaviour in adults. Prior to the Calming Minds Project, Katie worked in the department of Children and Young People’s Mental Health research at the University of Exeter Medical School, on projects exploring the implementation of trauma-focused CBT for care-experienced young people with PTSD, and the effectiveness of an anti-bullying programme in primary schools. Prior roles include examining mental health, addiction and PTSD in armed force veterans and non-veterans, working with adults with chronic illnesses, and working on a large-scale project examining the effectiveness of a school-based mindfulness programme in UK secondary schools.
Find out more on Katie’s University of Exeter profile page.
Martin Howard
Research Project Manager
University of Exeter, Devon, UK
Martin is the Project Manager for the Calming Minds Project and joined the team in January 20224. Prior to this Martin has worked within both the NHS and Academic institutions leading and managing clinical research portfolios.
Martin has extensive experience in the design and delivery of clinical trials across the UK and EU in a wide range of speciaities including mental health, neurology, COVID19, surgery and emergency care settings.
Find out more on Martin’s University of Exeter profile page.
Joanna Hunsmann
PHD candidate
Munich
Joanna is a PhD candidate on the Calming Minds Project, where she focuses on developing ecological momentary assessment measures to investigate habitual repetitive negative thinking (RNT) in daily life.
Her doctoral research focuses on RNT as a transdiagnostic mechanism in psychopathology, with an emphasis on targeting habitual patterns. Prior to joining the project, Joanna conducted research on loneliness and emotion regulation and worked for two years in counselling.
Find out more on Joanna’s LMU profile page.
Dr Julia Funk
Research Fellow
Munich
During her PhD, she explored the causes and consequences of repetitive negative thinking in adolescents and young adults, as well as the efficacy of app-based interventions designed to reduce it.
Alongside her research, Julia is training to become a psychotherapist (CBT).
Find out more on Julia’s LMU profile page.
Kayla Drazan
Research Co-ordinator
UCLA
Kayla is the Project Coordinator for the Calming Minds project within UCLA’s Depression Grand Challenge and Dr. Michelle Craske’s Anxiety and Depression Research Center. Previously, she worked in the Tufts University Social Cognition (TUSC) Lab and Harvard University Lab for Developmental Studies. Kayla is interested in improving access to evidence-based mental health care within marginalized communities; particularly for children and adolescents.
Get involved and take part
Are you ready to make a difference? If you’re 18 or over, we want to hear from you. Join our trial, share your experiences, and contribute to the development of groundbreaking new treatments for anxiety and depression. See how you can get involved and be part of this exciting project.
