Kyla Pennington, Senior Lecturer in Mental Health, Department of Psychology
Kyla completed an undergraduate degree in neuroscience from the University of Glasgow, a postgraduate diploma in psychology from York St John University and a PhD in the neuropathology of schizophrenia from the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London
Her research in the past 11 years her research has focused on understanding stress as the interface between biology and psychology in terms of our mental health using genetic and molecular biological methods as well as questionnaire and cognitive tasks. She joined the University of York in January 2025.
Email: kyla.pennington
Our 60-second interview with Kyla:
Could you please tell us what work you do in the field of mental health?
We have all been exposed to different environments during our development and this in interaction with our varying genetic backgrounds impacts on our ability to deal with stress.
My research aims to understand this through understanding cognitive processes key to our ability to adapt to challenge and also through investigating the discrepancy often seen between stress perception and our physiological response. More recently I have also begun to look at what and how activities such as mindfulness practice might help improve our mental health and ability to deal with difficulties.
What do you find most rewarding and inspiring in this work?
So much! When I first started on my research journey, I really enjoyed learning new laboratory techniques and working to answer unanswered questions in psychiatry and found it really inspiring to be a small part of a really international community of researchers working towards what felt like a common goal of shared understanding.
Since moving into psychology, I have also found it really inspiring to listen to the voices of others to help conceptualise the experience of mental health and rewarding to be involved in intervention based research providing evidence of what might help improve wellbeing for those who struggle with their mental health.
What is the most challenging or complicated aspect of this work?
Deciding how best to measure complex experiences such as stress and what this means in terms of our individual mental health vulnerability can be a challenge, but it is also what makes it so interesting!
My research focuses on the impact of stress during childhood and also the ability of different people to respond and recover from mild stressors in a laboratory setting. There is much methodological debate around how best to investigate these areas in a meaningful way.
What impact do you hope your work is having - or can potentially have?
If my work helped others to understand some of the reasons why they might feel stressed and about the connection between our experiences and our biology in relation to who we are then I would be really happy!
I would also hope that some of my research into trauma and cognitive processes might help inform service provision and provide evidence for the use of psychological tools which might help improve communication and treatment as well as resilience and mental wellbeing.
Could you share with us one piece of advice that you follow for your own mental health?
In recent years I’ve learnt a lot about the benefits to my mental health of challenging myself in small doses with incremental increases and the importance of having others around me to support the process!
Training and running a half-marathon and cold water swimming through the winter are both recent examples and are activities which I find really challenging but are such an enjoyable part of my life.