Charlotte Aynsworth
PhD Student (NIHR Doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellow / Clinical Psychologist)

Profile

Biography

• 2007 – 2010: Psychology Bsc with Honours, Newcastle University
• 2013 – 2016: Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, Newcastle University
• 2016 – present: Clinical Psychologist, CNTW
• 2022-2023: NIHR North East and North Cumbria Mental Health Practice Fellow
• 2023 – present: NIHR Doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship, York University

Career

I am an HCPC Registered Clinical Psychologist, having completed my doctorate at Newcastle University in 2016. Since then I have specialised in providing psychological treatments for people with psychosis across a range of NHS settings, including Early Intervention in Psychosis services, Community Mental Health Teams, and Inpatient Wards. This has highlighted the need to develop more effective treatments, which has driven my commitment to remain involved in research throughout my clinical work.

I have a range of experience working across a translational research pathway; from theory development to co-ordinating large scale multisite RCT’s testing innovative interventions for people with psychosis within the NHS (gameChange – Oxford University, Managing Unusual Sensory Experiences in First Episode Psychosis (MUSE FEP, CNTW).

I am currently completing an NIHR Doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship, where my research focuses on visual hallucinations in psychosis. The aim of my fellowship is to develop our understanding and treatments of these. I am passionate about embedding people with lived experience at the heart of research to ensure we are asking meaningful questions and developing effective and engaging treatments which will improve peoples lives.

I also continue to work clinically in Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, where I focus on increasing access and implementation of psychological treatments in psychosis services.

Research

Overview

I am interested in improving our understanding of visual hallucinations in psychosis and developing treatments of these.

Projects

VISION-QUEST

At least one in three people with psychosis experience distressing visual hallucinations, also known as visions – seeing things that others cannot. When visions occur, they can have a detrimental impact on people’s lives, such as more frequent and prolonged hospital admissions, and greater likelihood of suicide.

Our previous research has found that the way in which people make sense of their visions are one of the keys factors driving distress. For example, when people thought visions were negative or threatening, they found them to be more distressing and this had a bigger impact on their lives. The next step is therefore to explore this on a larger scale to understand more about people’s appraisals of their visions. Then this can be used to validate a scale of visions appraisals and develop targeted treatments for these.

To do so, this study will develop a questionnaire focused on people’s beliefs about visions. It will also explore the relationships between these appraisals and other difficulties which people may experience, such as poor sleep or high worry.

By developing a new measure and our knowledge of causal mechanisms of visions, it will be the next important steps to developing better treatments for these.

Research group(s)

• Hallucination, Thought and Self in Schizophrenia (HATTS) Lab

Grants

• Lena Teague Bequest Fund, Newcastle University. £14,703
• Researcher Development Internship Programme, CNTW. £3000.
• NIHR/HEE Pre-Doctoral Bridging Scheme, HS R&D North West - NIHR/HEE. £10,000, 2021-2022.
• Co-applicant NIHR ARC funding “Digital therapies for psychosis clinic: a real-world implementation study.”  £59999 2022-2024 
• NIHR Doctoral Clinical and Academic Practitioner Fellowship, “A psychological treatment for visual hallucinations in psychosis: Initial efficacy, feasibility and acceptability.” £282,077, 2023-2026

Collaborators

• Professor Rob Dudley (University of York)                 
• Dr Felicity Waite (University of Oxford)
• Dr Clara Humpston (University of York)

Teaching

Publications

Full publications list

See ‪Dr Charlotte Aynsworth - ‪Google Scholar for further information.

External activities

Overview

• Registered Practitioner Psychologist with HCPC (registration number PYL33415).