My research addreses two central questions in mental health: How does psychological risk and resilience transmit within families and across generations, and how can we intervene early to change that trajectory? My work spans high-and low-resource settings, integrating clinical psychology, psychiatry, public health and maternal health in a strong interdisciplinary programme.

First, intergenerational and perinatal mental health, focused on pregnancy and the first 1,000 days of life. Using data-linkage, birth-cohort, evidence-synthesis and intervention-evaluation methods, I examine multidimensional markers of risk and resilience between parents and children, and the developmental frameworks — attachment, mentalization and metacognition — that explain them.

Second, global mental health, where I work with long-standing partners in sub-Saharan Africa (particularly Malawi) and Latin America to develop psychologically informed, contextually appropriate approaches to maternal mental health in low- and middle-income settings.

Third, complex mental health, developing and evaluating psychological therapies for personality and psychotic disorders in real-world clinical services, in collaboration with colleagues in Italy, Spain and Ethiopia.

This programme has been supported by external funding from the Wellcome Trust, MRC, NIHR, ESRC and international bodies. My work has translated directly into policy and practice — shaping the Scottish Government's Mental Health Strategy, the NHS Scotland Psychological Therapies Matrix (specifc contributions to Perinatal Mental Health and Personality Disorders modules), and has informed organisations from UNICEF to Africa CDC and the United Nations.

Alongside research, I am committed to capacity-building and mentorship. I have supervised 11 PhD students and 28 professional-doctorate trainees to completion, many now in academic and clinical leadership roles internationally, and I contribute to research training across the globe including Malawi and India. I am on the Editorial Board of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. 

My goal is a body of work that is scientifically rigorous, globally relevant and directly useful to the families, services and policymakers it seeks to help.