Experiences of making sense of unusual beliefs and/or perceptual experiences within secondary mental healthcare services

Matilda Fuller is currently studying a MSc Psychology conversion at the University of East London (UEL). She is working on her dissertation research project where she would like to talk to people about their experiences of sense-making of unusual beliefs/ experiences associated with distress within secondary mental health services. This has mainly been motivated by talking to friends who have had similar experiences.  These experiences may include:

• Ideas or thoughts that others (ex: friends/family) find hard to believe.
• Hearing, seeing and sensing things that others do not.
• Having a strange feeling that things or the world around you has changed.
• These experiences are sometimes labelled as ‘psychosis’ in mental health.

They are looking to talk to people who:

• Are aged between 20 to 70 years old
• Have previous experience of unusual beliefs and/or perceptual experiences within secondary mental health services, over two years ago
• Unfortunately, they cannot include people with a recent history of mental health service use or experiences of distress associated with unusual beliefs and/or perceptual experiences within the last two years in this study

Matilda is looking to find people in the UK to talk to throughout August and September. This will involve a semi-structured audio/visual recorded conversation for around 30-60 minutes either online or in person (at one of the UEL Campuses) depending on individual preferences.

Matilda would like to talk to people about: 

• The importance of making sense of these experiences to them.
• How they found making sense of these experiences within and outside of secondary mental health care.
• How this might have changed over time and influences of this.
• Matilda also invites people to bring an item that reflects these experiences if they’d like to do so.

Closing date to apply: 30^th September 2025

Please let Matilda know if you are experiencing any barriers to participation in this research as she will try and see how she can adapt the research to make it more accessible. She is happy to talk either online via Microsoft Teams or in-person at one of UEL’s campuses (Stratford, Docklands or University Square Stratford) depending on your preferences.

Please get in touch with Matilda via u2689893@uel.ac.uk if you have any further questions about this.

If you have any questions or concerns about this research please contact Matilda’s Dissertation Supervisor, Martin Willis via email: M.Willis@uel.ac.uk