Louise Aukland

MYRIAD Project (my resilience in adolescence).

The MYRIAD team are researching mindfulness versus teaching as usual in secondary schools and my research area is the personal, social and health education of the schools taking part in the trial. My research helps to establish the baseline psychological, social and emotional skills of the young people on the trial and will provide ongoing monitoring and comparative data. 

In addition to my research, I coordinate the public engagement programme associated with the MYRIAD project. We deliver "teenage brain" workshops in our trial schools using a giant inflatable brain and computer based cognitive tests for added interactivity. The young people have also developed their own questionnaire for incorporation into the data collection, around mental health and wellbeing. We have also undertaken focus group work with young people and have an ongoing project on young people's experiences of mindfulness.

My interest in adolescent mental health comes from being a secondary school science teacher for 15 years and a teacher of mindfulness and neuroscience in the school context (such as .b and MindUP). I also work as a consultant trainer in schools, the NHS and other institutions when not working in the Department of Psychiatry.