Prof Cumming is a Professor of Sport and Exercise Psychology at the University of Birmingham (UK), a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), and a member of the International Association of Youth Mental Health.

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Prof Cumming’s research focuses on community-based approaches to developing practical and culturally-tailored interventions for athletes and, more recently, individuals who are traditionally considered ‘harder to reach’ including young people who are homeless or at risk for homelessness.  She has published over 100 academic papers and book chapters since 2001.  

Dr Tidmarsh is a Postdoctoral Research and Teaching Fellow in Sport Psychology and Mental Health at the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Science, University of Birmingham.

 

Dr Tidmarsh is a social scientist with interests relating to strengths-based sport psychology, implementation, and evaluation of positive youth development interventions in community settings. She is particularly interested in aspects of evaluation pertaining to implementation processes and the development and implementation of accessible data collection methods that meet the needs of those using them to promote inclusive research.

 

Dr Tidmarsh also has broad research interests in mental health, youth homelessness, and girls engagement in sport and physical activity. Her current research focuses on continuing to work with community partner St Basils as well as widening the reach of the MST Toolkits.

Nadia is a PhD student at the University of Birmingham investigating coaches' encouragement of athletes' use of mental skills using the framework of coaching efficacy model.

 

Her main research interests are in mental skills coaching behaviour, and motivation within sports settings.

Maria is a postgraduate student on a collaborative PhD project between the University of Birmingham and One Dance UK.

 

Her research seeks to understand self-harm in dance with the aim of developing guidance to help dance students at risk of self-harm.  

Kirsty is a 1+3 PhD student in the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences. She is currently doing an MA in Social Science Research Methods as part of her ESRC funded PhD which will be on ADHD and athletes. 

 

She recently finished her MSc by Research at the University of Birmingham which focused on athlete perceptions of help-seeking for mental health. Previously Kirsty has been a Research Associate on the Therapies for Long COVID Project at the University of Birmingham.

 

Kirsty's research interests include ADHD and athletes, patient and public involvement in research, public perceptions of athlete mental health, and help-seeking for mental health. 

Michelle is a PhD student at the University of Birmingham investigating mental skills training in dance.

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She has previously been a research assistant for the Resilience and Ethics in Dance (REDE) project and guest lecturer in dance psychology at the Oslo National academy of the Arts in Oslo, Norway.

 

Her main research interests include mental health in dance, resilience and how mental skills can enhance dancers’ mental well-being and performance.

Niamh is an MSc research student at the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Science at University of Birmingham following recently completing her undergraduate degree there in Sport, Physical Education and Coaching Sciences.

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Her interests lie especially within dance and the effects it can have on an individual’s mental health. She is currently investigating the effects that creative dance tasks have on promoting a dancer’s autonomy and self-esteem.

Dr Quinton is interested in how positive youth development approaches in sport and community settings improve mental health and wellbeing, emotional regulation, and social connectedness in young people.

 

She uses sport psychology and pedagogical theories to understand how young people’s backgrounds and support needs influence their development, engagement, and motivation to learn and perform in different settings (e.g., sport, university, and homelessness).

 

Dr Quinton is a mixed method researcher and particularly interested in involving communities and those with lived experience in research and turning knowledge into action and impact.

Fiona is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Birmingham, investigating Compassion in Athletes. She previously held the role of Research Associate where she helped to develop, deliver, and evaluate the MST4Life™ programme.

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She has a diverse research background, specialising in mental health, nature connectedness, and social prescribing.

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Her current research focusses on knowledge translation, community-based participatory research, and compassion within a sporting context.

Georgia is a PhD student (Sport and Exercise Sciences) and conducts observations to help monitor fidelity of the MST4Life programme.

 

Her research interests include mental health in relation to sport and the potential sport has for preventing and managing mental health symptoms. 

Emma is a part-time PhD student at the University of Birmingham, and her research is investigating self-compassion and aspects of perfectionism in dance.

 

She has an established eleven-year teaching portfolio delivering and coordinating dance in a variety of settings, ranging from community youth dance to higher education.

Dr Reynard is a Post Doctoral Researcher at the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Science, University of Birmingham.

 

She is helping with ongoing work which aims to further the reach of the MST Toolkits and also supports the wider dissemination of the team's research findings.

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Sally has broad research interests in emotion regulation, mental health and the use of collaborative methods to develop digital interventions.

Dr Shepherd is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Science, University of Birmingham.

 

A Chartered Psychologist with a background in Health Psychology, her research interests include the complex psychosocial effects of chronic health conditions, and the use of online peer support communities to help manage these.

 

As a qualitative researcher, Dr Shepherd is a keen advocate of public and patient involvement (PPI) in research, and in this capacity has been involved with several charities including Diabetes UK and the MS Society.

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She is currently working on a UKRI Quality-Related (QR) funded project in collaboration with Mind, to co-create guidelines for safeguarding researchers’ mental health when researching mental health and sensitive topics.