Dr Lymarie Rodriquez-Morales BA, MA, MPH, PhD

• Module leader on BSc Psychology, BSc Psychology & Counselling, BSc Applied Psychology, BSc Mental Health, MA Children’s & Young People’s Mental Health and MSc Applied Psychology
• Assessment Programme Team Leader – BSc Psychology, International University of Malaya-Wales
• Chair of School Research Ethics Committee 
• Ethics board member, University Research Ethics Committee

My academic background is in qualitative research methods and public health (mental health in primary care). My research focuses on psychosocial aspects of mental health and wellbeing in adolescents and young adults, including outdoor health and nature-based wellbeing. I completed my PhD at Birkbeck University of London with a project focusing on young adult men’s experience of recovery and self-change from substance use dependence.

I joined the Centre of Psychology and Counselling at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David in September 2016.Previously, I taught on both undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes at Birkbeck’s Department of Psychological Sciences, the Graduate School of Public Health and the Department of Psychology, University of Puerto Rico. Before joining academia, I worked as a programme evaluator and health services coordinator for families at the Department of Education and the Department of Health, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. My professional expertise developed from collaborating with vulnerable and hard-to-reach groups and liaising with community-based projects, encompassing more than 15 years of work experience as a community mental health educator and practitioner.

• American Psychological Association
• Society for the Study of Addiction 

Teaching areas:

Developmental psychology, qualitative research methods, ecopsychology, and work-based learning.

Postgraduate supervision:

Martin Norman (PhD): Trauma-informed outdoor therapy with young people.

Mohammad Obaid (PhD): Counselling as a site of healing in contemporary Muslim families: A systemic perspective.

Genna Bowen (PhD): Adolescents’ lived experience of ADHD.

Matteo Morandi (MA): The embodied experience of a therapeutic mountain walk: A phenomenological study.

The main focus of my research activity is on the intertwining of young people’s psychosocial development (e.g., identity, family environment, peer networks) and mental health, primarily from an experiential and relational perspective.

Current projects and collaborations:

Emerging adults and substance misuse in West Wales (Barod Cymru, Dyfed Drug & Alcohol Service & Hywel Health Board)

Being transgender in Chile: The experience of adolescents and their families (Universidad de Temuco)

Young women’s experience of athletic anorexia in competitive canoe slalom

Key areas of expertise include qualitative research design, interviewing and focus group, collaborative inquiry, and programme design. Based on my expertise in qualitative research, I have reviewed manuscripts for the following journals: Qualitative Research in Psychology, Addiction, Addiction Research & Theory, Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health, Contemporary Drug Problems, Journal of GLBT Family Studies, Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy, Behavioral Medicine, and the Journal of Forensic Psychology & Psychiatry.

Recent collaborations and consultancy work comprise programme design for wellbeing in nature programme (Small Wood Wales), the creation and delivery of a Social Forestry courses (Tir Coed), and the development of a practice framework on green social prescribing for mental health practitioners in Wales.

Previous consultancy work includes projects on practitioners’ views on spirituality in mental health recovery (West Wales Action on Mental Health), spirituality, religion and wellbeing (Allister Hardy Religious Experience Centre), Young Asian Muslims and mental health awareness (Swansea Mosque), the experience of autism from the perspective of the family (Universidad de Temuco, Chile), and compulsive exercise in high-performance women athletes with anorexia nervosa (Norwegian School of Sports Sciences, Oslo).

Rodriguez-Morales, L. (2020). To thine own self be true: Alcoholics Anonymous, recovery and care of the self. In B. E. Schmidt & J. Leonardi (Eds.), Spirituality and wellbeing: Interdisciplinary approaches to the study of religious experience and health (pp.181-195). Equinox.

Rodriguez-Morales, L. (2019). A hero’s journey: Becoming and transcendence in addiction recovery. Journal of Psychological Therapies, 4(2), 155-166.

Rodriguez-Morales, L. (2019). ‘That’s the spiritual side of me’: Men’s autobiographical accounts of recovery in Twelve Step fellowships. Implicit Religion, 22(2), 161-183. https://doi.org/10.1558/imre.38499

Rodriguez-Morales, L. (2017). In your own skin: The experience of early recovery from alcohol-use disorder in 12-Step fellowships. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 35(4), 372-394. https://doi.org 10.1080/07347324.2017.1355204

Santibanez-Fernandez, P. M., Fuentes, P., Quiroz, T., & Rodriguez-Morales, L. (2017). ‘What hurts and worries us’:  The meaning of autism from the perspective of the family [Poster Presentation]. 1^st International Meaning Conference: Joining Forces in Practice and Research, London, UK. http://doi.org. 10.13140/RG.2.2.18590.08005

Jorunn-Kolnes, L. & Rodriguez-Morales, L. (2015). The meaning of compulsive exercise in women with anorexia nervosa: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. Mental Health & Physical Activity. doi: 10.1016/j.mhpa.2015.12.002

Rodriguez, L. & Smith, J.A. (2014). Finding your own place: Young men’s experience of early recovery from addiction. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 12(4), 477-490. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-014-9479-0

Conferences:

‘Nature connections, wellbeing and environmental sustainability’. Sustainability in Higher Education Conference, 3^rd & 4^th July, 2019, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Swansea, UK. (presenter)

‘Nature connection, mental health and environmental sustainability mindsets in West Wales’. 5^th Interdisciplinary Conference on Nature Connections, 2 July 2019, University of Derby, UK. (presenter)

‘A hero’s journey’: Becoming and transcendence in addiction recovery’. Therapeutic perspectives and effective therapeutic practices with alcohol and love addictions, 6^th Annual One-Day Conference, Centre for Relational Studies and Psychological Wellbeing, Regents University, 8 June 2019, London, UK. (invited speaker)

‘To thine own self be true’: Alcoholics Anonymous, Recovery and Care of the Self’. Spirituality, Recovery and Wellbeing Conference, Alister Religious Experience Research Centre, 16^th July 2017, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Wales, UK. (invited speaker).

‘A phenomenological exploration of men’s experience of happiness’. Qualitative Methods in Psychology Section Conference, 5^th – 7^th July 2016, Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK (presenter). 

‘I can´t work out what am feeling’: The case for a phenomenological account of alexithymia. Qualitative Methods in Psychology Section Conference 2015, 2-4 September 2015, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK (presenter).        

Time and change: A developmental model of young men’s recovery, Society for the Study of Addiction Annual Symposium, 8^th - 9^th November 2012, York, UK (invited speaker).

INSPIRE research grant 2018 (£500) - ‘Nature connectedness and environmental sustainability mindsets in nature-based health services in West Wales’.

NHS Hywel Health Board 2022 (£750) – ‘Emerging adulthood, substance misuse and harm reduction’