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Current Postgraduate Research Students

Fiona Eccles supervises 23 postgraduate research students. If these students have produced research profiles, these are listed below:

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Dr Fiona Eccles

Senior Lecturer, Lecturer in Research Methods

Fiona Eccles

Faculty Of Health And Medicine

LA14YX

Lancaster

Tel: +44 1524 592807

Research overview

My research is focussed on the psychological impact of living with chronic illness, particularly neurological conditions (for example Parkinson’s, Huntington's disease, multiple sclerosis or dystonia). We hope to develop psychological therapies to support people with  neurological conditions. We are currently investigating a guided self-help intervention to reduce anxiety for people with the Huntington's disease gene expansion (led by Maria Dale at Leicestership Partnership NHS Trust).

I am also interested in the impact of being a family member of someone with one of these neurological conditions and how we can help support the family's wellbeing too. I use both quantitative and qualitative approaches in my work.

 

Current Research

  • Investigating the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on people with Parkinson's and their families (led by Professor Jane Simpson)
  • Investigating the feasibility of a guided self-help intervention for anxiety for people with the Huntington's gene expansion (led by Dr Maria Dale at Leicstershire Partnership NHS Trust)
  • Exploring the feasibility of using a compassion-focused intervention for people with Parkinson's

I currently supervise trainees' theses which explore the experiences of people and their families living with the following conditions:

  • Dystonia
  • Parkinson's
  • Huntington's disease
  • Functional neurological conditions including functional seizures (sometimes called non-epileptic attacks)

 

 

Research Interests

Neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, Huntington's disease or multiple sclerosis, and to some extent dystonia, which affect both physical health and cognitive functioning can present numerous challenges both to individuals and their families and our work is concerned with the psychological effects of living with these types of conditions. We are interested in aspects such as how people “live well” with their conditions and also how they “make sense” of the illness as well as difficulties encountered such as anxiety and low mood. In the future we are hoping to develop more psychological approaches to help people manage some of psychological difficulties that arise when living with these conditions.

Current Teaching

I lead the research strand of teaching for the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and in particular teach some of the quantitative methods and general research skills.

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