Eva Sundin

Eva is a Professor of Psychology at NTU. She is a clinical psychologist with double qualifications - a PhD in Psychology and the five-year education required for becoming a practicing Clinical Psychologist in Sweden. She has accreditation as a Clinical Psychologist and CBT practitioner in the UK. She is also a member of the Trauma, Social Isolation and Mental Health research group.

Eva's research examines individuals who are vulnerable, from those with mental health vulnerabilities to those who are socioeconomically deprived. Her interest for the psychology of deprived populations is based on the notion that although many groups give people a sense of place, purpose, and belonging, and can enhance e.g., people’s self-esteem and sense of worth, this may not be true for disadvantaged groups. Her research is also influenced by her personal experiences of living with two neurological conditions, Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis and Motor Neurone Disease.

Eva's teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate level has been informed by her clinical expertise and research interests. She has developed two postgraduate courses, the ‘Behavioural Analysis of IT Environments Programme’ and NTU’s ‘MSc in Psychological Wellbeing and Mental Health’ which both are popular among students. She has also developed a series of teaching modules from her clinical key specialisms, e.g., cognitive behavioural therapy for trauma, traumatic experiences in young people.

Career overview
Eva undertook her clinical training and PhD in Psychology at Umea University, Sweden and took up research posts at Umea University (1990) and University of California, San Francisco (1997-1999). She was lecturer and senior lecturer at Umea University 1991-1997, assistant professor at Umea University 2000-2005, and Reader at NTU 2006. Eva has also had masny part time posts in the Swedish as well as British NHS and she has upheld a private clinical practice.

Research areas
The first strand of Eva's research uses an approach where she integrates her research with clinical work built on her cooperation with other clinicians and clinical researchers. This approach follows a strong tradition in North America, where internationally renowned experts such as Profs Beck, University of Pennsylvania, Blatt, University of Yale, Horowitz, University of California San Francisco, and Wallerstein, University of California San Francisco, combine research and clinical practice. Eva’s integration of clinical practice and research involves picking up questions that clinicians identify as critically important in their clinical practice, for example evaluations of trainee psychologists’ clinical work, clinical supervision, and evaluation of new treatments.

In a second research strand, Eva is applying an academic research approach to studying stress, coping, and resilience in people who have other vulnerabilities than mental health problems for example people who are socioeconomically deprived.