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Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching, Nottingham Trent University

Dr. Laura Healy is a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Coaching Science and teaches on the BSc Coaching and Sports Science programme. She supervises undergraduate and postgraduate research projects in areas related to sport psychology.

Dr Healy joined Nottingham Trent University in September 2017. She successfully defended her Doctorate in Sport Psychology from the University of Birmingham in July 2015, which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Dr Healy has worked in a variety of academic roles. This includes work as a Research Associate, first at Bangor University before working on an ESRC-funded research project at the University of Birmingham. Most recently, she worked as a Lecturer in Sport Coaching Science at Newman University, Birmingham.

Her research explores how the motivation underpinning goal striving can impact upon the self-regulation of goals and well-being. Recently, Dr Healy has extended this work to look at the role of motivation for the pursuit of team goals and the management of multiple goals. Dr Healy also researches in mental health, particularly related to the role of sport and physical activity in mental health recovery, and how coaches, peer leaders and others such as support workers or healthcare professional can effectively support individuals within such contexts. Her research has been funded by UK research organisations such as the British Academy, as well as charitable organisations such as Rethink Mental Illness.

Outside of academic, Dr. Healy is an active hockey player and Head Coach of the Junior section of a hockey club.

Experience

  • 2017–present
    Senior lecturer, Nottingham Trent University
  • 2014–2017
    Lecturer, Newman University
  • 2010–2011
    Research associate, University of Birmingham
  • 2009–2010
    Research assistant, Bangor University

Education

  • 2015 
    University of Birmingham, PhD Sport Psychology
  • 2010 
    Bangor University, MSc Applied Sport & Exercise Psychology
  • 2008 
    Bangor University, BSc Sport Science

Publications

  • 2019
    An ethnographic study exploring football sessions for medium-secure mental health service-users: utilising the CHIME conceptual framework as an evaluative tool, Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Mental Health
  • 2019
    'Think football': exploring a football for mental health initiative delivered in the community through the lens of personal and social recovery. , Mental Health and Physical Activity
  • 2016
    Goal motives and multiple-goal striving in sport and academia: a person-centered investigation of goal motives and inter-goal relations, Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport
  • 2015
    Predicting subsequent task performance from goal motivation and goal failure, Frontiers in Psychology
  • 2014
    When the going gets tough: the "why" of goal striving matters, Journal of Personality
  • 2014
    Goal striving and well-being in sport: the role of contextual and personal motivation, Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology
  • 2014
    Self-regulatory responses to unattainable goals: the role of goal motives, Self and Identity

Grants and Contracts

  • 2018
    Understanding the "I" and the "team": An examination of both individual and team goal motives in the pursuit of shared goals
    Role:
    Primary Investigator
    Funding Source:
    British Academy
  • 2018
    Impact of Embedding Physical Activity into Peer Support Groups
    Role:
    Primary Investigator
    Funding Source:
    Rethink Mental Illness

Professional Memberships

  • British Association of Sport & Exercise Scientists