Dr Arianna Prudenzi PhD, MSc, BSc

PhD in Psychological Sciences 

MSc in Clinical, Health and Community Psychology (distinction) 

BSc Psychology of Cognitive Processes (1st)

Arianna completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology (BSc Hons, 2010-2013) and later a two-year MSc in Clinical and Health Psychology (MSc Hons, 2013-2015), La Sapienza University, defending her thesis with a Percorso d’Eccellenza (Excellence track) – upon completion of an advanced course and award reserved to outstanding MSc students. In 2015, she was awarded a Visiting Researcher scholarship at the School of Psychology, Arizona State University. In 2016/2017, she received an EU research placement scholarship to conduct research at the UCD Contextual Behavioural Science (CBS) lab at the School of Psychology, University College Dublin. She obtained her PhD at the University of Leeds with a thesis entitled “Mental Health and Burnout in Healthcare Professionals: Exploring the Role of Psychological Flexibility” (2018-2021).

Arianna led research methods seminars to Level 1 and Level 2 students at the School of Psychology and School of Education, University of Leeds (2018-2021). She was also a practical Demonstrator in two quantitative psychology modules for Level 2 students (2018-2020).

In 2022, she will be supervising a PhD student with a thesis that aims to explore puberty, gender and onset of depression in young people. 

She will also supervise four MSc students in a project to investigate mental health, pandemic stressors and patient safety in healthcare professionals during pandemics. 

Those wishing to work with Dr Prudenzi are encouraged to contact her directly by email. She welcomes collaborations and requests worldwide and equally values any inquiries about her ongoing work from associated stakeholders.

Arianna’s research interests span across health and clinical psychology, with a specific focus on:

• Designing, developing and testing psychological interventions for mental health conditions, with a particular interest in third-wave cognitive-behavioural therapies (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Self-Compassion based approaches)

• Exploring organisational and individual-level workplace mental health interventions for employees, managers and their employers

• Improving mental health and patient care of healthcare staff

Additional research interests include: 

• Virtual reality interventions for dealing with cognitive processes 

• Early interventions for mood disorders

• Health behaviour interventions on cancer screening behaviours 

• Emotion regulation in preadolescence 

• Mental health in the general population during COVID-19 pandemic

Methodological expertise:

Arianna is mainly a quantitative researcher with expertise in managing and coordinating feasibility and randomised controlled studies (RCTs), meta-analyses, multilevel modelling, daily diaries, and longitudinal studies. She has qualitative experience in conducting process evaluations. 

Research Groups:

Mood Disorders, Institute of Mental Health, University of Birmingham

Health and Social Psychology Research Group, University of Leeds

Workforce and wellbeing Theme, Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Translational Centre

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for Health Special Interest Group

Professional memberships

Arianna is the British Psychological Society (BPS) PsyPAG Representative for the Division of Occupational Psychology (DOP), a graduate member of the BPS (MBPsS), and the Association of Contextual Behavior Science (ACBS). 

Clinical Psychology work

As part of her clinical psychology interests, in 2016 Arianna completed a clinical traineeship at the SMIAB (Società Medica Italiana Di Self-Analisi Bioenergetica) School of Clinical Psychology in Rome. In 2017, she completed an Advanced Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Mindfulness-based Intervention (MBI) Annual Training, Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI). In 2017, Arianna worked as an Assistant Psychologist in a Paediatric Oncology Department, Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli in Rome. In 2021, she completed a CBTi training (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for insomnia) and delivered sleep therapy to clients with insomnia within the SLEEP trial in the MHPP project.