Spending a year as an intern with SPRING at the University of Southampton gave me a front‑row seat to how mental health research is translated into real‑world impact.

Getting Involved in Research

A major part of my placement was contributing to two ongoing research projects. I worked across two main papers, which gave me exposure to different stages of the research cycle, from literature reviews and data extraction to writing up drafts for different sections of the academic paper.

The first paper was a study on hallucinations led by my supervisor, where I supported drafting the clinical measures section about the “phantom phone signals” phenomenon. Following this, I was involved in cleaning the dataset by removing extraneous variables and anomalies. This demanded meticulous attention to detail to meet the high standards of published psychological research. By completing this work, I enabled my supervisor to concentrate on other components of the study. This helped to advance a previously pending paper forward, ultimately accelerating its timeline towards publication. In doing so, my work directly contributed SPRING’s overarching objective of producing impactful research on psychosis.

The second paper involved conducting a meta-analysis examining the relationship between metacognition, cognitive ability, functioning and symptoms in psychosis and schizophrenia. Using the software Rayaan, I systematically screened study abstracts against a strict inclusion criterion and cross-checked my selections with my supervisor to ensure strong inter-rater reliability before progressing to full-text screening. Finally, I extracted the relevant statistics into Excel, before critically evaluating whether each study’s findings supported or rejected the main hypothesis. Completing this data-handling task exposed me to the fundamental stages of writing a successful research paper and deepened my understanding of how evidence is rigorously filtered and organised. It also highlighted how rewarding the research process can be once the final paper is published. 

Overall, these tasks showed me how much systematic effort sits behind a single published paper, and how interns can meaningfully support progress by handling time‑intensive stages of the research process.

Exploring AI in Mental Healthcare: “Concept to Clinic” Project

Beyond research, I also supported a project called “Concept to Clinic,” an interdisciplinary collaboration between the School of Psychology and the School of Electronics and Computer Science.  The project explored how AI can and cannot be used in a mental health setting. I found this particularly interesting, as it demonstrated how rapidly advancing technologies such as AI can be innovatively applied within healthcare. 

As part of this project, I participated in a Teams meeting with a range of stakeholders, including NHS staff, members of the public, and mental health charities, to gather their perspectives on integrating AI into mental health services. Two key concerns emerged: safeguarding risks around AI chatbots in high‑risk situations, and the fear that replacing clinicians with AI could undermine vital human connection. In response, we filmed six short, tailored video resources addressing these concerns and emphasised AI as an assistive tool that can ease workloads and reduce waiting times rather than replace clinicians. This project helped me see how research, technology, and public engagement can work together to shape a more thoughtful conversation around AI in mental health.

By creating these personalised resources, SPRING demonstrated its dedication to community engagement and responsiveness to public feedback. Ultimately, the aim was to reframe AI as an assistive tool to ease psychologists’ workloads and reduce wait times, rather than as a negative influence.

Delivering “Coping Creatively” Workshops

One of the most rewarding aspects of my placement was organising public engagement “Coping Creatively” workshops at the university wellbeing centre. This initiative was grounded in my supervisor’s research showing that self‑guided mindful colouring can improve student mental health, wellbeing, and mindfulness. 

In these workshops we provided colouring materials and guided students through mindful colouring exercises aimed at helping them destress from academic pressure. We delivered psychoeducation, explaining the evidence behind colouring and mindfulness in clear, jargon‑free language so students could understand why these techniques might help them cope. Many attendees reported feeling calmer and more focused.

Alongside the workshops, we also assisted the University Wellbeing team with their weekly pop‑up cafés. These sessions also used arts and crafts to reduce stress, but they placed greater emphasis on conversation and informal support.

These cafés helped me develop empathy, communication skills, and emotional resilience, particularly in learning not to carry students’ difficulties with me after sessions. They also showed how research‑informed approaches (like art‑based activities) can be embedded in everyday university wellbeing provision. 

Keeping SPRING Running: Admin and Digital Support

A significant part of placement involved behind‑the‑scenes work that keeps a research group functioning smoothly. Although less visible, these tasks taught me important organisational and digital skills.

Key activities included 1) managing the SPRING website, uploading blog posts, and promoting ongoing studies to support participant recruitment; 2) maintaining an Excel database of team members’ achievements, projects, and publications;3) handling email communications and scheduling SPRING presentations; and 4) designing workshop posters.

At the start of the placement, tools like WordPress and Canva were completely new to me. By using online resources and tutorials, I gradually increased my proficiency, improving my design choices and tailoring visuals to different audiences (e.g. more vibrant designs for students and more formal layouts for faculty). 

Looking Back: Challenges, Growth, and What Comes Next

Reflecting on my year in employment, the placement was both challenging and transformative. Early on, I struggled with confidence in public speaking, especially when delivering unfamiliar psychological content in workshops and comparing myself to more experienced colleagues. I also found repetitive tasks like meta‑analysis screening and learning new digital platforms mentally tiring at first. 

To overcome these challenges, I implemented these steps: 1) prepared structured scripts and rehearsed my delivery before workshops; 2) broke large research and admin tasks into smaller sections with mini‑deadlines; 3) actively sought supervision and feedback, which supported my resilience and encouraged continuous improvement in both research and public engagement work.

Through these experiences, I developed stronger research skills, digital literacy, communication competence, organisational habits, empathy, adaptability, and reflective practice. These skills will directly support my final year of undergraduate study at Southampton, from managing my dissertation project and using tools for literature reviews and data handling, to presenting findings clearly and looking after my own wellbeing while working with potentially distressing material. 

Looking ahead to my future career in mental health, including aspirations towards clinical neuropsychology, this placement has given me realistic insight into the demands of research roles and reinforced my interest in delivering evidence‑based interventions to diverse populations. It has also highlighted areas I want to continue developing, such as advanced statistics, clinical‑facing experience and academic writing. Overall, this placement has equipped me with a strong foundation of skills and experiences that I can confidently build my future career upon.