Dr Christopher joined the University of Westminster as a Lecturer in Psychology in September 2023. He originally trained as a Counselling Psychologist. He is an experienced qualitative researcher and has approaching 30 peer-reviewed publications. He has a particular interest in more novel forms of qualitative data collections methods, such as story completion. He is especially interested in the transformative power of qualitative research to challenge stigma and reduce mental health inequalities.
His research expertise explores the intersection between religious understandings of mental distress, predominantly (but not exclusively) amongst Christians and how these might impact individual and collective wellbeing. A principal aim of his work is to understand, interrogate, and dismantle religious mental health stigma so that people who experience mental illness can be better supported. He has published expertise in a wide array of analytic methods, including reflexive thematic analysis, discourse analysis and interpretative phenomenological analysis.
He is a member of the cross-training fellowship in psychology and theology hosted at the University of Birmingham and led by Dr Carissa Sharp and a member of the international expert group for mental health, theology and dementia, led by Professor John Swinton.
He is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (AFBPsS), as well as a Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol). He holds Fellowship status (FHEA) with the Higher Education Academy.