Dr Lavanya Thana

Lavanya is an experienced qualitative research psychologist with strong interests in treatment outcomes of complex interventions and patient experience and safety. Her background is in psychology (BSc) and mental health services research (PhD). Prior to joining the School in 2019, Lavanya worked at Imperial College London where she spent over a decade contributing to various randomised controlled trials of complex psychosocial interventions for adults and children with a range of mental health conditions. Lavanya’s doctoral research examined the micro and meso level processes associated with adverse outcomes of psychotherapy using Constructivist Grounded Theory methodology.

Lavanya is a member of the Centre for Global Mental Health and the REBALANCE Working Group. She is currently employed to deliver the qualitative component of the ‘Adverse Medical Incidents and Outcomes in the NHS’ study funded by the NIHR, which aims to understand the prevalence, patients' perspectives and factors that influence subsequent actions. She previously contributed to a national project, the ‘Evaluation of the Integrated Care and Support Pioneers’, in the Policy Innovation and Evaluation Research Unit at the School.