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Dr Allison King | Doctor of Psychology & Psychotherapy | Researcher How much of yourself have you changed in order to belong?It is a question most people have never been asked directly. Yet if you sit with it honestly, the answer is often: quite a lot. I have been thinking about this question for a long time first as a researcher, and more recently as a clinician. My doctoral research at the University of Central Lancashire involved listening, in depth, to refugee women rebu

Introduction Why High-Functioning People Burn Out (Even When They’re Coping) Psychological distress is commonly conceptualised within discrete diagnostic categories, including anxiety, depression, and trauma-related disorders. However, such classifications may not adequately capture the complexity of individuals exposed to sustained and cumulative stressors. In particular, high-functioning adults often present with preserved external performance alongside internal dysregulati

Introduction (from my Masters in Psychology research) Trait anxiety refers to a relatively stable disposition to perceive situations as threatening and to respond with heightened worry and emotional reactivity across contexts (Spielberger, 1983). Elevated trait anxiety has been associated with impaired cognitive functioning, attentional bias towards threat, and increased vulnerability to psychological distress (Eysenck et al., 2007). Identifying factors that may reduce or reg

In my doctoral research, Transformative Acculturation: Identity, Relationships, and Adaptation Among Refugee Women in Switzerland (King, 2025), findings highlighted the need to extend existing acculturation frameworks to more fully account for the impact of pre-migration trauma, particularly gender-based violence (GBV), on post-migration adaptation. While Berry’s (1997) acculturation framework conceptualised acculturation through four strategies marginalisation, separation, i