Dr Emily-Marie Pacheco

Lecturer in Clinical Psychology

Biography

Background

Dr. Pacheco is a social and educational psychologist whose research focuses on resilience, identity, and wellbeing in the context of adversity; particularly in under-researched, high-stress environments. Her work is situated at the intersection of psychology, global development, and disaster response, with a particular emphasis on how individuals and communities make meaning, adapt, and recover in the face of structural and situational challenges.

She completed her PhD in Psychology at the University of Glasgow, where she explored the lived experiences and psychosocial wellbeing of UK-based international students from the MENA region during periods of escalated armed conflict. Her doctoral research highlighted the role of belief systems, place attachment, and cross-cultural identity in shaping resilience, and continues to inform her broader interest in narrative, context, and justice in mental health.

Prior to her current role in the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Dr. Pacheco was a Research Fellow at University College London (UCL), where she led the psychosocial research strand of a UKRI-funded interdisciplinary project in rural Indonesia. This work focused on developing and implementing co-created, multistage resilience-building interventions for communities facing climate-induced, multi-hazard disasters.

Dr. Pacheco’s methodological expertise lies in qualitative and mixed methods research, including interpretative phenomenological analysis and community-partnered approaches. Her wider interests include trauma and post-traumatic growth, adaptive beliefs and values, intercultural identity, critical pedagogy, and eudemonic  wellbeing frameworks in psychological wellbeing.

As an educator, she is passionate about interdisciplinary teaching and reflective practice. She is also involved in designing immersive, applied learning experiences with the aim of nurturing reflective, ethically engaged thinkers, doers, scholars and practitioners.

Research expertise include resilience, identity development, trauma recovery, and processes of meaning-making in individuals and communities affected by disaster, displacement, and conflict. This includes psychosocial adaptation, place attachment, and wellbeing among children, families, and migratory populations. Additional focus areas include international student wellbeing, non-clinical and community-based interventions, digital mental health, cross-cultural and decolonised psychology, and the use of arts- and education-based methods to support recovery in low- and middle-income countries.

Qualifications

  • Chartered Psychologist by the British Psychological Society (CPsychol)

Responsibilities & affiliations

  • Learning and Teaching lead, Clinical and Health Psychology
  • Deputy Programme Director, MSc Psychology of Mental Health (Conversion)
  • Dissertation Coordinator, MSc Psychology of Mental Health (Conversion); MSc Psychological Therapies; MSc Mental Health in Children and Young People: Psychological Approaches (Online Learning); MSc Mental Health in Children and Young People: Psychological Approaches (On Campus).
  • Course Organiser, Social Psychology and Mental Health
  • Course Organiser, Psychological Perspectives in Health Care
  • Pacheco Lab Research Network, UCL, University of Glasgow
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