Dr Lauren Heathcote is a Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London. She received her PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford and completed a five-year Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine.

The overarching aim of Lauren’s research programme is to identify mind-body mechanisms of physical and mental health and to harness these using innovative behavioural medicine approaches to improve the lives of young people and adults living with and beyond chronic illness.

Research interests

• Pain Psychology
• Symptom Perception
• Health Psychology
• Pediatric Psychology
• Psycho-Oncology
• Adolescents and Young Adult Health
• Mindset & Wise Interventions
• Mind-Body Mechanisms
• Digital Health

Teaching 

Lauren is the Principal Investigator of a research group in the Health Psychology Section in the School of Mental Health & Psychological Sciences, which supports PhD students, pre-doctoral researchers and postdoctoral fellows.

Expertise & public engagement 

She was the 2022 recipient of the prestigious Ulf Lindblom Young Investigator Prize for Clinical Science from the International Association for the Study of Pain as well as the 2022 Hiroomi Kawano New Investigator Award from the International Psycho-Oncology Society, both in recognition for her early and distinguished contributions to pain and psycho-oncology research.