Dr Maria Loades is a Reader (Clinical Tutor) for the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology programme. Maria qualified as a Clinical Psychologist from the University of East Anglia in 2008. After qualification, she worked in a variety of mental health settings, predominantly in community Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). She completed a post-graduate diploma in cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for children, young people and families at the Anna Freud Centre/University College London in 2013, and a Postgraduate Certificate in the Supervision of Applied Psychology Practice at the University of Oxford in 2015. She was accredited by the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapists (BABCP) as a Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist, Supervisor and Trainer and is also registered with the Health and Care Professionals Council.

Maria's research programme focuses on enabling adolescents to access effective treatments for emerging mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. Maria secured an NIHR doctoral research fellowship in 2016 to further her research into depression in adolescents with fatigue in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Bristol and the Royal United Hospital, Bath. She was also a co-Investigator on a Wellcome Trust funded project to develop a universal school based programme to prevent anxiety and/or depression in young adolescents in the Western Cape, South Africa.  

Maria currently holds an NIHR Development and Skills Enhancement award. She leads the informal spotLight on Adolescent Mood Problems (LAMP) research group, and is part of the Child Mental Health and Development Group. 

Research interests

• Developing and delivering scalable Cognitive and/or Behavioural treatments for children and young people
• Adolescent depression, particularly enabling access to evidence based help early
• Therapist competence in delivering CBT, particularly in the field of child and adolescent mental health
• The therapeutic alliance in CBT
• CBT supervision