Welcome to the Well Minds Lab!
We conduct cutting-edge research in developmental psychology and developmental translational neuroscience of mental health and wellbeing (MHW). Using innovative multi-method approaches, we investigate psychological, neurocognitive and neuroaffective processes underpinning MHW and their development. We also examine changes in these processes resulting from mental health and wellbeing interventions. Our latest stream of research explores links between MHW processes and global crises. We work with policy makers, educators and mental health professionals to inform policy and practice in mental ill-health prevention and wellbeing promotion, particularly in education. The lab is headed by Dr. Dusana Dorjee, Associate Professor in the Psychology in Education Research Centre in the Department of Education at the University of York in the UK.
Lab news:
July 2025 – If you can, spare 10 minutes to complete a questionnaire and help us validate a new measure of capacities underpinning mental health and wellbeing.
June 2025 – Dr Dorjee’s new peer-reviewed book published by Routledge – Making Sense of Mental Health and Wellbeing in Primary Schools: A Practical, Neuroscience-Based Guide – is now available for pre-order. The book specifies key capacities underpinning mental health and wellbeing in an accessible way and presents a trauma-informed 7-Step approach to fostering these capacities systematically and gradually across primary school years.
May 2025 – Over the past two years Dr Dorjee worked with the PSHE Association on translating her Neurodevelopmental Theory of Mental Health and Wellbeing Capacities (NDeTeC) into an innovative comprehensive mental health and wellbeing curriculum for primary schools in England called The Foundations for Wellbeing. Here is a short article explaining why she worked on this project and what it involved: How can we do a better job at teaching children mental health and wellbeing knowledge and skills in primary schools?
April 2025 – Congratulations to Rosie Lennon on successful submission of her PhD thesis ‘Is an Intervention Fostering the Components of a ‘Self-World Capacity’ Acceptable and Feasible to Deliver in Primary Schools to Support Students’ Mental Health and Well-Being?’
February 2025 – Join us in congratulating our PhD student Qi Wang on successfully defending her PhD thesis ‘Investigating the relationship between self-regulation, mind-wandering and self-other aspects of wellbeing’
January 2025 – Read an accessible article in The Conversation responding to the current debate on young people’s resilience – Why resilience won’t solve the mental health crisis among young people
Latest publications:
Dorjee, D., Nguyen, T., & Märtins, O. (2025, June 4). Inventory of Modes of Existential Awareness (IMEA): A new tool for assessing distinct self-transcendent and non-dual awareness states. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/smqeg_v2
Stark, H., Dorjee, D., Trautwein, F., Frank, P., Cooper, K., Lutz, M., … Schmidt, S. (2025, February 21). Is the self a blind spot in our approaches to achieving sustainability?. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/hs23f_v1
Šumec, R., Filip, P., Vyhnálek, M., Katina, S., Dorjee, D., Hort, J., & Sheardová, K. (2025). Present Mind in the Ageing Brain: Neural Associations of Dispositional Mindfulness in Cognitive Decline. Mindfulness, 16(1), 76-90.
Dorjee, D. (2024, November 4). Conceptualising Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Wellbeing Neurodevelopment: An Integrative Brain Networks Framework. https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/7vx45_v1?view_only=