Adele Beinaraviciute is an Assistant Clinical Research Practitioner for the Youth Mental Health Research Unit (YMHRU- also known as Juice) and the Complex Trauma and Resilience Research Unit (C-TRU). She works to support mental health services in Greater Manchester to get involved in research and provide exciting opportunities for their service users to participate in studies that they relate to.

Adele’s interest in mental health developed from her initial desire to work in medicine, when she realised that the psychological mechanisms of physical trauma experiences fascinated her most. She moved from Canada to the Netherlands to complete her undergraduate degree at The University of Amsterdam, where she focused on health, psychology and culture. She gained initial research experience assisting a study on the facial expression of emotion at the Amsterdam Interdisciplinary Centre for Emotion, while finalising a first dissertation project on eco-anxiety and activism cemented her desire to work in the field of psychology. She then completed an MSc in Psychological Sciences Brunel at The University London with a dissertation on intergenerational trauma, emotional distress and mindfulness. This led her to move to the UK for a second postgraduate degree in Clinical and Health Psychology at The University of Manchester.

Throughout her first year in Manchester, Adele worked in residential mental health services for young people and assisted on a research project called Talk, Understand, Listen for In Patient Settings (TULIPS). Writing about and observing different service user perspectives, paired with her personal experiences of mental health services, she has gained an in-depth understanding of mental healthcare provided in the UK. This highlighted to her the importance of service user involvement in research and inspired her to pursue a position at the GMMH.

Adele is deeply invested in supporting the development of mental healthcare and is keen to contribute to several projects as a liaison between service users, clinical and research teams. At JUICE, she is focused on supporting participant recruitment to the BART II trial, which is investigating the effects of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for young people who are at-risk of developing bipolar disorder.

In her spare time Adele enjoys reading, preparing friendly dinner gatherings and keeping up with her daily yoga practice.