Dr Cindy Chan is a Research Fellow in Health Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London. She is currently the Trial Manager for a Wellcome-funded randomised controlled trial.

Before joining King's College London in 2025, Cindy worked in NHS mental health services from 2012 in both clinical and research capacities.

She began her career in forensic services, working across secure and community settings, and subsequently worked across inpatient, community and specialist mental health services, including Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, Community Mental Health Teams, Early Intervention in Psychosis, later life mental health and memory services, and substance misuse services. 

Through these roles, she gained experience working with individuals with learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, organic and acquired brain injuries and complex mental health needs, collaborating with multidisciplinary teams to deliver person-centred care.

Cindy has experience in the design, delivery, governance and quality assurance of clinical trials, including CTIMPs and non-CTIMPs sponsored by NHS Trusts, universities and pharmaceutical companies. She has worked across the full lifecycle of pilot, feasibility and definitive trials and has previous experience managing an NHS research portfolio of adult and paediatric studies across Greater Manchester.

She holds a BSc in Psychology and an MSc in Forensic Psychology. Her PhD examined the experience and impact of adult- and peer-perpetrated online child sexual abuse, disclosure of abuse, and mental health outcomes.

Research interests

• Childhood trauma, adversity and poly-victimisation (online and offline)
• Child sexual abuse, including technology-facilitated sexual abuse
• Disclosure experiences and outcomes
• Life-course trajectories of trauma and adversity
• Trauma-informed care
• Service and systems responses to trauma and adversity
• Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement
• Mixed methods and inclusive research approaches

Teaching

Teaching support for MSc in Health Psychology