Udita completed her PhD at University College London under the supervision of Professor Peter Fonagy and Dr. Lane Strathearn. Her doctoral work examined the neuroscience of attachment and trauma in mothers, and she is trained in administering and coding a range of attachment measures using the Dynamic–Maturational Model (DMM) of Attachment and Adaptation. She has been a guest lecturer at Roehampton University and co-led trainings on Attachment with the Family Relations Institute.

Udita joined King’s College London Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) in 2016 as a postdoctoral researcher within the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, where she coordinated the c-VEDA project. She subsequently project managed the Best Services Trial in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (before joining the Department of Psychosis Studies as a Lecturer in 2022.
Teaching: Udita currently teaches on the MSc Mental Health Studies and MSc Early Intervention in Psychosis programmes and supervises a number of MSc research projects through a South London and Maudsley (SLaM)/IoPPN Collaboration (SLIC) initiative. She is also the Academic Lead for the Lived Experience Perspective module at the IoPPN—the Institute’s first module entirely co-produced and delivered by experts by experience and carers. This work received the 2025 Faculty Award for Innovation in Postgraduate Education.

Research Interests

• Maternal and infant attachment
• Perinatal mental health
• The neuroscience of attachment
• Integrating lived experience in MSc teaching
• Minoritised student experience and student wellbeing

Teaching 

Women's Mental Health, Basic Mental Health, The Lived Experience Perspective 

Expertise and Public Engagement

Public Engagement and Student Wellbeing: Udita is committed to public engagement, co-production, and translating research for diverse audiences. She received a Public Engagement Award in 2017 (primary applicant) to co-create a parenting course for mothers involved in a Family Drug and Alcohol Court and in 2023 (co-applicant) for a co-produced workshop on embedding creativity in PPI work in research and teaching at the IoPPN. She has co-led patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) and creative public-facing events, including Breaking the Mould and Voices of Expression, aimed at addressing mental health stigma and amplifying lived experience. Udita is also the Academic Lead for the Department of Psychosis Studies Lived Experience Advisory Board (LEAB) and has held leadership roles focused on student wellbeing and equity, including serving as project lead for CORE-UNITY (Coalition for Outreach, Reform, and Empowerment), a student advisory group for racially minoritised students at the IoPPN.