Dr Darrelle Villa BSc, ClinPsyD, PGCertLTHE

Dr Darrelle Villa

School of Psychology
Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 4650
Email
d.villa.2@bham.ac.uk
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Dr Darrelle Villa is an Assistant Professor in clinical psychology and a Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC) registered clinical psychologist. She is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her teaching interests are in psychological formulation and interventions in the context of adult mental health and how to evaluate them, and qualitative methodologies. Her research focuses on qualitative approaches to making sense of identity and relationships in the context of brain injury and physical illness and in client experiences of psychological therapy.

Qualifications

  • Doctorate in Clinical Psychology
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education
  • BSc Honours in Psychology

Biography

Darrelle completed her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Birmingham in 2013. She worked as a Clinical Psychologist in brain injury rehabilitation and primary care adult mental health where she became interested in third wave cognitive-behavioural therapies. She took up her first lectureship position in the School of Psychology, University of Worcester in 2016 leading the undergraduate clinical psychology pathway. In August 2019, Darrelle returned to the University of Birmingham to take up a lectureship position on the Undergraduate and Clinical Psychology Programmes.

Teaching

Darrelle teaches third year specialist undergraduate modules on psychological interventions focusing on cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and on atypical development and early intervention. On the clinical psychology doctorate, Darrelle delivers CBT teaching, communication skills training and sessions on co-production. She co-facilitates workshops on qualitative data analysis and metasynthesis.

Postgraduate supervision

Darrelle supervises projects on the Clinical Psychology Doctorate and the MRes in Clinical Psychology. She is interested in projects on/using:

  • Identity and relationships in the context of brain injury.
  • Experiences of psychological interventions.
  • Qualitative methodologies particularly interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) and metasynthesis of qualitative research.

Research

Identity and relationships in the context of brain injury; experiences of psychological interventions; qualitative approaches; qualitative meta-synthesis.

Other activities

Registered practitioner psychologist with the Health & Care Professions Council

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Gilbert, E, Villa, D & Riley, GA 2023, 'A scoping review of psychosocial interventions to enhance the relationship of couples living with dementia', Dementia, vol. 2023, pp. 1-35. https://doi.org/10.1177/14713012231166474

Villa, D & Riley, G 2017, 'Partners’ experiences of relationship continuity in acquired brain injury', Cogent Psychology, vol. 4, no. 1, 1380891. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311908.2017.1380891

Heald, M, Allen, D, Villa, D & Oliver, C 2013, 'Discrimination training reduces high rate social approach behaviors in Angelman syndrome: Proof of principle', Research in Developmental Disabilities, vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 1794-1803. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2013.02.012

Moss, J, Howlin, P, Hastings, RP, Beaumont, S, Griffith, GM, Petty, J, Tunnicliffe, P, Yates, R, Villa, D & Oliver, C 2013, 'Social behavior and characteristics of autism spectrum disorder in Angelman, Cornelia de Lange, and Cri du Chat syndromes', American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, vol. 118, no. 4, pp. 262-283. https://doi.org/10.1352/1944-7558-118.4.262

Review article

Villa, D, Causer, H & Riley, GA 2021, 'Experiences that challenge self-identity following traumatic brain injury: a meta-synthesis of qualitative research', Disability and Rehabilitation, vol. 43, no. 23, pp. 3298-3314 . https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2020.1743773

View all publications in research portal