I began my academic career at the University of Lisbon, where I studied psychology and psychotherapy, before moving to Oxford to do my doctorate with Dr Mansur Lalljee and Prof Gordon Claridge. Following my DPhil, I was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Ian Ramsey Centre in Oxford, a research associate at the Psychology of Religion Group in Cambridge, and a lecturer at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford. In 2014, I joined Coventry University to lead the Brain, Belief and Behaviour research group. With philosophers and neuroscientists, I have pioneered research on the analgesic effects of religious beliefs and the stress-buffering effects of science beliefs. I have led the first randomized-controlled trial on the effects of yoga and meditation in prison and have recently co-written a book that examines the science and myths about the effects of these practices — The Buddha Pill: Can Meditation Change You? Read an extract here.

My primary research explores the biological roots and psychological impact of beliefs and spiritual practices, including meditation. I use a combination of experimental methods from social and biological psychology, personality theory, and cognitive neurosciences. I am currently writing about the effects of meditation and conducting new research on the modification of beliefs.