Prof Naomi Moller
Professor Of Psychology And Psychotherapy
Biography
Qualifications
PhD, CPsychol, MA, BSc, BA
Role
I started at The Open University in July 2014 as a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology, becoming a Senior Lecturer in 2016 and Professor in 2021.
My previous academic job was at the University of the West of England (UWE) where I was Associate Head of the Department of Psychology and latterly Associate Head of the Department of Health and Social Sciences. I have also previously worked (part-time) as Joint Head of Research (2016-2018) and (subsequently) a Research Consultant (2018-2020) for the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, a professional body for UK counsellors and psychotherapists.
Professional affiliations
Society for Psychotherapy Research: Currently SPR UK Chapter Past President (until summer 2027); elected UK Chapter President (2020-2023).
British Psychological Society - Chartered Psychologist and Member of Division of Counselling Psychology
British Association for Counselling and Psychotherpy - Registered Member
American Psychological Association - International member
Upcoming Publications
A selection of my research publications can be viewed below, at The Open University's Open Research Online and through my ORCID profile.
Rost, F., Moller, N., Frances, T., McFaul, C., DiMalta, G., Ness, H. (forthcoming). Counselling Knowledge and Skills for SCoPEd B: Diversity, Self-awareness, Assessment and Research. Sage. Publication date autumn 2025.
Research funding (since 2018)
2021 Project Title: Postive Digital Practices: a holistic approach to wellbeing for part-time, commuter and distance learning students. Funder: Office of Students. Principle Investigator: Kate Lister (Open University). Grant: £185,734; granted July 2021; two year grant.
2018 Project Title: ‘Before, During and After Adult Gender Identity Specialist Services: Improving the integration of care’ Funder: NIHR. Co-Investigators: Richard Holti (PI); Peter Keogh; Paul Walley. Grant: £711,854.80; granted August 2018; grant runs from March 2019. https://business-school.open.ac.uk/research/projects/icta
Teaching interests
I have a long history of doctoral supervision and am currently supervising two students.
- Michelle Oldale, Co-supervisors Dr. Helen Bowes-Catton and Dr. Rose Capdevila, Thesis Title: Between Shame and Pride – the nature and experience of the double shame bind in Fat Activist communities.
- Mychelle Pride, Co-Supervisors Dr Tim Coughlan and Dr Gini Harrison, Thesis title: Towards Modelling the Likelihood of Academic Success of Higher Education Students with Mental Ill Health: Understanding the retention and awarding gaps
I have also been an External Examiner for both Counselling Psychology Professional Doctorates and PhDs. If you are interested in doing a PhD with me, please do email me.
I have a history of programme and module leadership both at the OU and in my prior institution, predominantly in the area of counselling/counselling psychology.
Impact and engagement [since 2020]
I am committed to ensuring that the research that I engage in is communicated to broader audiences and have a history of organizing research seminars and practitioner trainings as well as giving talks to mixed or non-academic audiences.
Short courses and training materials for mental health professionals
Moller, N. P. & Vossler, A. Working with Infidelity, 2020. This 12-hour online CPD course for practitioners was developed with Relate, the national relationship counselling charity. Course link: https://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/course/view.php?id=4496
Moller, N. P. & Vossler, A. How to do counselling online: A coronavirus primer, 2020. This 8-hour online CPD was produced with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and in record time as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Course link: https://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/course/view.php?id=5039
Short courses, websites and animations for the public
Directors: Haider Zafar; Sas Amoah, with OU academics Dr Phillipa Waterhouse and Professor Naomi Moller and OU students Christine Lyle and Kyle Andrews. At a crossroads: navigating work and/or family alongside study. OpenLearn, The Open University.
An interactive designed to support student wellbeing; output from Office of Students funded project. This output was nominated for a Learning on Screen Award 2023 in the Online Educational Resource section.
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/crossroads:
Invited talks, keynotes, panels and workshops:
Reeves, A., Barkham, M., Charura, D., Gabriel, Lynne, McLeod, J., Moller, N., Smith, K. (2024). Invited panellist: The role of BACP in maximising the potential of counselling and psychotherapy research in the UK. Panel at British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy Research conference in Birmingham, May 17-18 2024.
Wheeler, M., van Rijn, B., Moller, N., Pearce, P., Sherbersky, H. (2024). Invited panellist: Metanoia 40th anniversary Lecture Series: Meaningful Conversations: EDI challenges faced by the Profession. London, May 4th.
April 24-26 2024 Moller, N. Invited workshop on Thematic Analysis at EU/UK Chapters of the Society for Psychotherapy Research psychotherapy research training workshop series in Valencia, Spain. Also involved as co-organiser.
March 8 2024 Moller, N. How to do research that makes a difference. Keynote at Metanoia Institute Research Conference, online.
June 17-17 2023 Moller, N. ‘Methodology, technology and psychology: Looking to the future with hope and critique.‘ Keynote at Division of Counselling Psychology annual conference, at York St John University in York.
June 2-3 2023 Moller, N and Smith, K. ‘Online Therapy – What we need to know.’ Keynote at 6th Annual International Conference on Pluralistic Counselling and Psychotherapy online conference.
May 17-19 2023, Co-organised a 3-day psychotherapy research methodology workshop for the UK/EU Chapters of the Society for Psychotherapy Research at Metanoia Institute in London plus delivered training sessions.
March 23-25 2022 Moller, N. Invited workshop on Qualitative Story Completion at EU/UK Chapters of the Society for Psychotherapy Research psychotherapy research training workshop series in Geissen, Germany. Also involved as co-organiser.
March 7, 2021 Moller, N. Invited talk on Qualtitative Story Completion for Gothenberg Seminar series, jointly organized by Gothenberg University and the Open University by Praxis, Centre for Scholarship and Innovation, online.
May 16 2020 Moller, N. And Vossler, A. ‘What do we know about online therapy?’ Keynote at British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy one-day online research conference: Research online – Keeping Clients at the Centre.
Feb 1 2020 Moller, N. And Vossler, A. ‘Working with Infidelity and Sex in a digital age’. One day practitioner workshop. Part of series of training workshops offered by Psychotherapy UK.
Professional magazine articles
Roddy, J., Moller, N., Full, W. & Vossler, A. (April 2024). Video counselling: What we know now. Therapy Today (magazine of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy). https://www.bacp.co.uk/bacp-journals/therapy-today/2024/may-2024/articles/best-practice/
Projects
BPS Seminar Competition: New frontiers of family: The psychological implications of emerging family forms
The intent of this application is to apply to the British Psychological Society Research Seminars Competition to host a series of four seminars on New Frontiers of Family. OU will be the hosting organization but the bid will be in collaboration with the University of the West of England (Dr. Victoria Clarke & Dr. Nikki Hayfield) and Birkbeck University (Dr. Fiona Tasker). Deadline = July 1 Total funds available = £3,000 The funds are to pay for speaker expenses (travel and accomodation) only; the hosting universities are expected to provide the rooms for the seminars. The image of the family in most psychology textbooks remains steadfastly traditional, and yet increasingly out-of-date. Disparate pockets of research within the discipline address the psychological implications of non-traditional families, but psychology as a whole lacks a cohesive narrative around the ‘changing nature of the family’ (a narrative that is strongly apparent in sister disciplines such as sociology). Psychological contributions to debates about non-traditional families are often limited to assessments of the emotional welfare of children, but it is our contention that psychologists have much more to contribute to these debates. The purpose of the seminar series is to explore the psychological implications of family forms that have emerged or become increasingly prominent in the last few decades through, for example, legislative changes or the development of new reproductive technologies. This includes a wide variety of ‘family’ formations from families in which children were conceived through the use of reproductive technologies such as embryo donation (first recorded in Britain in the early 1990s) to same-sex parented families in which the children were adopted (the provisions of legislation that made adoption by same-sex couples possible came into force in the mid-2000s). These new family formations are not limited to families with children – voluntary childlessness is increasingly visible in the wider culture, as our are family forms with two or more parents, such as polyamorous families. Thus the aim of the seminar is to explore the psychological meanings and experience of familial relationships that extend beyond the traditional prerogatives of genetic kinship and the nuclear family unit. The proposed seminar series will consist of 4 seminars; two for each of the following themes: 1) Beyond genetic relatedness/kinship (indicative topics: embryo donation and gamete donation, same-sex adoption, same-sex co-parents) 2) Beyond the nuclear family (indicative topics: childlessness, polyamorous families)
Publications
Book
Book Chapter
A critical review of the interdisciplinary literature on voluntary childlessness (2021)
The Humanistic Approach (2021)
Understanding Sadness and Worry (2021)
Qualitative Story Completion: A method with exciting promise (2018)
Once Upon A Time…: Story Completion Methods (2017)
Doing a literature review (2014)
Next steps – Building on and using research in training and practice (2014)
Journal Article
Improving the integration of care for trans adults (2024)
Improving the integration of care for trans adults: ICTA a mixed-methods study (2024)
Online therapy: what we know now (2024)
Mental health practitioners’ perceptions of online working: a literature review (2024)
The emotional labour of teleworkers conducting online counselling during Covid‐19 (2023)
Video counselling and psychotherapy: A critical commentary on the evidence base (2021)
Counselling formerly heterosexually partnered gay fathers raised with religion (2020)
Who Attends Couples Counseling in the UK and Why? (2020)
Internet Affairs: Partners’ Perceptions and Experiences of Internet Infidelity (2020)
Young people’s perceptions of fat counsellors: “How can THAT help me?" (2019)
Qualitative story completion: Possibilities and potential pitfalls (2019)
The anorexia nervosa experience: Shame, Solitude and Salvation (2017)
Family therapy ‘lite’? How family counsellors conceptualise their primary care family work (2017)
Defining infidelity in research and couple counseling: a qualitative study (2015)
