Alette Willis (PhD)
Chancellor's Fellow -- Senior Lecturer

Contact details
- Tel: +44 (0)131 650 3881
- Email: a.willis@ed.ac.uk
Background
I am Senior Lecturer and Chancellor’s Fellow in Counselling, Psychotherapy and Applied Social Science. I first came from to Edinburgh from Canada in 2008 as a postdoctoral research fellow.
My work within and outwith academia has centred on narratives and how they shape decision-making, ethics, identity and attitudes. Besides working as an academic, I was Secretary to the Scottish Storytelling Forum for seven years, spent two years as Storyteller in Residence to the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, several years as a Talking Tree at the Royal Botanic Gardens, and was co-found and now non-Executive Director of the Real Talk social enterprise. I am currently on the core team of The Earth Stories Collection, which works with traditional stories and social change in relation to sustainability.
I am a published author of fiction for adults and for children. My first novel for children, “How to Make a Golem (and Terrify People)” won the Kelpies Prize in 2011, it is published by Floris Books). Dancing with Trees, Eco-tales from the British Isles was co-written with well-known storyteller, Allison Galbraith and was published by the History Press in 2017.
Qualifications
PhD Human Geography, Carleton University
Masters in Human Geography, Carleton University
MSc in Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa
BAHons Geography, Carleton University
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Responsibilities & affiliations
I am the Social Sciences lead for the EPSRC Our Health Project at the University of Edinburgh. This project brings together groups of interdisciplinary students to work with community groups to undertake research to answer questions posed by the community groups. Our Health has been contracted by the local NHS region to undertake community-based participatory research into ehealth delivery.
I am the Library and Information Strategy Representative for the School of Health to the College Committee
Chair and Business Service Owner, University of Edinburgh Course Collections Service Board
Undergraduate teaching
I teach on the MA Health in Social Science:
- Mapping Health and Illness Across Societies (SHSS08001)
- Nature, Greenspace and Health (SHSS10010)
- Dissertation supervision
Postgraduate teaching
MSc Counselling Studies
- Programme Director
- Course Organiser for the MSc Dissertation (Counselling)
Edinburgh Futures Institute Narrative Futures Masters Programme 2022-2023
- Sustainable Roots to Narrative Futures
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Areas of interest for supervision
I am particularly interested in PhD applications from students working at the intersections of geography and well-being, including sustainability and mental health, outdoor therapy, animal therapy and the role of Earth Others in the lives of human beings.
A second area of interest is in the use of narratives, stories, storytelling, bibliotherapy and writing as inquiry in research, in well-being and in social change.
Current PhD students supervised
Alexandra White, Women and Gambling In The 21st Century: Exploring the Lived Experience of Female Problem Gamblers and their View of the Therapeutic Relationship
Mounira Aldousari, Being A Counsellor in Kuwait: Challenges and Aspirations in the Light of Stigma
Joe Kai Chung Poon, Storytelling as a means of building character in children: Using Chinese Classics in bibliotherapy
Beverley Bruce, Walking the Bridge between Yoga and Psychotherapy
Natalia Cisneros Buiton, Voluntary Childlessness in Ecuador: A Narrative Approach
Cloie Hamilton, On the Spectrum and in the Room: Exploring Experiences of Mental Health Support in Autistic Women Suffering Traumatic Stress
Past PhD students supervised
Candela Sanchez-Rodilla Espeso (2021) Therapeutic relationships to landscapes: the role of place in panic and panic recovery
Mariya Levitanus (2020) The negotiation of LGBT identities in post-soviet Kazakhstan
Holt Hauser (2020) Cardstock and Containment: Exploring Therapeutic Affect in 'Magic: the Gathering' for Adults
Ryan Bittinger (2019) Homos in the Woods: Queer Shame and Body Shame in the Context of Trekking Experiences
Sarah Quinley (2019) Songs of self: An heuristic inquiry into voicework as therapeutic
Joan Jamison (2018) Authentic Space
Fejer Almajed (2017) In/coherence: A layered account of a Kuwaiti woman’s post-psychotic self-in-progress
Linda Talbert (2016) Inside Jacob’s story: Exploring counsellor contribution to narrative co-construction using imaginary dialogues with a Biblical character
Jenna Daku (2016) In Pursuit of Meaning: Eating Disorder Recovery and the Re/construction of Self
Research summary
My overarching interest is in how people use narratives to make sense of their embodied emotional experiences, to give meaning to their lives, and to make ethical choices. It is this interest that led me to the field of counselling.
I study narratives in relation to:
- The impact of religion and spirituality on the professional self-stories of counsellors and psychotherapists
- The use of story in knowledge exchange
- understanding ethical decision-making around environmental issues
- human relationships with place and “earth others” including animals, plants and landscape features.
I have explored these topics through oral histories, autoethnography, engagement with published memoirs, analysing conversations in a book club and producing readers’ theatre scripts.
-
Shifting the Narrative: Exploring the Role of Arts Interventions in supporting communities in working across sectors to achieve place-based climate action
Research output: › Commissioned report (Published) -
Our Health: Exploring interdisciplinarity and community-based participatory research in a higher education science shop
(13 pages)
In:
Research For All, vol. 6, pp. 1-13
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/RFA.06.1.18
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
‘Things on your doorstep you don’t even think about’: Thinking intercultural engagement with psychodynamic theory
(21 pages)
In:
Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, vol. 34, pp. 302-322
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v34i2.742
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Design, storytelling, and our environment: Critical insights from an empirical study with storytellers
Research output: › Conference contribution (Accepted/In press) -
Editorial: Affective dimensions of climate risk
(2 pages)
In:
Frontiers in Climate, vol. 4
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2022.935122
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Editorial (Published) -
Reading ecological memoirs: What narrative therapy can tell us about the power of discussing books in groups
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429291111
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
Using memoirs in science communication for transformational learning
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429291111
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
Personal safety app effectiveness
(6 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3290607.3312781
Research output: Contribution to Conference › Conference contribution (Published) -
Conversations in the wildwoods: Narrators, readers and the rise of the ecological self
In:
Environmental Education Research
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2018.1532982
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Amplifying John Muir’s life: A third sector intervention in providing alternative narrative resources to secondary schools
In:
Environmental Education Research, vol. 24, pp. 1050-1061
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2017.1344192
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)