Dr Lydia Gitau is a Postdoctoral Fellow (Psychosocial Practice) at the fEEL (felt Experience and Empathy Lab), Big Anxiety Research Centre. Her research is focused on examining and engaging in post-conflict interventions that have potential to support healing and long-lasting peace for survivors of conflict, mass violence and trauma.

She has contributed to the development of EmbodiMap, a virtual reality tool to facilitate engagement with emotions, using this with people from refugee backgrounds. She has also been working with the South Sudanese refugee community in Western Sydney to explore new creative approaches to the study of their subjective experience, e.g the South Sudanese Young ambassadors program.

For her PhD thesis, Lydia explored trauma interventions for South Sudanese refugees in Kakuma Refugee Camp and their link to peacebuilding. Lydia was the recipient of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) Foundation’s Dorothy Marcus Senesh Graduate Fellowship of 2014-2015, and the 2014 Postgraduate Teaching Fellowship of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney, to support this research. Lydia is also an Honorary Associate in the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney, where she completed her PhD in 2016.

Lydia has previously worked as a trauma counsellor and trainer with NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS). She continues to investigate different ways of engaging with survivors of trauma to facilitate a shift towards psychosocial wellbeing.

 After completion of her PhD, Lydia worked as a trainer and as a trauma counsellor with NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS). She has previously worked as a counselor and a lecturer at various universities in Kenya. Lydia continues to investigate different ways of engaging with survivors of trauma to facilitate a shift towards healing and peacebuilding.