Dr Kyla Vaillancourt

Overview

Kyla completed an undergraduate psychology degree in Toronto, Canada before moving to the UK to complete a Master’s degree in Early Child Development, and later a professional Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (King's College London). She has worked clinically in the National Health Service as a Clinical Psychologist where she has developed expertise in delivering psychological therapy to women and their infants in the perinatal period in both primary care and specialist services. Currently, she is at City University undertaking a Doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship at the Centre for Maternal and Child Health funded by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) and supervised by Professor Susan Ayers. Her fellowship is focused on the feasibility, acceptability and implementation of observational parent-infant interaction tools within specialist Perinatal Mental Health Services. 

Her research interests include perinatal mental health and parent-infant relationships. She is particuarly interested in early intervention and advancing evidence relating to interventions for parents who have mental health conditions in the perinatal period, that considers outcomes for both parents and children.

 

She has trained in therapies focused on maternal mental health, the couple relationship, the parent-infant relationship and parenting, and has been involved in teaching, training and supervision of professionals and psychological therapists who work with parents in the perinatal period. She has a particular interest in improving care for those who have experienced reproductive trauma and loss, including supporting staff who work in maternity and addressing inequalities in outcomes and care. She also sits on the Perinatal Faculty committee within the British Psychological Society (BPS). 

Prior to training as a clinical psychologist, she delivered therapist guided self-help to parents of children with anxiety disorders at the University of Reading where she was also involved in research relating to mother-infant relationships and early child development under the supervision of Professor Lynne Murray and Professor Pasco Fearon.

Fellowships

• Bridging Science and Practice: Research to Inform the Implementation of a Parent-Infant Observation Measure in Perinatal Mental Health Services (Integrated Clinical Academic Programme), City University, April 2024 - present
• Predoctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship, University of Oxford, October 2021 - September 2022

Memberships of committees

• Committee Member, Perinatal Faculty within the Division of Clinical Psychology, British Psychological Society, September 2022 - present

Publications by category