She completed her bachelors degree and PhD in psychology at Maynooth University, before moving to the University of Oxford for a postdoctoral position. She held posts as a Research Fellow at the Department of Psychiatry and as a college lecturer in psychology at Harris Manchester College at Oxford. In 2016, she was awarded a grant from the Danish Healthcare funding agency, TrygFonden, to lead an international project examining the use of technology to support behaviour change in psychological interventions. She has received a number of awards for her research presentations, including commendations from the Brain Prize Foundation, the British Psychological Society and the Society for Social Neuroscience.