Lydia Gitau is a Postdoctoral Fellow (Psychosocial Practice) in the fEEL Lab - feltExperience & Empathy Lab based at the UNSW School of Art and Design. Lydia’s 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 and mass violence. 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. 

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.