Lena Britnell is a current student on the MAPP course at Buckinghamshire New University. She has a varied background and has experience of working in corporate, retail and creative environments. Her passion for psychology emerged as a result of her experiences living with and managing her own long-term mental illness. She currently combines her studies with promoting the benefits of the conversation about mental health and wellbeing though her blog, www.followingflamingos.com.

As part of her drive to understand attitudes towards and other’s experience of wellbeing, she also holds volunteering roles with Rethink Mental Illness and peer support group Mental Health Mates. Lena finds great value combining her lived experience with an academic focus on the preventative and restorative power of Positive Psychology. She very much hopes that these lead to a vocation helping those at risk, or already having a diagnosable mental illness like depression and anxiety disorders, learn to find the best in themselves.