Megan C Hayes

Megan Hayes is one of the top researchers in positive journaling who has spent almost a decade studying writing, the psychology of happiness, and researching ways that writing makes us happier. She is an academic in the field of positive psychology, a creative writing graduate and has a personal interest in mental health issues, having grown up with a mother and sister who both suffered with bi-polar.

She will shortly complete her interdisciplinary PhD research at Teesside University, titled A Positive Psychology of Writing, which explores creative writing and psychological wellbeing (or ‘flourishing’). She was awarded a distinction in her MSc in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of East London, having originally studied Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. In 2015 her research was published in the peer-reviewed publication The International Journal of Wellbeing, and she also been published in The Journal of Creative Writing Research. She has presented her research at conferences in the UK, USA, and Europe including the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA), the European Conference on Positive Psychology (ECPP), and Cardiff Metropolitan’s ‘Writing Between the Lines’ symposium. She is also co-founder of Creative Writing Lab: The Network for Research in Creative Writing and Wellbeing (www.creativewritinglab.org) and founder and Director of Happy Hideaway (www.meganchayes.com/workshops), which brings together expert-speakers for creative workshops based on the science of positive psychology. She has written online since 2008 for websites, including Miseducated and Light Box: The Happiness Project.

Her first book, WRITE YOURSELF HAPPY, will be published in 2018.