RESEARCH & PUBLICATIONS

Dr Annalise Roache is a wellbeing researcher and Positive Psychology practitioner whose academic work bridges the gap between theory and practice. With a PhD from Auckland University of Technology and a Master of Science in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology from the University of East London, Annalise’s research explores how everyday people understand and experience wellbeing. Her work contributes to advancing ethical, evidence-based approaches to coaching, psychological practice, and wellbeing science. This page offers a selection of Annalise’s research, publications, and thought leadership in the field.


Join me on ResearchGate or ORCID for a more detailed profile and project listings.

PhD. Research focus

Annalise is a passionate advocate for bridging the gap between academic theory and real-world practice. Her research explores how people make sense of wellbeing in their everyday lives—what makes it better, what makes it worse, and how this compares to established scientific models.

Annalise’s doctoral research, The Model of Elemental Wellbeing: Lay Concepts of Wellbeing, is a large-scale empirical study of New Zealand adults (n=1064). Drawing on Reflexive Thematic Analysis (n=476), the study uncovers how laypeople conceptualise wellbeing and identifies both overlaps and tensions with dominant theories in Positive Psychology. The result is the development of the Model of Elemental Wellbeing, a practical and inclusive framework grounded in the voices of everyday people.

You can read the full thesis here and explore the Model of Elemental Wellbeing in more detail.

This research was guided by four aims:

  • To capture lay opinions about wellbeing in a New Zealand context

  • To explore the language people use to talk about wellbeing, both individually and across subgroups

  • To examine how people self-report on wellbeing literacy, mental health, and overall wellbeing

  • To compare lay conceptions with dominant theoretical models in Positive Psychology

Ultimately, Annalise’s work aims to elevate everyday knowledge and lived experience—shaping research, practice, and policy that better reflect the diverse ways people understand and pursue wellbeing.

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Ethical guidelines for Positive Psychology Practice

Annalise is fortunate to be part of a small but mighty research group with Dr Aaron Jarden, Dr Tayyab Rashid, and Dr Tim Lomas. We have developed the first-ever Ethical Guidelines for Positive Psychology Practice, a proud achievement launched at the 2019 International Positive Psychology Association World Congress in Melbourne, Australia. These guidelines cover aspects such as who has the ‘right’ to practice positive psychology and how best practice can be supported and upheld. Throughout, we focus specifically on the development of ethical protocols, drawing on guidelines in counselling, coaching, health-related fields, and psychotherapy. To date, the guidelines have been translated into ten languages and growing.

We are committed to reviewing and republishing the guidelines on a bi-annual basis, with version two published in July 2021. We welcome feedback and support, so please do get in touch if you are interested in contributing to this vital piece of work or translating it to another language. See here for open access publications.

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Masters research focus

Writing for Wellbeing: An Expressive Writing Study

As part of her Master of Science research in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology at the University of East London, Annalise Roache conducted a Randomised Controlled Trial exploring the impact of expressive writing on wellbeing. The study aimed to test whether a simple, one-off online writing session could meaningfully improve self-efficacy, self-compassion, and overall wellbeing in a general population sample.

A total of 185 participants completed all three phases of the study (pre-test, post-test, and 28-day follow-up). Participants were randomly assigned to different writing conditions, varying by topic (positive or challenging experiences) and style (guided or self-directed). A key aim was to examine whether guided prompts could enhance the benefits typically observed in expressive writing, particularly in relation to self-compassion and generalised self-efficacy.

The findings revealed that while the guided prompts did not produce additional benefits, writing about challenging experiences significantly boosted self-efficacy and self-compassion—especially for participants who initially reported elevated depressive symptoms. This subgroup also showed a marked reduction in depressive symptoms and negative affect, alongside a short-term lift in life satisfaction.

The study also highlighted an important methodological insight: safeguarding measures that grouped at-risk participants into a single cohort helped avoid skewed results and raised questions about how such dynamics might influence findings in other trials. This research contributed to the growing evidence base for scalable, low-cost positive psychology interventions and opened up valuable questions for future study.

Research publications

Jarden, A., Roache, A., Jarden, R. (2024). Measuring wellbeing in coaching. In J. Passmore, B. Bajaj, & L. Oades (Eds.), The Health & Wellbeing Coaches Handbook, Chapter 20, pp. 200-217, Abingdon, Routledge. 

Roache, A. (2023). Just because a coach can coach, should they coach? In W.-A. Smith, E. H. Pontes, D. Magadlela, & D. Clutterbuck (Eds.), Ethical Case Studies for Coach Development and Practice (pp. 40-43). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/b23351 

Jarden, A., & Roache, A. (2023). What is wellbeing? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20, 1-4. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20065006 

Roache., A, Jarden, A, Rashid, T, & Lomas, T. (2023). Positive ethical practice for coaching excellence and wellbeing. In W-A. Smith, J. Passmore, E. Turner, Y-L. Lai, and D. Clutterbuck  (Eds.), The ethical coaches’ handbook: A guide to developing ethical maturity in practice, pp. 251-266. London: Routledge.

Jarden, A., Rashid, T., Roache, A., Lomas, T., Yuan, A., Wu, Y., & Chengqing, Z. (2021).Ethical guidelines for positive psychology practice (Chinese: Version 2). International Journal of Wellbeing, 11(3). https://doi.org/10.5502/ijw.v11i3.3685

Jarden, A., Rashid, T., Roache, A., & Lomas, T. (2021). Ethical guidelines for positive psychology practice (version 2.0). International Journal of Wellbeing, 9(3), 1-36. doi: https://doi.org/10.5502/ijw.v11i3.1819

Jarden, A., Rashid, T., Roache, A., & Lomas, T., Karavakou, V., & Seryianni, C. (2021). Ethical guidelines for positive psychology practice (version 1.0: Greek). International Journal of Wellbeing, 9(3), 1-36. doi:10.5502/ijw.v9i3.1559

Jarden, A., Rashid, T., Roache, A., Lomas, T., & Adiguzel, G. (2020). Pozitif Psikoloji Uygulamalarında Etik İlkeler(sürüm 1.0: Turkish). International Journal of Wellbeing, 9(3), 1-33. doi:10.5502/ijw.v9i3.1435

Jarden, A., Rashid, T., Roache, A., Lomas, T., Trinh, S., &Jonsdottir, H. K. (2020). Guide éthique de la pratique de la psychologie positive (version 1.0: French). International Journal of Wellbeing, 9(3), 1-33. doi:10.5502/ijw.v9i3.1213

Jarden, A., Rashid, T., Roache, A., Lomas, T., &Giraldez-Hayes, A. (2020). Ethical guidelines for positive psychology practice (version 1.0: Spanish). International Journal of Wellbeing, 9(3), 1-33. doi:10.5502/ijw.v9i3.1161

Jarden, A., Rashid, T., Roache, A., Lomas, T., Beicker, J., & Stricker, J. (2020). Ethical guidelines for positive psychology practice (version 1.0: Danish). International Journal of Wellbeing, 9(3), 1-32. doi:10.5502/ijw.v9i3.1189

Jarden, A., Rashid, T., Roache, A., Lomas, T., HassaniRaad, M., Taghva, N. (2020). Ethical guidelines for positive psychology practice (version 1.0: Persian). International Journal of Wellbeing, 9(3), 1-30. doi:10.5502/ijw.v9i3.1133

Jarden, A., Rashid, T., Roache, A., Lomas, T., Bidese, C., Callegaro, V., &Ruschel R. (2019). Diretrizeséticas para prática de psicologiapositiva(version 1.0: Portuguese). International Journal of Wellbeing, 9(3), 1-32. doi:10.5502/ijw.v9i3.1071

Jarden, A., Rashid, T., Roache, A., Lomas, T., Zadykian, N., &Tsvetkova, N. (2019). Ethical guidelines for positive psychology practice (version 1.0: Russian). International Journal of Wellbeing, 9(3), 1-36. doi:10.5502/ijw.v9i3.1053

Jarden, A., Rashid, T., Roache, A., Lomas, T., Heekerens, J., & Dreisörner, A. (2019). Ethical guidelines for positive psychology practice (version 1.0: German). International Journal of Wellbeing, 9(3), 1-36. doi:10.5502/ijw.v9i3.993

Lomas, T., Roache, A., Rashid, T., & Jarden, A. (2019). Developing ethical guidelines for positive psychology practice: An ongoing, iterative, collaborative endeavour. Journal of Positive Psychology. DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2019.165189

Jarden, A., Rashid, T., Roache, A., & Lomas, T. (2019). Ethical guidelines for positive psychology practice (version 1.0: English). International Journal of Wellbeing, 9(3), 1-30. doi:10.5502/ijw.v9i3.921

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