Megan C Hayes PhD

Megan C Hayes is a groundbreaking researcher and pioneer of the Positive Journal approach to personal writing. She has spent a decade studying writing and the psychology of happiness, and discovering ways that writing makes us happier. She is an academic in the fields of Positive Psychology and Creative Writing, with a personal interest in mental health issues after growing up with a mother and sister who both experienced bipolar episodes.

Megan's interdisciplinary PhD explored writing as a tool to promote and support psychological wellbeing. She has shared her research in the UK, United States and Europe, including papers in The International Journal of Wellbeing and Writing in Practice: The Journal of Creative Writing Research. She is a co-founder of Creative Writing Lab: The Network for Research in Creative Writing and Wellbeing, and continues to be fascinated with how words and writing can create happiness.