Sara Ascenso - Royal Northern College of Music

About Sara

Teaching areas: positive psychology, applied psychology, wellbeing studies, performance psychology, arts and health
Research supervision (masters and PhD)

Dr Sara Ascenso is a clinical psychologist with a BMus in piano performance and an MSc and PhD focused on Occupational Health Psychology in the performing arts sector. After working both as a psychologist in clinical settings and within educational projects, and as a collaborative pianist and piano teacher, Sara brings her two areas of work together through developing research and new HE curriculum on musicians’ wellbeing.

Research

Current and Future Research

Sara’s research focuses on occupational health and wellbeing. She has also been involved in arts & health research, especially the investigation of the psychological impact of community music engagement for vulnerable populations. Current projects focus on musicians’ work orientation, work meaning, positive education in conservatoire settings and basic needs satisfaction at work in the creative industries.

Research Areas

Positive Psychology
Performance Psychology
Arts & Health

External Research Roles

Honorary Lecturer, University College London (2025 – present)
Visiting Lecturer, University of Lisbon (2014 – present)

Funded Research Projects

AHRC, Foundation for Science and Technology – FCT, Arts Council England

Teaching

Research Supervision

Current supervision of PhDs:

Jacob Barns
Matilde Viegas
Georgina Aasgaard

Research Outputs

Written Outputs

Orchestral Musicians’ Community Engagement as a Means for Flourishing: A Phenomenological Study

Ascenso, S., 2026, In: Journal of Community Psychology. 54, e70148

Resounding Meaning: A cross-sectional profile of meaning in life, meaningful work and psychological distress among musicians

Ascenso, S., 2025, World Congress in Positive Psychology, IPPA Australia.

What If?: Understanding perceptions of Positive Psychology’s actual and possible societal impact among MAPP alumni in Portugal

Ascenso, S. & Marujo, H. Á., 2025, 9th IPPA World Congress on Positive Psychology.

A Cross-sectional Profile of Classical Musicians’ Mental Health and Illness

Ascenso, S., 2024, 11th European Conference on Positive Psychology, Innbruck.

Creating conditions for musicians to thrive: Cultivating mental health

Ascenso, S., 2024, National Conference of the Association of British Orchestras.

Music, health and wellbeing at a British conservatoire: A case study of research-led practice, embeddedness, and partnership

Ascenso, S., Jul 2024, 42nd PAMA International Symposium, London.

Plano Regional de Literacia em Saúde da Região Autónoma dos Açores

Ascenso, S., 2024

MAPPing the impact of 10 years of applied positive psychology post-graduate training in Portugal: A qualitative study

Ascenso, S., 2023, 8th IPPA World Congress on Positive Psychology .

Ascenso, S., Delle-Fave, A., Perkins, R., & Williamon, A. (2022), Fostering Musicians’ Wellbeing In G. McPherson. (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Music Performance, pp. 574-594. Oxford University Press.

Ascenso, S., 2022, The Oxford Handbook of Music Performance. Oxford University Press

McCrary, J., Ascenso, S., Savvidou, P., Schraft, S., McAllister, L., Redding, E., Bastepe- Gray, S., & Altenmüller, E. (2022). Load and fatigue monitoring in instrumental musicians using an online app: A pilot study. Frontiers in Psychology, 105689. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1056

Ascenso, S., 2022, In: Frontiers in Psychology.