Feelings of emptiness aren’t very well understood as a lived experience. While it comes up fairly often in my therapy practice, most existing research has looked at feelings of emptiness as a feature of specific diagnoses (like BPD) rather than exploring what it feels like from the inside.

We have a lot of (mostly psychoanalytic) theory on why people feel empty, but each theory tends to look at emptiness through its own lens and assumptions about human nature. While this is helpful, it’s important to know what it’s like to feel empty from people who actually experience this so we can think of ways to support people whose lives are affected by feeling empty using their experiences as a starting point.

In my research I want to explore how people actually experience ongoing feelings of emptiness in everyday life, including how it relates to identity, relationships, and their sense of self over time.

Are you interested in taking part? If so, please email me on choudhur1@roehampton.ac.uk to take part or click the button below. A £20 voucher will be available for your time.

Your participation would contribute to improving how and mental health services and professionals understand and respond to this experience.

Please get in touch if you are:

• Over 18

• Living in the UK

• Have longstanding feelings of emptiness

• Would be able to talk about your experience over 1-2 video calls with me

• Once you get in touch, I’ll send over a screening questionnaire and some more information, before meeting over one or two video interviews to talk about your experience.

I look forward to hearing from you.