Dr Zelda Di Blasi is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Applied Psychology at University College Cork and co-founder and director of the MA in Positive & Coaching Psychology. She is a member of the Positive Coaching Lab and contributes to national and international research in coaching psychology, wellbeing science, and applied health psychology.

Dr Di Blasi holds a BA (Hons) in Applied Psychology from University College Cork, an MPsychSc in Health Psychology from the University of Galway, and a DPhil in Health Sciences from the University of York, funded by the Fetzer Institute and the UK Medical Research Council. Her doctoral research on the placebo effect and clinician–patient communication resulted in eight peer-reviewed publications.

She completed postdoctoral training in Integrative Medicine and Health Psychology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), working with Professor Susan Folkman. 

She has held a range of international academic and research positions, including Research Fellow at the University of York (UK), Teaching Fellow at the University of California San Francisco and San Francisco State University, Lecturer at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and Research Consultant with Group Health Seattle and Harvard Medical School. She is currently a member of the Advisory Academic Board of the Masters in Business Coaching at the European University of Rome.

Dr Di Blasi is a certified LEGO® Serious Play® facilitator, a certified Strengths Coach (Cappfinity), a HeartMath trainer, a member of the Association for Coaching (AC), and holds an Advanced Diploma in Executive, Leadership and Life Coaching from Kingstown College.

Dr Di Blasi’s core research interest lies in understanding the psychological processes that support wellbeing, behaviour change, and human flourishing across health, educational, and organisational contexts. Her work spans positive psychology, coaching psychology, health psychology, and integrative medicine, with a particular focus on how communication, mindset, and experiential methodologies shape wellbeing and performance. She is especially interested in outdoor and walking coaching, positive affect processes, the cultural adaptation of wellbeing interventions, and the use of LEGO® Serious Play®.

Dr Di Blasi also contributes extensively to placebo research, examining open-label placebo, expectancy and communication effects, and the impact of treatment debriefing in clinical trials. Her work bridges psychological theory, behaviour change science, and applied health communication, and she employs a range of methodologies including experimental designs, qualitative inquiry, and mixed-methods approaches.

She has been involved in national and international collaborations across Europe and the United States, including projects funded by the Medical Research Council (UK), the Fetzer Institute, the National Institutes of Health (US), and UCSF. She has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, including The Lancet and the British Medical Journal and has served as a researcher, collaborator, and consultant across multiple multidisciplinary teams. 

r Di Blasi is a regular peer reviewer for numerous international journals, including several high–impact factor outlets such as the BMJ, Frontiers in Psychology, and the International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology. She has held multiple editorial roles, joining the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Coaching Psychology in 2020, and in 2021 was appointed to the International Editorial Board of the Journal of Ecopsychology. She also served as a founding Associate Editor for Frontiers in Psychology: Positive Psychology (2021–2022).

In October 2023, she was awarded Fellowship of the International Society for Coaching Psychology, the highest individual honour bestowed by the Society, in recognition of her significant contributions to the development of coaching psychology and positive psychology internationally.

Positive Psychology, Coaching Psychology, Health Psychology, wellbeing science, mindfulness and wellbeing interventions, behaviour change, communication and the placebo effect, experiential and strengths-based methods (including LEGO® Serious Play®).

Currently teaching on:
MA Positive & Coaching Psychology, MA Applied Psychology, MA Work & Organisational Psychology/Behaviour, and BA Applied Psychology, including modules AP6129, AP6164, AP6181, AP6182, AP6183, AP3123, and AP3126.