Dr Elizabeth Cotton

I am a researcher and educator in the fields of employment relations, people management and mental health at work. My background is in international employment relations, working for Global Union Federations in countries in the global south and transition economies on educational and organising programmes. I was Head of Education and Programmes for a Global Union Federation (Industriall), and have written extensively about international employment relations, international solidarity and trade union education. My co-authored book Global Unions Global Business (Libri, 2011) looks at the experiences of trade unions internationally and their relationships with multinational corporations.

I returned to the UK in 2007 to work in academia and train in adult psychotherapy at the Tavistock and Portman Clinic. I have worked as a psychotherapist in the UK’s NHS as part of my training and worked with health teams and trade unions to build wellbeing at work. As part of this body of work I developed an online resource for health workers in partnership with the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust which is free to access www.survivingworkinhealth.org. My book Surviving Work in Health: Helpful stuff for people on the frontline (Gower, 2017) was nominated for the CMI’s practitioner book of the year.

My current research focusses on the sociology of work and the link between working conditions and mental health. I am currently writing a book UberTherapy: The new business of mental health to be published by Bristol University Press in 2024. Recent media about my research published in the Telegraph Magazine, Daily Mail,  Evening Standard, Channel4, Politics Home, i-D magazine, Guardian, Independent, Institute of Employment Rights. I was a contributor to BBC File on Four programme about the growth of EAPs and platformization of therapy (To be aired 12 March 2024). 

I am a Trustee and Publications Director of the British Sociological Association with particular interest in the impact of Open Access on academic publishing. I was elected as Chair of the Editorial Board of the British Sociological Association’s AJG4 journal Work, Employment & Society looking at the sociology of work following serving as an Editor in Chief 2018-2022. During this period the journal was restructured and internationalized, and a new Editorial Team set up to start January 2022. 

I was a member of the Health and Safety Executive’s SEEAC (Evidence & Assurance Committee) 2020-2021. I am a Senior Fellow of the HEA, Academic Member of the CIPD and member of the British Sociological Association and a founding member of the Partners for Counselling and Psychotherapy.

The Digital Therapy Project I convene a group of academics and practitioners in researching and understanding the rapid development of digital therapies. This is an international group including academics from Manchester and Stirling Universities, Data & Society (USA) and the two largest counsellors and psychotherapists’ networks in the UK Counsellors Together UK (CTUK) and USA the Psychotherapy Action Network (PsiAN) meeting monthly online since April 2022. Our current project is the Digital Therapy Survey which was set up to understand experiences of using teletherapy, online therapy platforms and digital mental health tools from the perspectives of therapists and consumers or users of these technologies in the UK and USA.

The Future of Therapy is an open access website summarizing my research into working conditions in the talking therapies 2017-2023. In 2017 I carried out a large survey of mental health workers in the UK looking at working conditions and employment relations as well as three subsequent surveys on working conditions in NHS Talking Therapies/IAPT surveys (carried out for BBC Radio 5 Live 2019), and surveys into the impact of Covid19 (2020) and the cost of living crisis (2023) looking at the financial situation and working conditions of counsellors and psychotherapists for the UK’s largest professional network CTUK (2021). 

Surviving Workwas set up in 2012 to pilot progressive interventions for building mental health at work. Surviving Work has an online following of 25,000 people who engage through blogs and eBooks, social media, workshops and public events.

Surviving Work in Healthcare is an online resource in partnership with the Tavistock & Portman NHS Trust for frontline health workers and managers looking at key issues such as group dynamics, performance management, racism and bullying.

I am currently writing my next book UberTherapy: The new business of mental health to be published by Bristol University Press in 2024. 

Cotton E & Martinez Lucio M (2022) Trade Unions & Resilience at work. Goulart, Ramos & Ferrittu (Eds). Globalization, Technology & Labour Resilience. Palgrave Readers in Economics.

Cotton E, Beauregard A & Kelles J (2021) (Editorial) Gender Equalities: what lies ahead. Work, Employment & Society 35 (4).

Cotton E (2021) Wellbeing on the healthcare frontline: A safe laboratory for critical action learning. Academy of Management Learning & Education 20 4: 501-503.

Cotton E (2021) In the Union: The psychodynamics of solidarity in Morgan D (Ed) A Deeper Cut: Further explorations of the unconscious in political & social life. Phoenix Publishing House.

Cotton E (2019) The Industrial Relations of Mental Health. In Parker C and Risq R (Eds) The Industrialisation of Care: Counselling & Psychotherapy in a Neoliberal Age. PCCS Books.

Cotton E & Paktapath A (2019) International Employment Relations in Thailand: The case of Lafarge/Holcim in Thailand. In Gooderham & Nordhaug International Management: Theory and Practice. Fourth Edition. Oxford: Blackwell.

Cotton E (2019) International Framework Agreements and Global Unions. In Roper I, Prouska R and Chatrakul U (Eds) Critical Human Resource Management. CIPD.

Wattis J, Curran S & Cotton E (2018) Practical Management and Leadership for Doctors. Second Edition. Radcliffe Health Publishers.

Cotton E (2017) Surviving Work in Healthcare: Helpful stuff for people on the frontline. Taylor & Francis. Nominated for the CMI’s management book of the year 2018.

Cotton E (2017) Constructing Solidarities at Work: Relationality and the methods of emancipatory education. Capital & Class 42 2: 315-331.

Cotton E (2015) Transnational Regulation of Temporary Agency Work:Compromised Partnership between Private Employment Agencies and Global Union Federations. Work, Employment and Society 29 1: 137-153.

Cotton E & Royle T (2014) Transnational Organising:A case study of contract workers in the Colombian mining industries. British Journal of Industrial Relations 52 4: 705-724.

• Croucher R & Cotton E (2013) Case study: AngloAmerican and HIV/AIDS. In Gooderham & Nordhaug International Management: Theory and Practice. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Croucher R and Cotton E (2011) Global Unions Global Business: Global Union Federations and International Business. Second Edition. London: Libri Publishing.

Recent media about my research published in the Telegraph Magazine, Daily Mail, Evening Standard, Channel4, Politics Home, i-D magazine, Guardian, Independent, Institute of Employment Rights and The Conversation. I was a key contributor to BBC File on Four programme about the growth of EAPs and the platformization of therapy (aired 12 March 2024).