Dr. PhD Francesca Brencio is Teaching Fellow in Mental Health at the Institute for Mental Health at the School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham (UK) with a full-time teaching position. She is also the Director of the PhenoLab - A Theoretical Laboratory in Phenomenology and Mental Health, officially recognised as an Organisational Partner at The Collaborating Centre for Values-based Practice in Health and Social Care at the St Catherine's College at the University of Oxford (UK).

Francesca studied Philosophy at University of Perugia (Italy) and Theology at the Theological Institute in Assisi associated to Pontificia Universitas Lateranensis (Vatican City). She was a post-doctoral researcher at the Western Sydney University (Australia) and the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg (Germany). She was Visiting Professor in the USA for the Winter Semester 2017 at the Hillsdale College (Michigan), Wisconsin University, and The SUNY in Buffalo. From 2018 to 2024 she was Associate Researcher in Philosophy at the Research Group “HUM018: Filosofía Aplicada: Sujeto, Sufrimiento, Sociedad” at the University of Seville (Spain).

Executive Committee Member of The Royal College of Psychiatrists Special Interest Group in Philosophy, since 2018 she collaborates with The Collaborating Centre for Values-Based Practice at the St. Catherine College at the University of Oxford (UK).

Francesca published three monographs in Italian, La negatività in Heidegger e Hegel (Aracne Editrice, Roma 2010), Scritti su Heidegger, (Aracne Editrice, Roma 2013), La pietà del pensiero. Heidegger e i Quaderni Neri Aguaplano Editore, Passignano s. T. 2015) and edited three volumes, Phenomenology, Neuroscience and Clinical Practice. Transdisciplinary Experiences (Springer Nature, Cham 2024), Metaphors in action. Humanities, medicine and the digital world (Springer-Nature, Cham 2025, with Riccardo De Biase) and The Handbook of Phenomenology, Values-based Practice and Shared Decision-Making in Personalised Mental Health Care: Contemporary Approaches and Challenges (Springer-Nature, Cham 2025, with G. Messas, A. Bergqvist, D. Crepaz-Keay, B. Fulford, A. Handa ).

Her fields of investigation are phenomenology, hermeneutics, phenomenological psychopathology, philosophy of psychiatry, phenomenologically informed qualitative research and Heidegger Studies.