Bio

I began my research career as a PhD student at the Brain and Mind Centre, at the University of Sydney. Here, I completed a PhD in neuropsychology, with a particular focus on the cognitive-motor interactions within Parkinson’s Disease. The primary output of my PhD was a randomised controlled trial of cognitive training, published within the Nature journal npj Parkinson’s Disease.

It was in the final year of my PhD that I decided that I wanted to retrain in in sports psychology. This was to pursue an ongoing interest in the psychology of sport and performance, with a particular emphasis on the mental health of performers. I completed a Master of Psychology (Sport & Exercise) at the University of Queensland. It was here that I became interested in self-compassion and the compassion-focused therapies, under the supervision of A/Prof James Kirby.

Following this, I took up a six-month Endeavour Postdoctoral Leadership Fellowship at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Unfortunately, this research fellowship was cut short due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I returned to Australia to begin a McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Melbourne within the Mental Health in Elite Sports research team at Orygen. It was during this time that I worked on a range of projects relating to self-compassion, psychological safety, and mental health within elite sport. This was conducted under the supervision of Prof Simon Rice and Prof Rosemary Purcell.

In 2023, I took up an Academic Fellowship within the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne. Here, I continue to work on understanding mental health within a range of performance-based contexts such as elite and youth sport, the performing arts, and academia. I also maintain a small teaching load, and supervise a range of students completing Honours, Masters, and PhD theses.

In addition to my academic research, I work one day a week as a psychologist and am currently contracted with the Australian Football League.