Compassion in a T-Shirt: In Session with Alicia Carter

"We think that the end result of our PhD is a thesis, but really, it's you." Alicia Carter is an Australian provisional psychologist and candidate for both the Master of Health Psychology and PhD programs at School of Psychology, University of Queensland. She follows a scientist-practitioner model and seeks to explore how social and evolutionary theoretical frameworks assist psychotherapeutic approaches in the field of health psychology and group therapy programs. She has recently completed and submitted her PhD thesis titled "Compassion Focused Therapy for Body Weight Shame", which involved several studies, including a systematic review of compassion-based interventions for body weight shame, a large survey to explore a compassion focused model of body weight shame, and then a pilot study and randomised control trial of group-based compassion focused therapy for body weight shame. Whilst completing her degrees, Alicia has worked as a tutor and research assistant, and she has facilitated compassion-based workshops at the Biomedical Institute of Yoga and Meditation. Time Stamps: 3.18 Tell us the executive summary of your PhD research. 5.47 Tell us about Study 1, your systematic review of compassion-based interventions for body image shame. 15.15 Tell us about Study 2, your survey exploring the CFT-based model of body image shame and mental health outcomes. 23.37 Tell us about Study 3, a pilot study on a group-based compassion focused therapy program for body image shame. 28.46 Tell us about Study 4, the randomised control trial of group-based compassion focused therapy for body image shame. 35.36 What was it like for you at a personal level to make such a contribution to this important field of research? 37.39 What's next for you? Published Papers: Carter, A., Gilbert, P., & Kirby, J. N. (2020). Compassion‐focused therapy for body weight shame: A mixed methods pilot trial. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 28(1), 93-108. https://doi/epdf/10.1002/cpp.2488 Carter, A., Hoang, N., Gilbert, P., & Kirby, J. N. (2021). Body weight perception outweighs body weight when predicting shame, criticism, depression and anxiety for lower BMI range and higher BMI range adults. Journal of health psychology, 13591053211027641. https://doi.org/10.1177/13591053211027641 Carter, A., Gilbert, P., & Kirby, J. N (2021). A Systematic Review of Compassion-Based Interventions for Individuals Struggling with Body Weight Shame. Psychology & Health. (out soon!).

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