Self-Attitudes Lab

Meet MA student @emmyfuller.bsky.social! Emily (she/her) is a first-year grad student in @uwaterloopsych.bsky.social clinical psych and the Self-Attitudes Lab. For her research, Emily will explore the relational aspects of self-compassion. She is also interested in 2SLGBTQIA+ wellness & body image.

@sjwithnell.bsky.social from the PEAR Lab at #WesternU is recruiting adults experiencing problems with their eating and/or body image to complete a virtual problem-solving #research study. Compensation will be provided. If you’re interested, check out this poster & complete the screening form!

Congratulations to former PhD student Aleece Katan for graduating with her doctoral degree last week! Aleece is now doing a SSHRC-funded post-doc at the University of British Columbia.

Congratulations to former research assistant Caitlyn Mask for graduating with her bachelor’s degree last week! Caitlyn is also currently pursuing a Master of Information at the University of Toronto in their Library and Information Science concentration.

The Waterloo-Wellington Eating Disorders Coalition is hosting a virtual conference on Diversifying Perspectives in Eating Disorder Care on October 24th. If you’re interested in learning more, visit this link: www.eventbrite.ca/e/diversifyi...

Adults aged 18+ with a current/past #EatingDisorder: A virtual #Compassion focused therapy group will be taking place this fall semester through the @uwaterloopsych.bsky.social.

Email cmhrtintake@uwaterloo.ca ASAP if you're interested!

Huge congratulations to our grad student @michellekorlacka.bsky.social who recently received #SSHRC PhD funding for her research!

#TBT Sydney Waring, Konstantyn Sharpinskyi and Allison Kelly's paper published in #BodyImage addresses limitations of past research on within-person variability in body image as a predictor of maladaptive body image and eating behaviours.

Read it here: doi.org/10.1016/j.bo...

#TBT Kathryn Miller, Allison Kelly and Giselle Kraus' paper published in #BodyImage explores how adaptive body image can be learned from hearing a peer cope with their body image distress.

Read it here: doi.org/10.1016/j.bo...

Congratulations to our research assistant Cheyenne Salazar on graduating with her bachelor's degree!

Jenessa Shaw has been presenting results from one of her dissertation studies at eating disorder treatment centers across the country. She shared a study of people who have completed feared food exposures with the Bulimia Anorexia Nervosa Association and St. Paul's Hospital to help inform treatment.

Dr. Allison Kelly presented a poster at #CPA2025 sharing findings that #SelfCompassion indirectly promoted more help-seeking intentions and motives by facilitating greater engagement with personal feelings of distress. Thank you to everyone who came to check it out!

Congratulations to Sundus Ismaeil and Ashling Ayekun on graduating with their bachelor's degrees! They both completed research apprenticeships with the Self-Attitudes Lab and Ashling further volunteered as an RA.

Congratulations to our 2024 and 2025 honours thesis students on graduating with their bachelor's degrees! Huge congrats to Samantha Beneteau, Hayden Wong, Mia Mackenzie, Emma Mukkadan and Doris Wang.

#TBT This qualitative study explores the pros and cons individuals with anorexia nervosa perceive to be associated with developing #SelfCompassion.

Read it here: doi.org/10.1111/bjc....

Come check out Dr. Allison Kelly's poster this Saturday at #CPA2025!

Congratualtions to Aleece Katan on successfully defending her doctoral dissertation! We are so proud of her for achieving this milestone.

#TBT Revisiting Sydney Waring's preliminary study on relational #BodyImage. Sydney Waring and Allison Kelly investigate how an individual's body image varies from one personal relationship to another.

Read it here: doi.org/10.1016/j.bo...

#TBT Individuals with anorexia nervosa experience considerable day-to-day variability in #SelfCompassion. For individuals with average or above average trait self-compassion these variations affect their eating pathology.

Read it here: doi.org/10.1002/eat....

#TBT Experiencing negative emotions with #SelfCompassion can momentarily improve distress tolerance by helping people feel more soothed.

Check out Jenessa Shaw and Allison Kelly's publication here: rdcu.be/dzVnQ

We would like to congratulate Aleece Katan who was awarded a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship which she will be starting this fall at the University of British Columbia and St. Paul's Hospital!

#TBT Self-compassionate college women are found to receive more social support under heightened distress. Suggesting, #SelfCompassion may improve utilization of interpersonal coping resources when distressed.

Read more here: doi.org/10.1016/j.pa...

Emma Mukkadan recently presented some of her honours thesis results on #SelfCompassion, individualism, and collectivism in South Asian and White Canadians at the 2025 Conference for Undergraduate Health Research.

#TBT The field of #EatingDisorder research may benefit from supplementing research on trait #SelfCriticism with investigations of state self-criticism.

Read more in Allison Kelly, Aleece Katan and David Zuroff's commentary published in @intjeatdisord.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1002/eat....

A new publication from Aleece Katan, Jacqueline Carter and Allison Kelly provides evidence that #SelfCompassion may facilitate feelings of social safeness in individuals with eating disorders, a population known for low social safeness.

Read it here: doi.org/10.1111/bjc....

#TBT both daily and trait #SelfCompassion can promote markers of positive mental health (positive affect and social safeness) in women with anorexia nervosa.

Read Aleece Katan, Allison Kelly and Josie Geller's paper here: doi.org/10.1080/1064...

#TBT Published in #CognitiveTherapy and Research, findings suggest when a recalled event is highly threatening to #SelfEsteem, writing about the event self-compassionately encouraged deeper and lengthier disclosures to a stranger.

Read it here: doi.org/10.1007/s106...

Samantha presented her honours thesis at the 2025 #UWaterloo Psychology Discovery Conference. The unique relationship between #BodyCompassion and general psychosocial functioning/eating pathology was investigated in women with bulimia nervosa when controlling for #SelfCompassion.

Honours thesis student Emma Mukkadan presented results comparing #SelfCompassion levels between South Asian and White Canadians at the 2025 #UWaterloo Psychology Discovery Conference.

Hayden Azim Wong presented his findings at the #UWaterloo Psychology Discovery Conference on gender expectations and experiences of a #SelfCompassion exercise. The experiences men and women had were found to be largely similar, and exercises like this may be equally effective for men and women!