Carmel is a Clinical Psychologist who is passionate about the treatment of eating, weight and body image concerns. Carmel works with clients to understand their own stories around how their eating and body image concerns developed, and to realign their lives to their values and goals. Through normalising eating, building new skills and exploring how their brain and body is functioning, she helps her clients decrease unhelpful behaviours and respond compassionately toward themselves at times of distress.
She completed a research PhD alongside her clinical training at the Australian National University and has since worked in multi-disciplinary private practice settings. Her treatment approaches include eating disorder specific therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, integrating Compassion Focused Strategies and Family Based Therapy (Maudsley Model). The research component of her Clinical PhD focused on binge eating, in particular the role of overvaluing shape and/or weight towards one’s self-worth, and has published a range of articles with an eating, weight and body image focus. She is a full member of the Australian Psychological Society and the Australian and New Zealand Academy for Eating Disorders and has won academic awards including the May Jen Prize in Scientific Writing (2009) and The Best Research Article in the Journal of Eating Disorders (2015).