Compassion Focused Interventions to Support Mental Health, Wellbeing and Learning

A person using a bag-valve-mask medical device on a dummy patient to practice intubation.

Compassion-Focused Interventions to Support Mental Health, Wellbeing, and Learning

Our Compassion research stream explores how compassion can enhance wellbeing, emotional regulation, and learning outcomes across educational and clinical settings. Led by Associate Professor James Kirby, the team investigates the beliefs, skills, and experiences that underpin compassionate mindsets and how these can be cultivated through innovative digital tools and targeted interventions.

Current projects include:

Brief Compassion-Focused Interventions for Staff Wellbeing – Evaluating single-session programs that provide psychoeducation and practical skills in compassion to support occupational wellbeing and resilience.
A Compassion-Focused Online App to Support Emotional Wellbeing – Developing a self-guided digital tool designed to promote mental health and strengthen protective psychological factors.
The Three Circles: A Digital Measure of Emotion – Creating and validating an interactive visual scale grounded in the Tripartite Model of Emotion. This tool captures emotional states across the domains of Threat, Drive, and Soothing, offering a simple yet powerful way to assess emotional balance and regulation—particularly for young people and clinical populations who may find emotional insight challenging.
The Role of Compassion in Education – Examining how compassion shapes the learning environment through the interactions of learners and educators, fostering relational learning and collaborative mindsets.

Together, these projects aim to advance understanding of how compassion and emotion regulation can be measured, supported, and strengthened through innovative, evidence-based interventions.