Wellbeing in Sport and Performance Lab

• Dr Courtney Walton

  Lab Head

  courtney.walton@unimelb.edu.au
  

Research Overview

The Wellbeing in Sport and Performance Lab, led by Dr Courtney Walton, investigates how mental health and wellbeing are experienced, supported, and shaped within the demands of high-performance environments. Our work primarily centres on sport across elite, youth, and community settings, but extends to other performance contexts such as the performing arts where many of the same pressures around achievement, identity, and wellbeing play out. Our work is focused on various roles within these sports and performance contexts including athletes, coaches, and sports officials.

The lab brings together expertise at the intersection of clinical, sport, and organisational psychology. Our work is varied in topic and methodology, including both quantitative and qualitative approaches, and the development of informed frameworks and interventions. We are committed to integrating lived experience including athlete advisors into how we design, conduct, and translate our research, and we often work in partnership with national and international organisations in sport and mental health. Ultimately, our goal is to produce work that advances scientific literature in the field of clinical sport, and performance psychology while shaping policy and practice within sport and performance organisations.

Student research opportunities

The Wellbeing in Sport and Performance Lab welcomes expressions of interest from students seeking full-time PhD supervision. Please note that prospective students will need to meet the academic requirements for a Graduate Research Scholarship from the University of Melbourne. Strong first class honours or equivalent (preferably in Psychology) is expected as a minimum, and demonstrated prior research experience is highly favourable.

Postdoctoral opportunities will be advertised when funding is available. Expressions of interest from researchers seeking to apply for University of Melbourne or external fellowships (e.g., McKenzie, NHMRC Investigator Grants, ARC DECRA Fellowships) to be hosted within the lab are also welcomed. Please contact Courtney Walton to discuss.

Staff

Current Staff

• Dr Joshua Frost – Postdoctoral Research Fellow
• Isabella Grant – Athlete Research Advisor

Current Students

• Angela Heinisch – Doctor of Philosophy (Psychological safety and mental health in elite youth sports)
• Evie Mallios – Master of Psychology (Clinical; Self-criticism in athletes)
• Jade Tjia – Master of Psychology (Clinical; Psychological flexibility and wellbeing)
• Chelsea Wilkinson – Master of Psychology (Clinical; Exercise interventions and trauma)
• Ashkan Agahi – Master of Psychology (Clinical, Monash; Perceptions on psychedelic psychotherapy among athletes)
• Bryony Clarnette – Honours (Psychology; Athlete disclosures and public health)

Past students

• Joshua Frost – Doctor of Philosophy (2025 – ‘Investigating the mental health of elite-level coaches to guide early intervention’)
• Amy Browning – Honours (2025 - Sports coach responses to youth self-harm and suicide)
• Ryan Putto – Honours (2025 - The role of self-criticism in athlete wellbeing and performance
• Nadia Ahadi – Honours (2024 - Body image experiences among women competitive pole dancers)
• Yanshu Jia – Honours (2024 – Body image experiences among international students)
• Stephanie Rogulic – Master of Professional Psychology (2023 – Self-compassion in the performing arts)
• Kellie MacFarlane – Master of Professional Psychology (2023 – Self-compassion in the performing arts)
• Max Marrows – Master of Psychiatry (2022 - Disordered eating in elite youth athletes: A scoping review)

Past staff

• Sabrina MacKenzie – Research Assistant

Collaborators

Key Collaborators - National:

• Professor Rosemary Purcell (Orygen)
• Professor Simon Rice (Movember)
• Associate Professor James Kirby (University of Queensland)
• Professor Stewart Vella (University of Wollongong)
• Associate Professor Margaret Osborne (University of Melbourne)
• Dr Louise La Sala (Orygen)

Key Collaborators –  International:

• Vale Prof Katherine Tamminen (University of Toronto)
• Dr Göran Kenttä (The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences)
• Professor Shuge Zhang (Hunan University of Technology)

Research Opportunities

This research project is available to PhD students, Masters by Research, Honours students, Post Doctor Researchers to join as part of their thesis.
Please contact the Research Group Leader to discuss your options.

Research Publications

For an up-to-date list of publications from the Wellbeing in Sport and Performance Lab, check out Dr Courtney Walton’s Google Scholar page.