Visiting Scholars' Program

Upcoming events

Claire Ashton-James, PhD.

Email: claire.ashton-james@sydney.edu.au
Follow on Twitter: @DrAshtonJames

Claire Ashton-James, PhD is a Social Psychologist with expertise in the interpersonal realm of healthcare, and in particular, pain management. Her research spans the role of emotions and trust in patient-clinician interactions, social aspects of pain and pain management, and the development of social interventions to support patients who are tapering off opioid medications for chronic pain.

In addition to her broad and interdisciplinary research activities, Claire draws on her deep expertise in social psychology to provide evidence-based emotion-focused communication coaching for clinicians to enhance patient trust, improve patients’ experience of care, and importantly, increase the wellbeing, professional satisfaction, and resilience of clinicians.

Past events - 2019

Professor Michael Nicholas

Direcetor of Pain Education at the Pain Management Research Institute

Michael maintains an active clinical role at the hospital where he also directs several pain management programs. He has an international reputation in this field with over 190 publications in scientific journals and books on psychological aspects of pain and pain management. His current research interests include ways of enhancing the self-management of persisting pain, and early psychosocial interventions to prevent disabling chronic pain in injured workers.

Professor Manfred Schedlowski

Professor and Director of the Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Immunobiology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany

Professor Schedlowski obtained his degree in Psychology and his PhD at the Department of Medical Psychology, Hannover Medical School, Germany. Manfred’s current primary focus of research is the neurobiology of placebo and nocebo responses, in particular the mechanisms and clinical relevance of behavioral or Pavlovian conditioning of immune and neuroendocrine functions.