Everything we do is informed by science

Flinders University Team

  • Dr Ivanka Prichard

    Director of The Embrace Impact Lab & Associate Professor, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University

  • Pip Granfield

    PhD Candidate, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University

  • Dr Simon Wilksch

    Research Fellow at The Embrace Impact Lab & Clinic Director, Advanced Psychological Services

The Embrace Impact Lab

The Embrace Impact Lab is the research arm of the The Embrace Collective. It is a dedicated collaboration of multidisciplinary researchers who work to create a nexus between research, policy and practice to drive impact and improvements in body image, health and wellbeing across the lifespan. The Embrace Impact Lab at Flinders University provides a powerful opportunity for the rapid translation of evidence into practice, as well as feeding industry and end-user needs and innovations back to researchers to inform their practice.

At The Embrace Impact Lab, we:

  • Conduct innovative research that can inform programs, policy and practice 

  • Host world-leading scholars to contribute their knowledge

  • Evaluate programs to determine impact

The Embrace Impact Lab is proudly supported by Flinders University, Little Heroes Foundation, Breakthrough Mental Health Research Foundation and Flinders Foundation.

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Research
translation in action

The Embrace Impact Lab engages in two-way research translation between universities and consumers, professionals and industry.

    • A pilot RCT of the Embrace Kids Classroom Program in primary schools (Years 5 & 6) in South Australia and Queensland, supported by a scholarship from the Breakthrough Mental Health Research Foundation, and a pilot RCT of the Embrace Kids Classroom Program in secondary schools (Years 7 & 8) in South Australia and Queensland, supported by Flinders Foundation.

    • Evaluation of the EMBRACE KIDS film. Pilot research to gather feedback about, and data indicating the impact of viewing the EMBRACE KIDS film on young people’s positive body image and wellbeing.

    • Experimenting with opportunities to enhance body image through different forms of social media content (e.g. fitspiration, body positivity) on the body image of young people to inform policy for social media platforms and the practice of content creators.

    • Developing alternatives to shame-based health promotion - promoting health without focusing on weight.

    • Fill gaps in the research needed to create new resources, for example, to build body image for indigenous, gender diverse and neurodiverse young people.

    • Optimising programs with confirmed efficacy for broader dissemination.

Our research collaborators

  • Dr Veya Seekis [She/Her]

    Lecturer in Applied Psychology, Griffith University

  • Dr Danielle Wagstaff [She/Her]

    Senior Lecturer, Psychology, Federation University

  • Dr Jennifer Webb [She/Her]

    Associate Professor in Psychological Science, University of Carolina at Charlotte, USA

  • Dr Jo Doley [They/Them]

    Lecturer in Psychology, Victoria University

  • Dr Linda Lin [She/Her]

    Professor of Psychology, Emmanuel College, Boston, USA

  • Dr Ciara Mahon [She/Her]

    Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Psychology, University College Dublin, Ireland