Rate My Professor Kate Tonta

Dr. Kate Tonta is a Senior Lecturer in the Curtin School of Population Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, at Curtin University, where she also serves as a registered clinical psychologist delivering evidence-based interventions. She completed a combined Master's and PhD in Clinical Psychology at Curtin University, with her doctoral thesis titled "Perfectionism and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury." Tonta holds a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours). Her clinical work focuses on adolescents and adults experiencing mental health challenges, including eating disorders, and she practices at the Centre for Clinical Interventions.

Tonta's research centers on non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), perfectionism and its mental health impacts, emotional difficulties, eating disorders, suicidal behavior, telehealth interventions, cognitive-behavioral therapy, metacognitive therapy, shame in treatment outcomes, and interpersonal difficulties. Key publications include "Modeling pathways to non-suicidal self-injury: The roles of perfectionism, negative affect, rumination, and attention control" (Journal of Clinical Psychology, 2022), "Cognitive-emotional networks in students with and without a history of non-suicidal self-injury" (Journal of Affective Disorders, 2023), "Attention biases in perfectionism: Biased disengagement of attention from emotionally negative stimuli" (Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 2019), "A person-centred conceptualisation of non-suicidal self-injury recovery: a practical guide" (Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 2024), "The relationship between clinical perfectionism and nonsuicidal self-injury: The roles of experiential avoidance, self-esteem, and locus of control" (Journal of Clinical Psychology, 2023), and "Guided Internet-delivered cognitive behaviour therapy for perfectionism" (Internet Interventions, 2020). She supervises Honours, Master's, and PhD students and received the Australasian Peer Learning Award in 2022. Her work advances understanding of cognitive-emotional processes in mental health among young adults and university students.