Leisa Aitken
Honorary Postdoctoral AssociateLeisa is a Clinical Psychologist who has been providing therapy, clinical supervision and teaching in workplaces, hospitals, churches, universities and private practice for over 30 years. Her doctoral thesis emerged out of a need in these settings to better understand the crucial concept of hope. Her thesis, Common Hope: A New Integrated Hope Conceptualisation informed by Interdisciplinary and Historical Perspectives with Initial Scale Validation, integrated reflections on hope through Western history in philosophy, theology, psychiatry and psychology. It also incorporated her research on the experience of hoping for Australians. She has developed a psychological model of hope that provides a practical scaffold to nurture the experience of hopefulness and a corresponding measurement tool for use in research.
Leisa has written articles and taught on the application of the psychology and theology of hope in many contexts, for example; community talks, church based public lectures and sermons, training teachers and school chaplains, and lecturing students studying pastoral care and educational leadership. She is a Fellow of the Centre for Public Christianity (CPX) and Associate of the Centre for Christian Apologetics, Scholarship and Education (CASE) UNSW.
Qualifications
PhD (University of Sydney) , Common Hope: A New Integrated Hope Conceptualisation Informed by Interdisciplinary and Historical Perspectives with Initial Scale Validation – 2023
M.Psych. (University of New South Wales) – 2004
B.Sc. (Honours Class One) (University of New South Wales) – 1996
Field of Research
TheologyJournal Articles
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Forthcoming
- Aitken L., MacCann, C., Cavanagh, M.J. & Collicutt, J.. The Common Hope Scale: Initial psychometric properties of a new interdisciplinary derived measure of hope. European Journal of Applied Positive Psychology, .
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2024
- Aitken, L. (2024). The shape of hope: conversations between psychology and theology. St Marks Review, 266 6-26.
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2023
- Aitken, L. (2023). The Power of hope: How the science of wellbeing can save us from despair review. Economic record, Vol.99 (327) 564-566.
Presentations
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2023
- Rediscovering hope (2023), 2023 Annual Richard Johnson lecture, Centre for Public Christianity, 01 Sep 2023
Professional Memberships
Australian Psychological Society (APS) (since None)
Board Approved Supervisor AHPRA (since None)
Centre for Christian Apologetics, Scholarship and Education (UNSW) (since None)
Centre for Public Christianity (since None)
Coaching Psychology and Christianity Interest Groups of APS (since None)
College of Clinical Psychologists (since None)
Psychology Board of Australia (since None)