Outside of clinical practice, I’m interested in how minority stress affects gay men and their mental health. Minority stress refers to the extra layer of stress that comes from living in a society where your identity is stigmatised, things like discrimination, rejection, pressure to hide parts of yourself, or constantly scanning for safety. I’m particularly focused on how these experiences shape wellbeing for gay men, including areas like body image, eating behaviours, relationships, and overall mental health.

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​In my research published in 2024, I looked at why gay men often feel more pressure about their bodies and how that pressure can lead to disordered eating. I wanted to see whether two things that usually help with minority stress, self‑compassion and social support, might soften that link.

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I surveyed 100 gay men in Australia and found that the more unhappy someone felt about their body, the more likely they were to have disordered eating behaviours. What really stood out was that social support made a difference: when men felt more supported, the connection between body dissatisfaction and disordered eating was weaker. When support was low, the link was much stronger.

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Self‑compassion, surprisingly, didn’t change the relationship in this study.

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Overall, the work suggests that building and strengthening social support may be a key way to reduce disordered eating risk for gay men, and that future research should explore what kinds of support matter most.
 

​You can view my research published in the journal Psychology and Sexuality here: