John Mercer is a Chronic Condition psychologist in Australia, has been a Member of the Australian Psychological Society for fourteen years, and currently works in the Public Health system in Tasmania. He holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and a MPsych from Monash University. His PhD research was a qualitative investigation of non-theistic Zen principles in Classic Morita therapy.
John works with people with chronic medical conditions who suffer psychologically as a result, and provides training and consultancy to a wide variety of medical specialists, generalists and allied health professionals on the psychological aspects of managing patients with chronic conditions. He also lectures to medical students on reflective practice and psychological aspects of chronic condition care. John is an active qualitative health researcher, and recently developed, facilitated and evaluated a psychodietetic program in response to evidenced gaps in service delivery for the bariatric population. His research interests include i) innovations in psychological bariatric surgery preparation, ii) roles of attention and acceptance in health-related anxiety and depression, iii) linguistic and cultural transportability of experiential therapeutic principles; and iv) blending Moritist principles with Lifeworld-led Care to underpin psychological interventions for chronic health populations.