Dr. Polly Waite

Biography

Polly Waite is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology and a Tutorial Fellow at New College, University of Oxford. Her research primarily focuses on the development and maintenance of psychological treatments for anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), particularly in adolescents. Polly aims to develop targeted, age-appropriate treatments to achieve optimal outcomes. She employs a range of methodologies, including experimental and qualitative methods, clinical trials, and systematic reviews, within clinical community settings such as schools. Her current research interests include understanding the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional factors that maintain adolescent anxiety disorders, with a focus on panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), as well as related conditions like body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs). She also works on creating sensitive self-report measures to enhance the identification and measurement of key processes in psychological treatments and is involved in the development of brief cognitive-behavioral treatments assessed through randomized controlled trials. Polly co-led the Co-SPACE project during the COVID-19 pandemic, which tracked the mental health of children and adolescents throughout this period and has received support from prominent funding bodies including NIHR, MRC, UKRI, and the Wellcome Trust.

Research Interests

Experience