Professor Kate Rimes

Professor Kate Rimes is the Programme Director for the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology.  She conducts transdiagnostic research into cognitive and behavioural processes involved in mental health problems and applies the findings to improve interventions. Self-esteem, self-criticism, perfectionism, shame, self-compassion, mindfulness and emotion processing are examples of processes she investigates. She also researches the psychological impact of stigma/prejudice/discrimination, for example in relation to sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, mental illness and race/ethnicity. She co-leads the KCL LGBT+ mental health research group. Previously she researched chronic fatigue syndrome and maintains some research into fatigue and other persistent physical symptoms. She published a book on this topic: “Overcoming chronic fatigue in young people: A cognitive behavioural self-help guide”; Rimes & Chalder, 2015; Routledge. 

Kate joined the DClinPsy programme in 2013 after having worked on the University of Bath DClinPsy course. Before that she had an academic position in the Psychological Medicine Department at the IoPPN. She undertook her clinical psychology training (DClinPsy) at the Institute of Psychiatry, having completed a DPhil and BA(Hons) in Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford.  

Membership of Professional Bodies: 

• Clinical Psychologist and Health Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) 
• Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, accredited by the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) 
• Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of British Psychological Society (BPS) 

Research Interests: 

• Transdiagnostic processes in psychological disorders, including self-esteem, self-criticism, perfectionism, shame, self-compassion, mindfulness, emotion processing.  
• Psychological effects of stigma/prejudice/discrimination and interventions for coping with these experiences 
• LGBT+ mental health 
• Chronic fatigue syndrome and other persistent physical health symptoms. 

Teaching: 

• LGBT+ mental health 
• Perfectionism  
• Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy 
• Gender differences in mental health  
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / ME 

Expertise and Public Engagement:

Kate Rimes works as an honorary Consultant Clinical Psychologist for Talking Therapies Southwark at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. She is an Associate Editor for the journal Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy and she is an editorial board member for the journal Behaviour Research and Therapy. 

Her work on expert committees / working groups includes: 

• British Psychological Society’s Psychology of Sexualities Committee 
• NHS Leadership Academy’s Senior LGBT+ Influencer Group 
• Clinical Advisory Group for Student Minds, a mental health charity 
• Oversight Committee for Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre’s Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) 

Kate regularly engages in activities that help to disseminate research findings outside of academia. For example, she was a consultant and contributor for the KCL LGBT+ mental health film “Through the Rainbow Lens”. Watch the film here via youtube.  

She organises LGBT+ mental health events, including joint events with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, Read a report from one of such events here.