Associate Professor Heather Kempton PhD

Contact details

• Location: 2.07, Level 2 Innovation Complex
  Campus: Albany

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy - University of Wales, Bangor (2002)

Certifications and Registrations

• Licence, Mentor Supervisor, Massey University

Research Interests

Mindfulness and spiritual transformation

Thematics

21st Century Citizenship, Health and Well-being

Area of Expertise

Field of research codes
Cognitive Sciences (170200): Computer Perception, Memory and Attention (170201): Psychology (170100): Psychology And Cognitive Sciences (170000): Psychology of Religion (170111)

Consultancy

• 2016-2026 - Amitabha Hospice
  Chair of the Board of Trustees
• 2018-current - Harbour Hospice
  Available to Hibiscus Coast Hospice as a Buddhist Chaplain
• Aug 2025 - current - New Zealand Buddhist Council
  Invited to be a member of the New Zealand Buddhist Council’s review of Buddhist Chaplaincy training.

Teaching Statement

175.738 Principles of Design

Externally, I also teach on the Buddhist Chaplaincy Course ceryified by the New Zealand Buddhist Council.

Graduate Supervision Statement

Supervision Scope

I supervise Master's and PhD research in:

• Mindfulness, meditation, and contemplative practice
• Religious, spiritual, and transformative experience
• Spiritual cognition and meaning-making
• Buddhist-informed and cross-cultural psychologies
• Conceptual, theoretical, and philosophical inquiry
• Empirical research that advances conceptual, explanatory, or interpretative understanding
• Contemplative writing, poetry, and arts-based approaches to inquiry and reflection

I welcome a range of methodologies, including:

• Qualitative (e.g., IPA, phenomenology)
• Quantitative (e.g., network analysis, survey research)
• Experimental (e.g., expectancy effects)
• Mixed methods
• Arts-based and contemplative approaches where appropriate to the research question

I also support research on:

• Contemplative pedagogy and integration
• Meaning-making and transformative learning processes
• Mindfulness, creativity, and contemplative expression
• Poetry as a contemplative, reflective, or meaning-making practice
• Non-clinical applications of mindfulness and related practices (e.g., educational, philosophical, creative, or community contexts)

This includes applied contemplative, educational, and creative work (e.g., integration-based workshops, contemplative writing programmes, or poetry-based reflection), where the focus is on meaning, experience, learning, and transformation rather than clinical efficacy.

I am also open to interdisciplinary projects, including work that engages with fields such as philosophy, religious studies, education, anthropology, cognitive science, literature, and the arts.

Out of Scope

I do not supervise:

• Clinical training theses (e.g., DClinPsych projects)
• Research framed primarily around diagnosis, treatment, or symptom reduction
• Studies focused on evaluating, validating, implementing, or comparing interventions or programmes
• Research primarily concerned with participants' experiences of specific practices, programmes, interventions, or modalities
• Descriptive accounts of engagement in existing contemplative, therapeutic, educational, wellness, or spiritual activities where the principal aim is to document participants' experiences

The distinction is not between applied and theoretical work, nor between qualitative and quantitative approaches. Rather, my supervision focuses on research that advances conceptual, explanatory, interpretative, or theoretical understanding of mindfulness, contemplation, meaning-making, spirituality, cognition, creativity, and transformation.

I am particularly interested in projects that use empirical, conceptual, philosophical, or interdisciplinary approaches to investigate broader questions concerning contemplative experience, spiritual cognition, identity, creativity, meaning-making, and transformation, rather than studies centred on experiences within specific practices or programmes.

Current Doctoral Supervision

Main Supervisor of:

• Lujia Wang - Doctor of Philosophy
  Exploring the Relationship Between Mindfulness and Compassion Fatigue Among Occupational Therapists: A Comparative Study of the Role of Support Systems in China and New Zealand
• Fleur Hume - Doctor of Philosophy
  Power From Above: Sacred Authority and Misconduct in Religious Organisations.
• Christiane Ida Strobach - Doctor of Philosophy
  Documenting Lives, Understanding Death: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Life-Story Volunteers' Experiences of Their Own Mortality and Meaning
• Kamla Waila - Doctor of Philosophy
  An investigation into the relationship between mindfulness, solitude and wellbeing among adults in New Zealand

Completed Doctoral Supervision

Main Supervisor of:

• 2024 - Regan Burt - Doctor of Clinical Psychology
  Evaluating Te Reo Tuakiri: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in a Schools-Based Resilience Programme
• 2024 - Sophie Stanford - Doctor of Clinical Psychology
  Transcending the Illusion of Separateness: A Grounded Theory Study of Processes That Occur Between Client and Horse During Equine Facilitated Learning
• 2020 - Mona Ghanbari Noshari - Doctor of Philosophy
  What Do Mindfulness Scales Measure? Expectation Effects Examined
• 2019 - Joseph Smith - Doctor of Clinical Psychology
  Network Models of Mindfulness
• 2018 - Mary Miller - Doctor of Clinical Psychology
  MINT pilot study: a text message package as an adjunct to existing Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in an Early Intervention setting.
• view more...
• 2018 - Amy Granberg - Doctor of Clinical Psychology
  A randomised controlled trial of a mindfulness-based mobile app evaluating mindfulness, perceived stress, wellbeing and emotion reactivity
• 2016 - Hui Xu - Doctor of Philosophy
  Facial Expression and Context Effects
• 2013 - Setareh Mokhtari - Doctor of Philosophy
  The Effect of Observers' Mood on Level of Processing of Emotional Schematic Faces
• 2012 - Maren Klum - Doctor of Clinical Psychology
  Coping in Caregivers of Family Members with Traumatic Brain Injury & the Effects on the Caregiver's Quality of Life
• view less...

Co-supervisor of:

• 2026 - Nalinda Liyanagedera - Doctor of Philosophy
  Investigation on the Effectiveness of EEG-BCI Techniques to Analyse Meditation
• 2024 - Wisnu Endro - Doctor of Philosophy
  The Co-design of a Chat Telepsychotherapy Manual for Indonesians with Minor Depression
• 2023 - Hairunnisa Muhammed Shafi - Doctor of Philosophy
  Influence of Spirituality on Social Work Teaching, Practice, and Public Well-Being: An Aotearoa New Zealand Research
• 2022 - Jessica Steadman - Doctor of Clinical Psychology
  The 'Perfect' Gay Man; An Exploration of Perfectionism with Gay Men in New Zealand
• 2020 - Victoria Thompson - Doctor of Clinical Psychology
  Something's not right: Exploring the Lived Experience of Health Anxiety
• view more...
• 2017 - Kayla Mackie - Doctor of Clinical Psychology
  Priming good parenting: Can positive affective priming influence fathers' causal attributions and consequent disciplinary responses for child misbehaviour?
• 2013 - Shelley James - Doctor of Clinical Psychology
  Has Cutting Become Cool? Normalising, Social Influence and Socially-Motivated Deliberate Self-Harm in Adolescent Girls
• 2012 - Nicole Foster - Doctor of Clinical Psychology
  An Investigation of Early Sudden Gains in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Depression:Client and Within Therapy Predictors of Change

Media

• 23 Mar 2016 - Newspaper, Online
  Origami and mindfulness
  "Ditch the colouring in books origami is the new mindful craft." Interviewed by the writer of this article, Pamela McIntosh, which appeared in stuff.
• 04 Feb 2013 - Online
  myreplyis.com
  Invited to reply to a question related to face and body recognition

Other Links

• Religions Special Issue - I'm Guest Editor of the Special Issue on Buddhist Meditation: Culture, Mindfulness, and Rationality (submissions open)
• Heather Kempton - Personal website
• Rowan Taw - Poetry website
• Amazon author page
• Mind and Life Institute - My details can be viewed under Fall 2013.