Dr. Stephanie Cassin, C.Psych.

  Curriculum Vitae /  (PDF file) Click Here to View > (opens in new window) 
 

Biography

Dr. Cassin is Director of the Healthy Eating and Lifestyle (HEAL) Lab at Ryerson, and previously served as Director of Clinical Training in the Psychology Department.  In addition, she holds a faculty appointment at the University of Toronto (Department of Psychiatry) and is a member of the University Health Network Centre for Mental Health.  She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Calgary, and completed an accredited internship at the University of British Columbia.  Following graduation, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (Mood and Anxiety Treatment and Research Program).  Prior to joining the Department of Psychology at Ryerson University, she held staff clinical psychologist positions in the Mood and Anxiety Program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and the Bariatric Surgery Program at Toronto Western Hospital.

Dr. Cassin’s clinical and research interests are in the area of disordered eating, obesity, and bariatric (weight loss) surgery.  She is a Registered Clinical and Health Psychologist.  Her current program of research focuses primarily on psychosocial predictors of bariatric surgery outcome, and psychosocial interventions with the potential to improve outcomes, including cognitive behavioural therapy and motivational interviewing.  She also investigates health care innovations that increase treatment accessibility, such as telephone-based interventions.

Dr. Cassin has taught a variety of courses on psychopathology and evidence-based treatments at Ryerson University (Psychological Disorders, Advanced Psychopathology Seminar, Clinical Psychology, Eating Disorders, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), and provided clinical supervision to many graduate students completing practicum placements at the Psychology Training Clinic at St. Michael’s Hospital.
 

Selected Publications

David, L. A., Sijercic, I., & Cassin, S. E. (in press).  Pre- and post-operative psychosocial interventions for bariatric surgery patients: A systematic review.  Obesity Reviews.

Costa-Dookhan, K. A., Leung, S., Cassin, S. E., & Sockalingam, S. (in press).  Predictors of response to telephone-based cognitive behavioural therapy in bariatric surgery patients.  Canadian Journal of Diabetes.

Cassin, S. E., Buchman, D. Z., Leung, S. E., Kantarovich, K., Hawa, A., Carter, A., & Sockalingam, S. (2019).  Ethical, stigma, and policy implications of food addiction: A scoping review. Nutrients, 11, 701. doi:10.3390/nu11040710

Nightingale, B. A., & Cassin, S. E. (2019).  Disordered eating among individuals with excess weight: A review of recent literature.  Current Obesity Reports, 8, 112-127.

Cassin, S. E., Hawa, R., & Sockalingam, S. (2018).  Psychological care in severe obesity: A practical approach.  Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Nasirzadeh, Y., Kantarovich, K., Wnuk, S., Okrainec, A., Cassin, S. E., Hawa, R., & Sockalingam, S. (2018).  Postoperative binge eating, loss of control eating, emotional eating, and night eating after bariatric surgery and their impact on weight outcomes: Results from the Toronto Bari-PSYCH cohort study.  Obesity Surgery, 28, 2032-2039.

Mehak, A., Friedman, A., & Cassin, S. E. (2018).  Body shame and appearance anxiety mediate the relationships between self-objectification, weight bias internalization and binge eating in young women. Body Image, 24, 111-115.

Atwood, M. E., Friedman, A., Meisner, B. A., & Cassin, S. E. (2018). The exchange of social support on bariatric surgery online discussion forums: A mixed-methods content analysis.  Health Communication, 33, 628-635.

Sockalingam, S., Hawa, R., Wnuk, S., Santiago, V., Kowgier, M., Jackson, T., Okrainec, A., & Cassin, S. E. (2017).  Psychosocial predictors of quality of life and weight loss two years after bariatric surgery: Results from the Toronto Bari-PSYCH study.  General Hospital Psychiatry, 47, 7-13.

Sockalingam, S., Cassin, S. E., Wnuk, S., Du, C., Jackson, T., Hawa, R., & Parikh, S. (2017).  A pilot study on telephone cognitive behavioural therapy for patients six months post-bariatric surgery. Obesity Surgery, 27, 670-675.

MacDonald, D. E., & Cassin, S. E. (2017). Nondieting psychological interventions for individuals who are overweight or obese: A systematic review of the evidence.  Psychopathology Review, 4, 290-318.

Thiara, G., Yanofsky, R., Abdul-Kader, S., Santiago, V. A., Cassin, S. E., Okrainec, A., Jackson, T., Hawa, R., & Sockalingam, S. (2016).  Toronto Bariatric Interprofessional Psychosocial Assessment Suitability Scale (BIPASS ^TM): Evaluating a new clinical assessment tool for bariatric surgery candidates.  Psychosomatics, 57, 165-173.

David, L., Sockalingam, S., Wnuk, S., & Cassin, S. E. (2016).  A pilot randomized controlled trial examining the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of adapted motivational interviewing for post-operative bariatric surgery patients.  Eating Behaviors, 22, 87-92.

Cassin, S. E., Sockalingam, S., Du, C., Wnuk, S., Hawa, R., & Parikh, S. (2016).  A pilot randomized controlled trial of telephone-based cognitive behavioural therapy for preoperative bariatric surgery patients.  Behaviour Research and Therapy, 80, 17-22.

Azin, A., Zhou, C., Jackson, T., Cassin, S. E., Sockalingam, S., & Hawa, R. (2014).  Body contouring surgery after bariatric surgery:  A study of cost as a barrier and impact on psychological well-being.  Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 133, 776e-782e.

Lyons, K., Meisner, B. A., Sockalingam, S., & Cassin, S. E. (2014).  Body image after bariatric surgery: A qualitative study.  Bariatric Surgical Practice and Patient Care, 9, 41-49.

Cassin, S. E., Sockalingam, S., Wnuk, S., Strimas, R., Royal, S., Hawa, R. & Parikh, S. (2013).  Cognitive behavioural therapy for bariatric surgery patients: Preliminary evidence for feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 20, 529-543.

Cassin, S. E., von Ranson, K. M., Heng, K., Brar, J., & Wojtowicz, A. E. (2008).  Adapted motivational interviewing for women with binge eating disorder: A randomized controlled trial.  Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 22, 417-425.

Cassin, S. E., & von Ranson, K. M. (2007).  Is binge eating experienced as an addiction?  Appetite, 49, 687-690.