About me

Klara Edlund (formerly Halvarsson) is a licensed clinical psychologist, licensed psychotherapist, clinical supervisor in CBT, and an associate professor of psychology at Uppsala University.

In 1993, she began her research at Uppsala University within the field of eating disorders. For seven years, more than 1,000 schoolgirls of different ages were studied over time in the Uppsala area, aiming to identify risk- and protective factors for the development of eating disorders. The work led to a doctoral dissertation in 2000. The work with problems related to food, eating, weight, body shape, and exercise has been a central part of her work and commitment ever since. She has also done substantial clinical and applied work including out-patient treatments, development and implementation of treatment programs and supervision of students and clinical staff for more than 20 years. In her practice, she meets people with anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder as well as other types of disturbed eating- and exercise behaviors without any specific eating disorder diagnosis. For several years she specialized in treatment for obesity, and she has extensive experience of working with assessment and psychological treatment for patients considered for weight loss surgery (e.g., gastric sleeve or gastric bypass).

During the past 8 years, she has specialized in eating disorders in elite sports. She is also working with performance related problems in sports, performing arts and professional performances and achievements. Some examples of problem areas can be performance blocks, performance anxiety, overtraining problems and other problems such as anxiety, depression, or sleeping disturbances.
In parallel with her clinical work, she conducts research on eating disorders and sports, mental illness in general and her most recent work is on non-accidental violence in sport. Over the years, she has had, and has, activities at Karolinska Institutet, Sophiahemmet University and Uppsala University and has completed her training at Uppsala University and the University of Texas at Austin.

For more than 20 years, she has been doing applied work with CBT, including performance-enhancing initiatives, supervision in CBT for university students (clinical practicum) and hospital staff in specialist out-patient psychiatry clinics as well as in the community clinics. She has also conducted independent investigations and research studies for sport federations as well as conducted training for coaches, leaders, and other key persons within the sport community. In addition to this, she is the author and editor of four textbooks on the subject of overweight and obesity and educational materials for different sport federations and sport communities. In addition, continuous work is underway with scientific presentations and publications.