Paula Nathan, Director
Paula Nathan is currently the Director of the Centre for Clinical Interventions (CCI) and adjunct senior Lecturer with the School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience of The University of Western Australia. She has a strong commitment to providing individuals who attend public mental health services with the most effective treatments possible. Since joining the Department of Health (DoH) her work has concentrated on the treatment and research of complex, severe psychiatric disorders involving disabling emotion and mood. As a result of the treatments she has developed and evaluated at CCI she has, in collaboration with her staff, produced therapist manuals for comorbid psychiatric disorders.

Before joining the DoH she has had many years experience as a lecturer in the postgraduate clinical psychology programme at The University of Western Australia. Whilst in that position, as well as her teaching and research commitments, she was responsible for practitioner training. She has extensive experience with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), an intervention shown to be highly effective, and has taught this treatment modality to the entire range of mental health practitioners. Together with her staff, she has developed a popular and well evaluated practitioner training programme at CCI.

Evidence supported treatments are a dynamic and evolving set of enterprises. Paula's research investigates the mechanisms of psychopathology and therapeutic change processes in order to develop improved and innovative evidence based interventions. These interventions are comprehensively evaluated. She is currently collaborating with colleagues from psychology and psychiatry in her research.

Dr. Anthea Fursland, Specialist Clinical Psychologist
Anthea is the Principal Clinical Psychologist of the Eating Disorders service at CCI. She has recently joined CCI, bringing with her 25 years of experience in eating disorders, having worked in both the UK and the US.

In the UK she trained at St. George’s Hospital in London before moving to Berkeley, California, where she obtained her PhD. She then worked in the largest Health Maintenance Organisation in the US, which serves over 3 million patients. She was Chair of Best Practices in Eating Disorders, co-ordinating eating disorder services throughout northern California. Thus she has extensive clinical and managerial experience in the development of eating disorder treatment programmes.

In addition to her clinical work, Anthea's role at CCI includes service development, training and education (of doctors, mental health practitioners, consumer and carer organisations), clinical supervision, and applied clinical research.  Anthea is a member of the International Academy of Eating Disorders

Dr. Susan Byrne, Specialist Clinical Psychologist
Sue is a NHMRC Research Fellow at The University of Western Australia, and is a sessional specialist clinical psychologist with the CCI eating disorders programme.

Sue is a major holder of grants investigating eating and weight disorders in children and adults from Healthways, the Raines Foundation and The University of Western Australia. She also holds an honorary position with Fiona Stanley’s Telethon Institute for Child Health and Research.

Sue was previously a Wellcome Trust Prize Student at Oxford University. Only one of these scholarships is awarded every 4 years. Whilst at Oxford University Sue worked with Dr Christopher Fairburn.

Sue is a member of national committees specializing in eating disorders such as the Australian Child and Adolescent Obesity Research Network and the Australian Eating Disorders National Research Group.

Laura Smith, Senior Clinical Psychologist
Laura completed her Masters degree in Clinical Psychology at UWA in 1997, where her research focussed on cognitive processes in people with eating disorders.

Laura’s current practice and research at CCI is focussed in the area of bipolar disorder. She is involved in running the ongoing CCI Bipolar Treatment Programme – which offers adjunctive psychosocial interventions for people with bipolar disorder. Laura’s particular research interests are in the areas of anxiety comorbidity in bipolar disorder, and self-efficacy for managing bipolar symptoms.  Laura has also worked on therapist manuals for group and individual treatment of anxiety and depression. Most recently she has completed a therapist manual entitled "CBT for Psychotic Symptoms: A Therapist’s Manual".

Laura is also the Principal Training Consultant at CCI. She is closely involved in developing and coordinating the CCI clinical interventions training programme, and in conducting training workshops for mental health professionals.

Dr. Lisa Saulsman, Clinical Psychologist
Dr. Lisa Saulsman completed her BA (Hons), Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology, and Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Western Australia. Her PhD research focused on the application of the five-factor model of personality to conceptualising personality disorders. Some of her work in this area has been published, and presented at national and international conferences. Her particular research interest is the role of Agreeableness in personality disorders.

At CCI, Lisa is involved in research pertaining to personality and interpersonal factors in psychopathology and treatment. Lisa is also involved in the delivery of individual and group interventions for people with anxiety and depression, and in developing and conducting training workshops for mental health professionals. Lisa was also involved in writing the web-based information package "What Me Worry", available of the CCI website.

Dr. Amanda Swan, Clinical Psychologist
Amanda completed her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Teeside, UK, where her research focussed on the impact of mood disorders and health beliefs on Stroke Rehabilitation outcome. She has recently joined CCI, moving from a previous post in the UK where she delivered individual, couple and ward based interventions for a range of psychiatric disorders affecting older adults and their families. She also developed and delivered training programmes for mental health professionals.

Amanda’s current practice and research at CCI is focussed in the area of affective and anxiety disorders. She is involved in running the ongoing CCI Mood Management Programme - which offers adjunctive psychosocial interventions for people with depression and anxiety disorders.

Dr Peter McEvoy, Specialist Clinical Psychologist

Dr Peter McEvoy graduated with a Masters in Clinical Psychology and PhD from the University of Western Australia and for the last 4 years has been working as a clinical psychologist and service coordinator of the Anxiety Disorders Unit, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney. The Anxiety Disorders Unit at St Vincent’s Hospital is the clinical arm of the Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression, which is directed by Professor Gavin Andrews. Dr McEvoy’s role was to coordinate the clinical and research activities within the clinic and, as an accredited supervisor for the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, to supervise psychiatry registrars in cognitive behavioural therapy. Dr McEvoy has published a number of articles relating to treatment outcome for anxiety and depression, and has presented a number of workshops on the treatment of emotional disorders. He has supervised a number of clinical psychologists and is currently teaching postgraduate students at both The University of Western Australia and Curtin University.

Bruce Campbell, Clinical Psychologist

Bruce completed his Graduate Diploma in Psychology at Flinders University (Adelaide), and his Bachelor of Arts (Hons) and Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of Western Australia. His Master’s research focussed on the comparative effectiveness of treating depression with either a combination of medication and psychotherapy, or psychotherapy alone.

Dr. Bronwyn Raykos, Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Bronwyn Raykos completed her BA (Hons), Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology, and Doctorate of Philosophy at the University of Western Australia (UWA).  Her PhD research examined the role of attentional and interpretive biases favouring threat in anxiety-vulnerable individuals.  Some of her work has been published in a peer-reviewed journal and presented at national and international conferences.  She has recently joined CCI and her previous experience includes a post at the Institute of Psychiatry in London where she delivered individual Cognitive Behavioural Therapy interventions to adolescents with Major Depression as part of a clinical trial as well as being involved in several research projects and tutoring at UWA.

At CCI, Bronwyn is involved in the delivery of individual and group interventions as part of the Eating Disorders Service.  Bronwyn also has an interest in conducting research to evaluate and improve the treatment of eating disorders.

Dr Hunna Watson, Research Psychologist

Hunna completed her PhD, MPsych(Clinical), and BSc(Hons) at Curtin University. Her PhD research examined evidence-based treatments for children/adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder and the barriers to intervention. In 2008 she was awarded an Early Career Researcher Award by the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development in partnership with the Australasian Human Development Association. She has taught research methods in the undergraduate psychology programme at Curtin University and has a wide interest in research methodology and applications. She acted as adjunct statistical consultant to the department of Construction Management at Curtin University on research to increase cost savings on multimillion dollar construction projects through identification of organisational factors that contribute to rework and job stress. Her work has been published in high-impact international, peer-reviewed journals and accepted for presentation at national and international conferences.

At CCI, Hunna is currently researching the effectiveness of clinical interventions for depression, eating disorders, and anxiety applied in the real-world, quality of life in treatment outcome, and treatment mechanisms of change.  

Dr Rebecca Anderson, Clinical Psychologist

Dr Rebecca Anderson completed her PhD, Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology and BSc (Hons) at Curtin University. Her PhD research examined case-complexity of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder presentations and compared the use of individual and group treatment formats for delivering Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for adults experiencing this disorder. Her research has been published in international peer-reviewed journals and has been presented at national and international conferences. Rebecca conducted this research whilst working at the Curtin University Psychology Clinic delivering a specialist statewide service for individuals with Anxiety Disorders. At CCI, Rebecca is providing individual and group based treatment to individuals with affective and anxiety disorders.

Sharon Byrne, Clinical Psychologist (Registrar)

Sharon recently joined the Eating Disorder team at CCI having completed her Masters in Clinical Psychology at the University of Western Australia (UWA). Her Masters research involved the evaluation of a questionnaire designed to assess eating disorder symptoms in children and adolescents. Sharon has previous experience in delivering individual and group Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to children and adults with weight management difficulties and a variety of other psychological conditions.