Paula Barrett
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paula Barrett is a researcher and practitioner in the field of clinical child psychology and currently adjunct Professor at the School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
In 2003 she established the innovative research-based clinic, Pathways Health and Research Centre. Professor Barrett is internationally acclaimed for her work in the field of child and adolescent anxiety. She published the world's first family treatment control trial for childhood anxiety in 1995, and her 1996 paper on the treatment of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents is highly cited and is in the foreground of empirically supported, evidence-based practices. She has also made significant advances in mapping the psychological adjustment of young non-English speaking migrants and refugees to Australia through the development and validation of culturally sensitive adjustment resources for families from China and Balkan States.
Barrett authored and evaluated the well-known Coping Koala anxiety treatment protocol during her doctorate in 1993, which she has since turned into the Friends for Life Program — now recognised worldwide as best practice for the treatment and prevention of anxiety in children and adolescents.
Since 1996 she has attracted over $1.5million in university research funding and continues to lead a highly productive research group as well as coordinate and liaise with the many ongoing research and clinical trials now underway with FRIENDS in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Asia and North America. Her research group has published more controlled trials for childhood anxiety than any other group in the world. Collectively, this body of literature has had a significant global impact not only for the treatment of childhood anxiety, but in research and public policy arenas as well.
In addition to her research being published in numerous prestigious international peer-reviewed journals, she has also written numerous book chapters and presented keynote addresses at national and international conferences. In 2005, Barrett published the book “Interventions that work with Children and Adolescents”, which she edited and wrote together with Tom Ollendick. This book is widely used around the world in postgraduate programs both in Psychology and Psychiatry departments.
Barrett has an established international reputation as a researcher in the area of intervention for children with psychological problems. She was the recipient of the National Australian Association for Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy Early Career Award for her research and clinical innovation in the field of clinical psychology in 1998, and the National Australian Psychological Society Award for outstanding scholarship in the discipline of psychology in 1999.
Barrett has successfully supervised 21 honours, 14 Masters, and 8 PhD students to completion of their postgraduate degrees, each one of whom is, in turn, making an important contribution to the well-being of families and to the advance of research in the field of clinical child psychology.
