Mental Health Symposium featuring the Alice Barber Public Lecture

Join us at the 2025 Mental Health Symposium featuring the Alice Barber Public Lecture, presented in collaboration between the Department of Psychiatry and the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences.

This year marks the 30th Anniversary of the Alice Barber Lecture, held annually at the University of Melbourne in honour of Dr. Alice Barber, a pioneer in psychotherapy and a medical graduate of the university in 1906.

Mental Health Symposium

The event will commence with the Mental Health Symposium, featuring presentations from Christopher Winkler, Dr Andrea Putica, Dr Hope O’Brien and Professor Ben Harrison, focussing on a range of current mental health topics.

Alice Barber Public Lecture, presented by Professor Bronwyn Graham

Lecture Overview: Cracking the ** code: the hidden science of how the female brain regulates fear

Women have a twice greater lifetime prevalence of anxiety disorders than men. The reasons underlying this imbalance are poorly understood. Moreover, current knowledge on anxiety and its treatment is based on studies conducted almost exclusively in males, a bias that is evident across almost all areas of biomedical research. As a consequence, the role of female-unique factors, such as differential exposure to sex hormones across the lifespan (e.g., puberty, the menstrual cycle, peri-partum, and peri-menopause, as well as exposure to synthetic hormones in contraceptives), is overlooked in the clinical care of women. In this talk, Professor Graham will present evidence that illustrates the crucial roles of these female-unique factors in the onset of anxiety symptoms, their severity, and even the effectiveness of psychological and pharmacological treatments for anxiety. She will also highlight how recent changes to research policy and practice are propelling sex- and gender-tailored healthcare for all people.

Light refreshments will be available during the intermission break.

For any questions regarding this event, please contact [email protected].

Please note: This is an in-person only event and will not be recorded.

Register now to secure your place. Limited availability.

Info: Christopher Winkler is a clinical psychologist with over fifteen years of experience in treating psychological problems in a range of settings including private practice, public mental health, and universities. Chris has a special interest in anxiety disorders and is completing a PhD at the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences (the University of Melbourne) that explores the mechanisms of exposure therapy for anxiety. Chris also teaches psychology students and supervises early career clinical psychologists.

Info: Dr Andrea Putica is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow within the BETTER CRE Evidence Hub at the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne. She studies how people learn to feel safe through exposure therapy, exploring how expectations shift, how experiences are weighed as reliable or not, and how patterns in physiology and behaviour before treatment shape these learning processes.

Info: Dr Hope O'Brien is a clinician researcher at Phoenix Australia and a lecturer in the Department of Social Work at the University of Melbourne. She brings nearly a decade of clinical experience with adults, youth, and families to her research, which aims to improve PTSD treatment response. Her current work leverages a better understanding of biopsychosocial mechanisms underpinning the PTSD to improve treatment selection. She is broadly interested in culture, emotion regulation, trauma, and improving treatment.

Info: Professor Ben Harrison is appointed as Professor of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne. His team has specialised in the use of 'ultra-high field' neuroimaging to study brain circuitry mechanisms underlying mood and anxiety disorders and their treatment.

Info: Professor Bronwyn Graham is the Director of the Centre for Sex & Gender Equity in Health & Medicine (CSGEHM) at the George Institute for Global Health, and a Professor in the School of Psychology at UNSW Sydney. A clinical psychologist and behavioural neuroscientist, Bronwyn has dedicated her career to improving women’s mental health by researching how the female brain regulates emotions and translating the findings to clinical settings and beyond. At the CSGEHM, Bronwyn’s team has led policy changes to improve the quality of medical research and healthcare by accounting for the influence of sex and gender on health outcomes. Bronwyn is funded by the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, and she has held numerous national and international fellowships. She has published over 80 peer-reviewed research articles and chapters, and has supervised over 40 honours and postgraduate students.

Event Venue

Doherty Institute Auditorium,, 792 Elizabeth St, Melbourne, Australia