Paula Barrett

Dr 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 research-based clinic, Pathways Health and Research Centre. Professor Barrett is known 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 as an example of empirically supported, evidence-based practices. She has also made 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 Coping Koala anxiety treatment protocol during her doctorate in 1993, which she has since turned into the Friends for Life Program a method 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 productive research group as well as coordinate and liaise with the ongoing research and clinical trials now underway with FRIENDS in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Asia and North America.

She has had many papers published in peer-reviewed journals; she has   written numerous book chapters and presented keynote addresses at national and international conferences. In 2005, she 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.

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 supervised 21 honours, 14 Masters, and 8 PhD students to completion of their postgraduate degrees.