Blake Dear

I am an Associate Professor and Senior Clinical Psychologist within the Department of Psychology. I currently hold a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Career Development Research Fellowship (2017 to 2020) and was previously a NHMRC Early Career Fellow (2012 to 2016). I am passionate about increasing access to effective psychological treatment, particularly for adults struggling with chronic physical health conditions.

My research interests focus on using technology and innovation to improve access to evidence based psychological treatment – knowing many people experience significant barriers to accessing evidence based psychological help. My research is both conceptual and pragmatic; however, it is all aimed at improving access to psychological care and the quality of psychological care.

I am a Director of the eCentreClinic (www.ecentreclinic.org); a research unit that develops and evaluates a range of psychologically-based treatments for common mental health and chronic physical health conditions. I have a strong interest in transdiagnostic treatments for anxiety and depression as well as treatments that support people with significant physical health conditions, including chronic pain, chronic kidney disease, spinal cord injury, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and various gastrointestinal disorders and diseases.

My research also focuses on how innovative and technologically-based psychological treatments can be implemented and used within routine care settings (e.g., specialist hospital clinics, community mental health clinics, university counselling services) to improve access to and the reach of those services. Our team therefore have a lot of national and international collaborations focused on implementation and the use of our treatments within their clinics.  

As a NHMRC Fellow I have limited formal teaching responsibilities. However, I regularly provide invited lectures and seminars related to my clinical and research work.

I supervise research aimed at improving access to care and the quality of care.

I am Executive Member of Macquarie University’s Medical Human Research and Ethics Committee. I am Associate Editor of the scientific journal Behaviour Research and Therapy. I also serve as an international advisor to several international clinics and research groups. I regularly act as a reviewer for leading journals in my area.

I am a Director of the eCentreClinic (www.ecentreclinic.org) and on the Senior Leadership Team of the MindSpot Clinic (www.mindspot.org.au) and the PORTS Service (www.ports.org.au). In combination, these clinics provide free psychological screening and treatment services to more than 20,000 Australian adults per year.