Anna Sidis

Dr. Anna Sidis is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Wollongong's School of Psychology within the Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities. With over 20 years of clinical experience as a Clinical Psychologist specializing in youth mental health, she holds dual appointments as both Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director of Postgraduate Psychology Programs (since January 2024). She serves as Chair of the Social Sciences Human Research Ethics Committee, demonstrating significant institutional leadership.

Her educational background includes a Doctorate of Clinical Psychology (2001-2004) and Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from the University of Sydney. Her teaching portfolio spans undergraduate and postgraduate programs covering Family Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Psychosis assessment, Suicide Prevention, Grief counseling, and Critical Psychology.

Dr. Sidis' research focuses on dialogical and community approaches to mental health care, with particular expertise in co-production methodologies, qualitative research, and critical psychology. Her work addresses critical areas including youth mental health, early psychosis intervention, suicide prevention, bereavement support (especially cancer-related grief), and service user involvement in care design. Analysis of her 22 publications reveals consistent emphasis on qualitative methodologies, therapist-client interaction dynamics, and innovative service delivery models like Open Dialogue.

Her funded research includes projects examining barriers to mental health access for youth with co-morbid substance use, dialogical therapy implementation ('Always opening and never closing' grant), and community-based suicide prevention initiatives. She actively supervises five higher degree research students working on topics ranging from virtual reality exposure therapy to sports-based suicide prevention.

• Barriers to access and engagement of young people with co-morbid substance use (2022-2024)
• 'Always opening and never closing' dialogical therapy study (2022)
• Innovation and Evaluation Grant for youth mental health access (2022)

Dr. Sidis maintains active clinical research networks through her role as Deputy Director of Postgraduate Programs and Ethics Committee leadership, while her 15 most recent publications demonstrate growing international impact with citations across multiple platforms including Wikipedia references and social media engagement.