Workshop leader:
Emeritus Professor Michael Kyrios,
College of Education, Psychology and Social Work
Flinders University
Mike Kyrios is an Emeritus Professor at Flinders University and maintains honorary positions at various universities where he has worked previously (Australian National University, University of Melbourne, Swinburne University), as well as the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). He is an academic and clinical psychologist with expertise focusing on mental health, specialising in Obsessive-Compulsive, Anxiety and Mood disorders and behavioural addictions (gambling, compulsive buying), and has leading expertise in wellbeing and resilience, evidence-based psychological treatments, including those that are delivered digitally, and psychological aspects of medical illness. His chosen conceptual frameworks encompass behavioural, cognitive, neurocognitive, developmental and self-based methodologies.
While Mike has maintained clinical roles throughout his career (e.g., Royal Melbourne Hospital, Albert Road Clinic, private practice), in later years he worked mostly as:
- a teaching and research professor across all the universities in which he has worked
- a head of school (ANU)
- a research centre director (Swinburne & Flinders universities)
- most recently, a senior university executive at Flinders University where he was Vice President and Executive Dean in the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work at Flinders University and,
- a consultant to various Australian government bodies, community and consumer groups, and industry partners.
Mike has also set up three major research centres focusing on mental health and wellbeing, two at Swinburne and more recently at Flinders University.
Mike has been associated with over $34 million in research funding as a primary investigator and has over 180 peer reviewed publications, with (as of September 21, 2023) a Scopus h-index of 46 and Google Scholar h-index of 61 (i10=139) with 16,500 citations. He has given keynotes, plenary speeches, talks, workshops and master clinician sessions nationally and internationally in his areas of expertise. His recent interest in the “self” in psychological disorders is reflected in numerous peerreviewed publications and chapters, an edited book with Cambridge University Press, and a Special Edition of Psychopathology in 2015. Upon his retirement from full-time academic responsibilities, a recent volume of the Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders was dedicated in his honour, along with that of long-time collaborator Professor Randy Frost.
Mike has undertaken editorial responsibilities for leading journals, including Behavior Therapy, Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy and the International Journal of Psychology amongst others. Mike has sat on various Australian national grant review panels and has also reviewed for international research funding bodies. Mike has sat on multiple local, national and international conference committees and was Scientific Chair for the 2010 International Congress of Applied Psychology and the 2016 World Congress of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.
Mike is a former President of the Australian Psychological Society (APS) and National Chair of the APS College of Clinical Psychologists. He was elected a Fellow of the APS in 2007 and an Inaugural Fellow of the Australian Association of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy in 2016. He received the 2013 Ian Campbell Memorial Prize in Clinical Psychology from the Australian Psychological Society (APS) and 2011 Presidential Citation for Excellence from the American Psychological Association’s Society for General Psychology.
Although recently retired from a full-time academic position, Mike is currently involved in two global educational and research startup initiatives in Asia, with a focus on China, and continues to support his research colleagues at Flinders University, the University of the Sunshine Coast, SAHMRI, and SouthWest University (Chongqing, China) where he set up a joint School in Psychology. He also continues to give workshop presentations globally.
Mike currently shares most of his time between Australia and Greece, engaging actively with his Greek cultural heritage.