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Dr Rachel E. Menzies
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST
BPsych (Hons I), MClin Psych, PhD, MAPS
Dr Rachel E. Menzies is a clinical psychologist and founder of the Menzies Anxiety Centre.
She is a member of the Australian Psychological Society, and is also a Board-approved supervisor.
In addition to her clinical work, Rachel is a Research Fellow and Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney, where she continues to conduct research into death anxiety, mental health conditions and their treatment.
Rachel completed her Honours degree in psychology at the University of Sydney, winning the Dick Thompson Thesis Prize for her work on death anxiety and its relationship with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
Rachel completed her Masters of Clinical Psychology and her PhD at the University of Sydney. She was awarded the 2021 national Australian Psychological Society (APS) Award for Excellent PhD Thesis, for her research on death anxiety, its role in mental illness, and its treatment. In 2023, she was awarded the national APS Early Career Research Award.
Rachel has extensive experience in treating death anxiety using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Rachel has delivered workshops on death anxiety and its relation to anxiety and mood disorders across 7 Australian cities, in a 2019 national tour hosted by the Australian Association for Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy (AACBT). She regularly delivers workshops on death anxiety to various national and international organisations.
Rachel is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for the Science of Existential Psychology, and is a member of the AACBT NSW Committee. She also serves on the editorial board of the international journal Death Studies.
In addition to her peer-reviewed journal publications on the topic of death anxiety, Rachel’s research on existential issues has been featured in numerous books. She was featured in The Conversation Yearbook 2016, a collection of the top 1% of ‘standout articles from Australia’s top thinkers’.
Rachel is the lead editor of the book Curing the Dread of Death: Theory, Research and Practice, published in 2018. In 2019, she released her second book: Tales from the Valley of Death: Reflections from Psychotherapy on the Fear of Death.
In 2021, Rachel released Mortals: How the Fear of Death Shaped Human Society, which was awarded the 2022 Nib People’s Choice Prize, and the 2023 American Psychological Association (APA) William James Book Award.
In 2022, she released two further books: Free Yourself from Death Anxiety: A CBT Self-Help Guide for a Fear of Death and Dying, and Existential Concerns and Cognitive-Behavioral Procedures: An Integrative Approach to Mental Health.
Treatment Areas
Rachel is an experienced practitioner who has worked in both hospital and community-based services. Rachel re-developed the mood and anxiety program at Wesley Mission Hospital, where she also developed the Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) program.
In addition to her extensive research investigating death anxiety, Rachel also has experience working with a number of issues, including:
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Depression
Social anxiety
Panic Disorder
Phobias
Generalised Anxiety Disorder
Health anxiety
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Substance use and addiction
Relationship concerns
Adjustment to illness
Publications
Iverach, L., Menzies, R.G., & Menzies, R.E. (2014). Death anxiety and its role in psychopathology: Reviewing the status of a transdiagnostic construct. Clinical Psychology Review, 34, 580-593.
Menzies, R.G., Menzies, R.E., & Iverach, L. (2015). The role of death fears in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Australian Clinical Psychologist, 1, 6-11.
Menzies, R.E., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2017). Death anxiety and its relationship with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 126, 367-377.
Menzies, R.E., Zuccala, M., Sharpe, L., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2018). The effects of psychosocial interventions on death anxiety: A meta-analysis and systematic review of randomised controlled trials. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 59, 64-73.
Menzies, R.E., Sharpe, L., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2019). The relationship between death anxiety and severity of mental illnesses. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58, 452-467.
Zuccala, M., Menzies, R.E., Hunt, C., & Abbott, M. (2019). A systematic review of the psychometric properties of death anxiety self-report measures. Death Studies, 6, 1-23.
Moreton, S., Szalla, L., Menzies, R.E., & Arena, A. (2019). Embedding existential psychology within psychedelic science: Reduced death anxiety as a mediator of the therapeutic effects of psychedelics. Psychopharmacology, 237(1), 21-32.
Menzies, R.E., & Menzies, R.G. (2020). Death anxiety in the time of COVID-19: Theoretical explanations and clinical implications. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 13, e19.
Menzies, R.E., Zuccala, M., Sharpe, L., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2020). Subtypes of obsessive-compulsive disorder and their relationship to death anxiety. Journal of Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders, 27, 100572.
Menzies, R.E., Zuccala, M., Sharpe, L., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2020). Pathways to obsessive-compulsive disorder and the role of death anxiety. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 75(3), 170-175.
Menzies, R.E., Neimeyer, R.A., & Menzies, R.G. (2020). Death anxiety, loss and grief in the time of COVID-19. Behaviour Change, 37(3), 111-115.
Menzies, R.E., Sharpe, L., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2021). The effect of mortality salience on bodily scanning behaviours in anxiety-related disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2(999).
Menzies, R.E., Sharpe, L., Helgadóttir, F.D., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2021). Overcome Death Anxiety: The development of an online CBT program for fears of death. Behaviour Change, 38(4), 235-249.
Verin, R.E., Menzies, R.E., & Menzies, R.G. (2021). Death anxiety, OCD and attachment: What’s love got to do with it? Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 50(2), 131-141.
Pradhan, P., Sharpe, L., & Menzies, R.E. (2021). Towards a stepped care model for managing fear of cancer recurrence or progression in cancer survivors. Cancer Management and Research, 13, 8953-8965.
Arena, A., MacCann, C., Menzies, R.E., Moreton, S., & Tiliopoulos, N. (2022). Living authentically in the face of death: Predictors of autonomous motivation among individuals exposed to chronic mortality cues compared to a matched community sample. OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying.
Sharpe, L., Todd, J., Scott, A., Gatzounis, I., Menzies, R.E., & Meulders, A. (2022). Safety behaviours or safety precautions? The role of subtle avoidance in anxiety disorders in the context of chronic physical illness. Clinical Psychology Review, 92, 102126.
Menzies, R.E., & Whittle, L.F. (2022). Stoicism and death acceptance: Integrating Stoic philosophy in cognitive behaviour therapy for death anxiety. Discover Psychology.
Chawla, S., Menzies, R.E., & Menzies, R.G. (2022). Existential concerns in OCD with aggressive and sexual obsessions. The Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 32, 100710.
Sharpe, L., Michalowski, M., Richmond, B., Menzies, R.E., & Shaw, J. (2022). Fear of progression in chronic illnesses other than cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis of a transdiagnostic construct. Health Psychology Review, 18, 1-20.
Dudeney, J., Sharpe, L., McGuire, B., Menzies, R.E., & McDonald, S. (2022). Are psychological interventions efficacious for adults with migraine? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Headache, 00, 1-15.
Menzies, R.E., Sharpe, L., Richmond, B., Dudeney, J., Todd, J., Szabo, M., Sesel, A., & Dear, B.F. (2022). A randomized controlled trial of cognitive behaviour therapy versus mindfulness for people with rheumatoid arthritis with and without a history of recurrent depression: Study protocol and design. BMJ Open.
Sigurdardottir, S., Helgadottir, F.D., Menzies, R.E., Blondahl, M., & Menzies, R.G. (2022). Improving adherence to a web-based cognitive behavioural therapy program for social anxiety with group sessions: A randomised controlled trial. Internet Interventions, 28, 100535.
Moreton, S., Burden-Hill, A., & Menzies, R.E. (2022). Reduced death anxiety and obsessive beliefs as mediators of the therapeutic effects of psychedelics on OCD symptomology. Clinical Psychologist.
Morandini, J., Menzies R.E., Strudwick, J., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2022). Do bisexual and pansexual women differ? Yes, when it comes to minority stress. Psychology & Sexuality.
Menzies, R.E., Sharpe, L., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2022). The development and validation of the death anxiety beliefs and behaviours scale (DABBS). British Journal of Clinical Psychology.
Morandini, J., Menzies, R.E., Moreton, S., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2022). Do beliefs about sexual orientation predict sexual identity among sexual minorities? Archives of Sexual Behaviour.
Richmond, B., Sharpe, L., & Menzies, R.E. (2022). Are fear campaigns for increasing adherence to COVID-relation mitigation measures? International Journal of Behavioral Medicine.
Menzies, R.E., & Menzies, R.G. (2022). Death anxiety and mental health: Requiem for a dreamer. Invited paper for Journal of Behaviour Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 78, 10187.
Menzies, R.E., Sharpe, L., Richmond, B., & Cunningham, M. (2022). “Life’s too short to be small”: An experimental exploration of the relationship between death anxiety and muscle dysmorphia symptoms. Body Image, 44, 43-52.
Moreton, S.G., Arena, A., Foy, Y.P.M., & Menzies, R.E. (2022). Reduced death anxiety as a mediator of the relationship between acute subjective effects of psychedelics and improved subjective well-being. Death Studies.
Menzies, R.E., Julien, A., Sharpe, L., Menzies, R.G., Helgadottir, F.D., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2023). Overcoming death anxiety: A phase I trial of an online CBT program in a clinical sample. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy. https://doi.org/10.1017/S135246582300005X
Liu, C., Menzies, R.E., & Menzies, R.G. (2023). A systematic review of existential concerns in borderline personality disorder. The Journal of Humanistic Psychology.
Sims, M.A., Menzies, R.E., & Menzies, R.G. (2023). A systematic review of the relationship between death anxiety, capability for suicide, and suicidality. Death Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2023.2179686
Moreton, S., Burden-Hill, A., & Menzies, R.E. (2023). Reduced death anxiety and obsessive beliefs as mediators of the therapeutic effects of psychedelics on OCD symptomology. Clinical Psychologist, 27(1), 58-73. https://doi.org/10.1080/13284207.2022.2086793
Menzies, R.E. (2023). The undiscovered country: Welcoming a new era of existentially-informed clinical psychology. Invited editorial in Clinical Psychologist. 27(1), 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1080/13284207.2023.2184249
Sharpe, L., Richmond, B., Menzies, R.E., Forrest, D., Crombez, G., Colagiuri, B. (2023). A synthesis of meta-analyses of mindfulness-based interventions in pain. Pain.
Boyse, J., Sharpe, L., Richmond, B., Dear, B., Dudeney, J., Szabo, M., Sesel, A., & Menzies, R.E. (2023). Benign or painful? The interpretation of pain and fear of progression in rheumatoid arthritis. Pain.
Sharpe, L., Richmond, B., Todd, J., Dudeney, J., Dear, B.F., Szabo, M., Sesel, A., Forrester, M., Menzies, R.E. (2023). A cross-sectional study of existential concerns and fear of progression in people with rheumatoid arthritis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research.
Sharpe, L., Menzies, R.E., Richmond, B., Todd, J., & Shaw, J. (2023). The development and validation of the worries about recurrence or progression scale (WARPS). British Journal of Health Psychology.
Menzies, R.E., Richmond, B., Sharpe, L., Skeggs, A., Liu, J., & Coutts-Bain, D. (2024). The “revolving door” of mental illness: A meta-analysis and systematic review of current versus lifetime rates of psychological disorders. British Journal of Clinical Psychology.
Foo, B.M., Sharpe, L., Clayton, J.M., Wiese, M., & Menzies, R.E. (2023). The role of psychologists in supporting illness-related dying and death: A systematic literature review. Clinical Psychology Review.
Menzies, R.E. (2024). Alone together: The role of existential concerns in symptoms of relationship obsessive-compulsive disorder. Clinical Psychologist.
Forrester, M., Sharpe, L., & Menzies, R.E. (2024). Starving off death: The effect of mortality salience on disordered eating in women. Death Studies.
Michalski, S.C., Sharpe, L., Boyse, J., Shaw, J., & Menzies, R.E. (2024). The role of interpretation bias in fear of disease progression in people with diabetes. Journal of Pain.