Rate My Professor Denise Steers

Dr. Denise Steers is a Research Professional Practice Fellow in the Suicide and Mental Health Research Group at the University of Otago, Wellington. She holds an MA (Applied) in Clinical and Community Psychology from Victoria University of Wellington and a PhD from the University of Otago, completed in 2020. Her doctoral thesis, titled "Gender mender, bender or defender: Understanding decision making in Aotearoa/New Zealand for people born with a variation in sex characteristics," explored the historical and contemporary decision-making processes for infants born with intersex variations in sex characteristics, medically termed Disorders of Sex Development (DSD), from a human rights perspective. With a clinical psychology background in child, adolescent, and family mental health, Steers' research interests focus on the complexity of sex, gender, and sex characteristics, as well as the lived experiences of people marginalized in society.

Since joining the Suicide and Mental Health Research Group, Steers has contributed to diverse projects, including media influences on suicidal behaviour in young people, informal coercion in community psychiatric care, suicidality and mental illness from self-stigma to self-management, multi-level interventions for suicide prevention, ultra-brief interventions in primary care, young people's perspectives on "13 Reasons Why," decision-making for individuals with variations in sex characteristics, experiences of gender-affirming hysterectomy for Trans men, and barriers to EMDR referrals for those with serious mental illness. She is currently developing a parent resource for children with variations in sex characteristics and investigating healthcare experiences for Trans men. Key publications include Ingamells et al. (2024), "I'm not getting paid to give you a TED talk on how my trans body works": Experiences of hysterectomy gender affirming surgery, published in the International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics; Ballantyne, Steers, and Gray (2023), Prompting lifestyle interventions to promote weight loss is safe, effective and patient-centred: No, in the Journal of Primary Health Care; Jones et al. (2023), Developing a transgender and non-binary inclusive obstetrics and gynaecology undergraduate medical curriculum in Aotearoa/New Zealand, in the Australian & New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology; and McKenzie et al. (2021), Young people's perspectives and understanding of the suicide story in 13 Reasons Why, in Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention.