Rate My Professor Tanya Hanstock

Associate Professor Tanya Hanstock is a clinical psychologist and academic in the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Newcastle. She earned her Doctor of Clinical Psychology, Bachelor of Psychology (Honours), and Bachelor of Arts from the University of New England. As Director and Convenor of the Clinical Psychology Programs, including the Master of Clinical Psychology and Doctor of Philosophy (Clinical Psychology), she oversees training for future clinical psychologists. With over 25 years of teaching experience, she has delivered courses at the University of Newcastle, University of New England, and Charles Sturt University in areas such as ethics and professional practice, counselling skills, psychopharmacology, rural psychology, research methods, adult mental health disorders, and child and adolescent mental health disorders. Her prior roles include Associate Professor and Director of the Clinical Psychology Program at the University of New England (2010-2013) and Senior Clinical Psychologist at the NSW Department of Health (2003-2010).

Hanstock's research centers on the understanding, assessment, and treatment of mental health disorders across the lifespan, specializing in bipolar disorder—particularly its onset in young people—with over 20 years of clinical experience. Current projects explore technology for monitoring and predicting relapse in adults with bipolar disorder. Her fields of research encompass clinical psychology (40%) and child and adolescent development (60%), with keywords including autism spectrum disorder, child development, obsessive compulsive disorder, parent-child interaction therapy, and trauma. She has supervised numerous honours, masters, doctorate, and PhD theses in mental health, developmental disorders, and translational psychological research, and has externally examined theses. Notable publications include the book Psychological Treatment Approaches for Young Children and Their Families (2024, with I. Stiefel and M. Brand), Who's Who of the Brain: A Guide to its Inhabitants, Where They Live and What They Do (2008, with K. Nunn and B. Lask), and the chapter 'Bipolar Disorders' in Abnormal Psychology in Context: The Australian and New Zealand Handbook (2017, with S. Tse). She received the Young Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of New England in 2008 and collaborates on interdisciplinary initiatives with NSW Health and other institutions.