Rate My Professor Zara Mansoor

Dr. Zara Mansoor is a Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Otago, Wellington, within the Faculty of Medicine. A registered Clinical Psychologist specializing in working with young people and their whānau, she maintains a small private practice alongside her academic role and serves as Co-Director of Whānau in Mind, an organization dedicated to providing evidence-based support for parents and whānau in the community. Mansoor obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and English from the University of Otago in 2011. She then pursued postgraduate studies at Victoria University of Wellington, earning a BA Honours in Psychology (First Class) in 2012, a Master of Science in Psychology (Distinction) in 2013, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Psychology (Distinction) in 2014. In 2024, she completed her Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Otago under a Health Research Council NZ Clinical Research Practice Fellowship. Her doctoral thesis, titled "Tuning in to Teens in Aotearoa New Zealand: Supporting parents of early adolescents at child adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) with anxiety and depression," was supervised by Professor James Stanley, Associate Professor Elliot Bell, and Dr. Sarah Fortune.

Mansoor's research centers on child, adolescent, and family mental health, with emphases on parent and whānau-based interventions, evaluating mental health interventions in real-world settings, co-design methodologies, child development, and cross-cultural psychology. She contributes to projects evaluating a novel university-based Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy training programme and supporting the health and wellbeing of rangatahi living with psychosis. Her key publications include "What matters most to young people and families receiving mental health treatment? A co-design approach to inform outcomes in a randomised control trial of Tuning in to Teens" (Mental Health & Prevention, 2025, with Bell, Stanley, Buchanan, and Fortune); "Lived Experience of Health and Wellbeing Among Young People with Early Psychosis in Aotearoa New Zealand" (Community Mental Health Journal, 2024, with Chinn et al.); "Protective factors for psychosocial outcomes following cumulative childhood adversity: systematic review" (BJPsych Open, 2023, with Buchanan et al.); "Evaluating an emotion coaching programme for parents of young adolescents attending CAMHS in New Zealand" (Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 2023); and "A realist review of residential treatment for adults with substance use disorder" (Drug and Alcohol Review, 2023, with De Salis et al.). In 2021, she received the Health Research Council Career Development Award valued at $245,356 over 30 months and won the best presentation award in the early-candidature category at the department's Graduate Research Students Symposium.