Rate My Professor Christopher Willcox

Clinical Professor Christopher Willcox is a Clinical Professor in the School of Science (Psychology) at the University of Newcastle, Australia, part of the College of Engineering, Science and Environment. Previously associated with the School of Psychological Sciences, now integrated into the School of Science, his conjoint appointment bridges academia and clinical practice. Willcox has held key leadership positions in mental health services, including as Principal Clinical Psychologist and Head of Psychology for Hunter New England Mental Health Services. He has contributed significantly to psychotherapy education as an educator with the Hunter New England Training in Psychiatry (HNET) program. Furthermore, he serves as a member of the Psychology Board of Australia, influencing standards and regulation in psychology. Willcox has presented at conferences and public events on borderline personality disorder, substance use comorbidity, and dialectical behaviour therapy applications, enhancing professional development in clinical psychology.

His academic interests center on suicide risk assessment methodologies, suicidal behavior evaluation, dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) for borderline personality disorder, and earlier studies on occupational overuse syndrome related to typing behaviors. Willcox led the Hunter DBT Project at the Centre for Psychotherapy, a clinical outpatient unit of Hunter New England Mental Health Service, resulting in the publication 'Hunter DBT Project: Randomized Controlled Trial of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy in Women with Borderline Personality Disorder' (2010). Notable subsequent publications include 'The ABC’s of Suicide Risk Assessment: Applying a Tripartite Approach to Individual Evaluations' (2015, co-authored with Eileen Chew and Roger H. M. Ho) and 'Reevaluating Suicidal Behaviors: Comparing Assessment Methods to Improve Risk Evaluations' (2017). His foundational research produced 'The Effect of Occupational Overuse Syndrome on the Typing Speed of Keyboard Operators' (1989), 'Literature Survey of Typing Behaviour' (1989), 'A stochastic model for inter-keypress times in a typing task' (1990), and an addendum (1999). ResearchGate metrics indicate 281 citations and 8,619 reads, underscoring his impact on clinical assessment and therapeutic interventions in mental health.