Rate My Professor Clara Murray

Clara Murray serves as Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology and Director of the Clinical Psychology Program within the School of Psychology, Faculty of Medicine and Health, at the University of New England. She obtained her BA (Hons) from University College Dublin, MSc from Oxford Brookes University, Doctor of Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy) from the University of Oxford in 2009, and Postgraduate Diploma (PgDip) from the University of Glasgow. After qualifying, she practiced in community neuro-rehabilitation, working both within the UK's National Health Service and as an independent practitioner, where she provided psychological interventions to individuals living with acquired brain injury. Before joining the University of New England, she lectured in psychology at both masters and undergraduate levels at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK. Murray has supervised research students to completion at masters and PhD levels during her time at the University of Oxford and Anglia Ruskin University, and currently supervises students in the 4th year Honours program and Doctor of Philosophy (Clinical Psychology) Program.

Her academic interests center on adult attachment, compassion-focused therapy, mindfulness, and emotionally focused couple therapy. She researches the adaptation and evaluation of therapy approaches to improve adjustment, self-management, and relationship outcomes following acquired brain injury, alongside pedagogical advances in professional psychology training. Key publications include 'Attachment avoidance, thought suppression, self-compassion and depression: Testing a serial mediation model' (PLoS One, 2021, with Jacobs, Rock, and Clark), 'The relationship between early maladaptive schemas and interpersonal problems: A meta-analytic review' (Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 2020, with Janovsky, Rock, Thorsteinsson, and Clark), 'Structure, validity and cut-off scores for the APA Emerging Measure of DSM-5 Social Anxiety Disorder Severity Scale (SAD-D)' (Journal of Depression and Anxiety, 2021, with Rice, Schutte, and Rock), and 'Predictors of cognitive impairment in an early stage Parkinson's disease cohort' (Movement Disorders, 2014, with Hu et al.). She contributed a chapter on 'Compassion focused therapy for neurological conditions' in Psychological Therapies in Acquired Brain Injury (2019, with Ashworth). Murray earned the Best Poster Presentation award at the Australasian Society for Social & Affective Neuroscience Annual Conference in 2019 for her work on 'Imaging Detached Mindfulness: A pilot fMRI study.' As an experienced clinical psychologist specializing in neurorehabilitation and adjustment to neurodisability, she teaches PSYC505 Clinical Psychological Assessment, integrating neuropsychological assessment with psychological formulation. She is registered with the Psychology Board of Australia as a clinical psychologist (PSY0002093312), a member of the Australian Psychological Society, Fellow of the APS College of Clinical Psychologists, and Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society.