Rate My Professor Fiona Mathieson

Associate Professor Fiona Mathieson is a Clinical Psychologist in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Otago, Wellington, part of the Faculty of Medicine within the Health Sciences Division. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Otago in 2019, with a doctoral thesis titled Metaphor in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, supervised by Maria Stubbe and Jennifer Jordan. Her academic career at the University of Otago includes teaching roles in the Postgraduate Certificate and Diploma in Health Sciences (Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy) courses, as well as contributions to primary care mental health initiatives. Mathieson has held positions such as senior lecturer in psychology and is currently an affiliate associate professor in her department.

Mathieson's research focuses on cognitive behaviour therapy, the use of metaphor in psychotherapy, therapist competence development, anxiety disorders, and brief interventions in primary care. She has contributed to projects including the evaluation of the Piki pilot youth mental health programme and the Fear Reduction Exercised Early (FREE) approach to low back pain management in general practice. Key publications include Understanding Men's Lived Experience of Mental Distress Through Metaphors (McKenzie, S. K., et al., American Journal of Men's Health, 2024), Evaluating Success and Challenges of a Primary Care Youth Mental Health Programme Using Complexity, Implementation Science, and Appreciative Inquiry (Dowell, A., et al., Cureus, 2024), Recent applications of metaphor research in cognitive behaviour therapy (Mathieson, F., et al., 2020), The Enduring Impact of What Clinicians Say to People With Low Back Pain (Darlow, B., et al., 2013), Māori cultural adaptation of a brief mental health intervention in primary care (Mathieson, F., et al., 2012), and a book chapter Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Aotearoa/New Zealand (Mathieson, F., et al., 2022). Her work explores clinician-patient communication, patient beliefs about back pain, and cultural adaptations of mental health interventions.