Rate My Professor Oliver Hansby

Dr. Oliver Hansby serves as a Senior Lecturer and Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Otago, Wellington. He earned a Bachelor of Medical Science with Honours (BMedSc(Hons), First Class) in 2012 from the University of Otago, focusing his honours research on New Zealand's District Health Board system at the Centre for Health Systems. He also holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) from the University of Otago. Previously serving as president of the New Zealand Medical Students' Association in 2011, Hansby has built a career bridging clinical practice, teaching, and research in psychiatry.

Hansby co-convened the Stage II Formal Education Programme for psychiatry registrars in 2020 and 2021 alongside Associate Professor Susanna Every-Palmer, developing a detailed curriculum with interactive lectures, tutorials, trainee presentations, and Moodle resources. He emphasized active learning, pre-session knowledge assessments, diverse teaching methods, and systematic feedback collection, earning high praise from trainees for programme organization and quality, including the Māori mental health module. His research specializations include eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in forensic, prison, and rehabilitation settings for adults with psychosis or serious mental illness; harassment, stalking, and gendered abuse towards politicians; and resourcing challenges in New Zealand mental health services. Key publications co-authored by Hansby encompass the 2019 Trials protocol for an EMDR randomized controlled trial (RCT) in forensic services; the 2023 European Journal of Psychotraumatology qualitative study on EMDR lived experiences in prison; the 2024 Psychological Trauma RCT outcomes comparing EMDR to usual treatment; the 2024 Frontiers in Psychiatry analysis of politician harassment during COVID-19; the 2024 Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry survey of 500 psychiatrists; the 2025 Kōtuitui study on misogyny and threats to female politicians; and the 2025 Medicine, Science and the Law RCT on EMDR in forensic and prison contexts. His eight publications have garnered 86 citations.