Rate My Professor Philippe Gilchrist

Philippe Gilchrist, BA(Hons), MA, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychological Sciences within the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences at Macquarie University. He earned his BA (Hons) in Psychology from Concordia University in 2004, MA in Counselling Psychology from McGill University in 2006, and PhD in Clinical Psychology from McGill University in 2015, focusing his doctoral thesis on the psychophysiology of the vasovagal response. After completing his MA, he engaged in clinical practice in Canada, specializing in cognitive-behavioural therapies. He subsequently held a Research Fellowship and Visiting Lecturer position in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge from 2015 to 2016, followed by a Career Development Fellowship with the British Heart Foundation at the School of Clinical Medicine and Wolfson College, University of Cambridge. Joining Macquarie University in 2018, he advanced from Senior Lecturer to Associate Professor, served as Director of Clinical Psychology from 2019 to 2024, and took on the role of Director of Education in 2025. He maintains professional registration as a Clinical Psychologist in Australia and holds dual registration in Clinical and Counselling Psychology in the United Kingdom.

Gilchrist's research centers on applications of clinical psychology in health care settings, with specializations in stress, anxiety, cardiovascular psychophysiology, vasovagal reactions—including their understanding, prediction, and prevention—blood donor health, recruitment, and retention, anxiety disorders, blood-injury-injection fears, disgust, and embodied cognition. He is a member of the Lifespan Health and Wellbeing Research Centre and the Smart Green Cities Research Centre at Macquarie University, and serves on the Human Sciences Research Ethics Sub-Committee as well as the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences Organisational Unit since 2020. Notable publications include 'Preventive interventions for vasovagal reactions in whole blood donors: a cluster-randomised, stepped-wedge, crossover trial of 73 sites involving 1·4 million donors in England' (2026, The Lancet Haematology), 'Role of pain and anxiety in mediating relationships between donation history and vasovagal reaction symptoms in blood donors in England' (2026, Transfusion), 'Evaluation of interventions to prevent vasovagal reactions among whole blood donors: rationale and design of a large cluster randomised trial' (2023, Trials), and 'A systematic review evaluating metacognitive beliefs in health anxiety and somatic distress' (2022, British Journal of Health Psychology). He has presented invited talks on interventions for vasovagal responses and related mechanisms.