Sophie Havighurst

Professor Sophie Havighurst is a child clinical psychologist and Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne. She leads Tuning in to Kids Research and Dissemination at Mindful: Centre for Training and Research in Developmental Health, where she is a program author of the Tuning in to Kids® suite. Over 25 years, she has contributed to child and family mental health through clinical practice, research, and teaching roles. She completed her BA (Hons) in Psychology and Diploma in Clinical Psychology at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, in 1998, followed by a PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2003. Her doctoral work provided the theoretical, methodological, and practical foundations for developing the original Tuning in to Kids® emotionally intelligent parenting program in collaboration with Ann Harley.

As Principal Researcher for the Tuning in to Kids® team, Havighurst oversees evaluations of the program and its variants, including Tuning in to Toddlers, Tuning in to Teens, Dads Tuning in to Kids, and implementations in schools. Her research specializations encompass parent emotion socialization, early intervention, emotion-focused parenting programs, child emotional competence, and behavioral functioning across diverse contexts and countries. She supervises postgraduate students as well as researchers and professionals worldwide evaluating these interventions. From 2018 to 2019, she worked at the University of Oslo, Norway, and holds an honorary research fellowship there. She also practices as a clinical psychologist in private practice. Key publications include 'Tuning in to Kids in Schools: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Teacher Emotion Socialization Intervention in Norwegian Elementary Schools' (2026), 'Brain Changes After a Parenting Intervention in Adolescent Girls With Internalizing Symptoms: A Randomized Clinical Trial' (2025), 'Dads Tuning in to Kids: Acceptability and Appropriateness in a Real-World Dissemination Trial' (2025), 'The Relations Between Parent and Toddler Emotion Regulation' (2023), and 'Tuning in to Toddlers: Research Protocol and Recruitment for Evaluation of an Emotion Socialization Program for Parents of Toddlers' (2019).

Professional Email: sophie.h@unimelb.edu.au