Rachel Menzies
University of Sydney, AUS
Dr. Rachel Menzies is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Research Fellow at the University of Sydney, where she completed her Honours, Masters, and PhD degrees in psychology.
Dr Menzies’ research is focused on the intersection between existential and clinical psychology. Her research has explored the impact of death anxiety on mental health, in addition to examining the assessment and treatment of the fear of death. She has published dozens of peer-reviewed research articles on the fear of death and psychopathology, and five books on existential issues, including Free Yourself from Death Anxiety: A CBT Self-Help Guide for a Fear of Death and Dying and Mortals: How the Fear of Death Shaped Human Society.
Her research has been awarded various awards, including the Dick Thompson Prize for Best Empirical Thesis in Social Psychology and the Australian Clinical Psychology Association (ACPA) Postgraduate Student Prize. In 2021, Dr Menzies won the national PhD Prize from the Australian Psychological Society (APS) for her work on death anxiety and its relationship with mental health. Her book Mortals was awarded the Nib People’s Choice Literary Award, and the Alex Buso Shortlist Prize. Dr Menzies has edited a special issue on existential psychology in the journal Clinical Psychologist, and is also a member of the Editorial Board of the peer-reviewed journal Death Studies.
In addition to her academic work, Dr Menzies is a clinical psychologist and director of the Menzies Anxiety Centre, which she established to improve access to psychological treatment for death anxiety. She is a Member of the New South Wales Branch Committee for the Australian Association for Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy (AACBT).
Dr Menzies can regularly be heard on national and international radio, popular podcasts and at relevant public events (e.g., The Festival of Death and Dying, Adelaide Writers Week, Happiness and Its Causes). She has been interviewed about her research for national and international news outlets including The Guardian, The Washington Post, BBC, and The Sydney Morning Herald.
Death anxiety as a transdiagnostic construct
