Dr Sophie Li
Postdoctoral Fellow
BPsychol (Hons) - UNSW, 2004
MPsychol(Clinical) - UNSW, 2009
PhD - UNSW, 2008
Medicine & Health
The Black Dog Institute
I'm a Clinical Psychologist and Black Dog Institute Research Fellow. I have a PhD in behavioural neuroscience (April 2008; supervisor Prof Westbrook), and Masters in Clinical Psychology (April 2009). From 2008-2016, I worked as a Clinical Psychologist in public and private health settings, before embarking on a research career. I have extensive experience as a clinical psychologist, educator, and clinical psychology supervisor.
My reserach expertise is in youth mental health, with a particular focus on using experimental and clinical trial methodology to understand the cognitive and behavioural mechansism underlying psychopathology. My research has generated new knowledge about youth mental health, which I have used to develop new interventions for youth depression, anxiety and insomnia. I was awarded an Outstanding ECR Postdoctoral Fellowship (July 2022-current), focusing on mechanistic links between youth depression and sleep difficulties and to investigate the use of digital technology as an emotion regulation strategy (digital emotion regulation).
My current research areas include:
1) Child and adolescent insomnia and sleep disturbances
2) Digital emotion regulation and its impact on sleep and other mental health outcomes
3) Digital health
E-mail
Location
Black Dog Institute, Hospital Road, Randwick
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
Selection of current grants:
1) Outstanding ECR Postdoctoral Fellowship. Sole CI (2022-2024)
2) Australian Rotary Health project grant. CIA. (2023-2026)
3) nib (2022-2024)
4) CommBack Foundation. Sole CI. (2023)
I have prioritised my engagement with the community in the youth mental health space. Community engagement allows me to stay connected with those who will benefit from my research and fuels my aspiration to improve the mental health of young people. My community engagement includes four publications in The Conversation (approx. 9.4 million unique users monthly), Mamamia (accessed by over 5 million Australian women each year), a Facebook live event with ABC News (>30,000 live viewers), ‘Night Talks’ at the Australian Museum Night (> 100 people) and numerous media interviews (ABC Lateline, ABC News, ABC Radio, SBS). I am driven to publicise the extraordinary potential of science to transform our lives through presentations at the L’Oreal Women in Science and Nura Gilli for Indigenous Youth workshops, and to infants’ school children (5 year olds). I regularly train clinicians across various health disciplines (medical doctors, nurses and allied health), and in both hospital (St Vincent’s Hospital) and community settings (online clinician training programs). After a competitive selection process, I am the mental health expert for ABC’s Old People’s Home for Teenagers (2023).
My Research Supervision
1) Joint supervisor, Atia Fatimah. 2023-current.
2) Joint supervisor, Natalie Windsor, 2021-current.
3) Co-supervisor, Michelle Tadros, 2021-current.