Dr Emily O'Leary

Dr Emily O'Leary is a Clinical Psychologist with 20 years; experience working primarily in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety disorders and related conditions. She holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Canterbury, where her research was the largest OCD study of its kind conducted in NewZealand. She is recognised nationally and internationally for her work in evidence-based treatment, particularly Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), and trains clinicians in Australia and overseas to lift the standard of OCD assessment and treatment.

Dr O'Leary conducts research at the Queensland Brain Institute and has been the lead psychologist on DeepBrain Stimulation trials for OCD, working with treatment-refractory patients alongside the QIMR Berghoferr research team. She has published in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Anxiety Disorders andClinical Psychologist, on cognitive processing in OCD, thought-action fusion, and long-term outcomes of family-based treatment for childhood OCD. She lectures at universities and presents her research at national and international conferences.

As director of six mental health businesses, she has built some of Queensland's most recognised clinics, including OCD Clinic Brisbane, one of Brisbane's longest-running OCD-dedicated clinics; Anxiety House in Bulimba, Paddington and on the Sunshine Coast; Foundations Perinatal and Child Psychology Centre; andOxford Clinic Psychiatry.

A committed advocate for reducing stigma around mental health, Dr O'Leary is a Mindfood columnist and as ought-after media commentator on OCD and anxiety. She is regularly called on by national press, radioand television, and has appeared on The MiNDFOOD Podcast and The OCD Stories, the leadinginternational OCD podcast, heard more than six million times worldwide. She is also a psychologist with theAustralian Institute of Sport Mental Health Referral Network.

Dr O'Leary works alongside Australia's leading OCD research effort. As lead psychologist on Deep Brain
Stimulation trials for treatment-refractory OCD, she has collaborated with the QIMR Berghofer research
team on some of the most complex OCD cases in the country. When QIMR Berghofer's landmark genetics study identified the first genes linked to OCD, published in Nature Genetics, she was the clinical voice sought by national media to interpret what it means for patients, quoted across ABC News, The Australian and National Seniors Australia.

She is regularly approached by journalists and producers as an expert commentator on OCD and anxiety, including for the Sydney Morning Herald, Herald Sun and Courier Mail, and on television through Today Tonight. She has spoken internationally through The OCD Stories, the leading global OCD podcast, and continues to lecture at universities and present at national and international conferences. These collaborations sit behind the OCD Training Institute: the same research relationships and clinical standing now inform the training she and Dr Bryan deliver to clinicians.