Dr Gareth Furber

e-mental Health Project Officer

Student Experience and Management

place Student Centre
GPO Box 2100, ADELAIDE, SA, 5001

Howdy! I received my PhD (Clinical Psychology) in 2007. I then worked in child and adolescent mental health, primarily as a researcher. My research topics included evaluation of intensive long-term parent-child psychotherapy, service benchmarking, mental health workforce estimation, and the use of technology in service delivery. Google Scholar has a pretty up-to-date list of my publications.

I left that all behind when I came to work here at Flinders University where I put my practitioner psychologist hat 🎓 back on and joined the excellent team here at Health, Counselling and Disability Services.

My first job was to set-up some digital channels through which the teams at Health, Counselling and Disability (HCD) and OASIS could communicate with the student population. That led to the revised HCD website, OASIS website, HCD newsletter and HCD blog. Digital content then opened up opportunities for giving seminars and workshops. Before I knew it, there was an actual strategy built around my position. 

Now my time is focused on writing about and teaching on the topics of mental health, wellbeing, productivity, self-care and behaviour change. I make the assumption that all of us in the Flinders community (students and staff) want to be productive, happy (whatever that term means for you) and feel like we belong. As I learn more about how people achieve those things from the psychological literature and beyond, I share that via our different communication channels.

I never thought that I wanted to teach, but it turns out it is what I like doing most :)

Qualifications

BPsych (Hons)

PhD (Clinical Psychology)

Honours, awards and grants

None in particular, but my mum thinks I am great.

Actually, the Good Vibes Experiment project was recognised for a national honour.

And I did get to work with an amazing research team here at Flinders who were nominated for an Innovation award as part of the SA Science Excellence and Innovation awards.

In a previous job, I was given an award for running an underground staff club built around chocolate and tea ��

In 2023, I won a professional staff award for my work in the area of student wellbeing.

In 2024, I've been incredibly fortunate to be part of teaching award winning groups. 

Key responsibilities
  • Manager and writer for the Student Health and Wellbeing Blog
  • Develop, deliver and evaluate wellbeing and productivity programs like Be Well Plan and Studyology
  • Write and maintain the self-help library for Health, Counselling and Disability Services
  • Manage the Oasis website https://oasis.flinders.edu.au/
  • Do talks around the university to students on topics like mental health, wellbeing, productivity, self-care and behaviour change
  • Work with topic and course coordinators to embed wellbeing/mental health/self-care content into existing courses - an example includes teaching behaviour change principles via our Positive Shifts program to allied health students (e.g. physiotherapy, OT)
  • Collaborate with other wellbeing-focused staff around the university to raise the profile of mental health and wellbeing activities in the university, including playing a role in the Be Well Lab and the Wellbeing Working Group.
  • Collaborate with partners (e.g. FUSA) and students to develop mental health campaigns like Good Vibes Experiment and the Flinders Student Wellbeing Survey
  • Keep the Media and Communications team on their toes by occasionally trying to sneak inappropriate words into my blog posts
Teaching interests

Although I am not an academic lecturer, a significant portion of my time is spent giving guest lectures, seminars and workshop in different topics and Colleges. My mission is to share what I've learned about mental health and the actions individuals can take to maintain or improve their mental health. Specific topics that I talk on are:

Mental Health

Wellbeing

Behaviour change

Self-improvement

Productivity

Self-care

Evidence-based study strategies

If you are a topic or course coordinator and would like to request lectures on these topics or similar, email me at the various links provided in this profile. It isn't just me. Other members of our counselling and wellbeing teams can also provide sessions 🧑ðŸ�¼‍ðŸ�«

Expert for media contact
Behaviour
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
Health psychology
Mental health
Psychology
Behaviour change
Mental Health and Wellbeing
Self-care
Available for contact via
Or contact the media team
Media expertise
  • Behaviour
  • Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
  • Health psychology
  • Mental health
  • Psychology
Interests
  • Behaviour change
  • Mental Health and Wellbeing
  • Self-care