Lecturer

PhD MHlthSci GDipCounsPsych BA

Sue is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University. She is also a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and a registered health and counselling psychologist. She is a long- term member of the APS Colleges of Health and Counselling Psychologists and has served on the executive of the Health College in several capacities. She was also a foundation member of the Health Psychology Interest Group that became the Health College in 1996.

Before joining Monash University in 1990, Sue worked as a rural psychologist in community health, occupational rehabilitation, and student counselling. She was then employed as a senior academic at Monash University largely in the role of Director, External Programs. In this role she wrote distance education materials for the School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, developed and coordinated the Master of Psychology (Health) degree by distance education, and was responsible for establishing psychology units in South Africa, Singapore and Malaysia. From 2008-2016 she was the Head of the Cabrini Monash Psycho-oncology Research Unit that was renamed the Szalmuk Family Psycho-oncology Unit. In this role, she was the lead investigator on a range of research projects largely concerned with the quality of life and supportive care needs of cancer patients and those in palliative care. She also supervised postgraduate clinical placements in oncology and palliative care as well as developing psycho-educational and rehabilitation programs for cancer patients. For two years she also provided a clinical psychology service to Cabrini palliative care patients at the Prahran campus. Since leaving Cabrini she has taught health psychology and grief and loss part-time at several tertiary institutions. Over the past two years she also completed a professional writing and editing course with a particular interest in journalism and short form fiction writing.

Expertise

Sue’s expertise is in curriculum development, distance education and on-campus teaching, research, and student placement supervision. She also runs the occasional End of Life Care workshops for psychologists.

Research Interests

While Sue’s initial interest was in health promotion, in particular exercise adherence, for the past 20 years she has developed research expertise in psycho-oncology and palliative care. She has over 50 peer-reviewed papers in these areas and has presented at national and international conferences.

Recent Publications and Presentations 

• Brooker, J., Julian, J., Millar, J., Prince, H., Kenealy, M., Herbert, K., . . . Burney, S. (October 2019. Published online.). A feasibility and acceptability study of an adaptation of the Mindful Self-Compassion program for adult cancer patients. Palliative and Supportive Care,1-11. doi:10.1017/S1478951519000737
• Burney, S. (2019). Psychological issues in cancer survivorship. Climacteric, 13, 1-5 doi: 10.1080/13697137.2019
• Gravier, S., Burney, S., & Rademacher, H. (April, 2019). The misunderstood world of palliative care. InPsych, 41(2), 22-27.
• Gravier, S., Burney, S., & Rademacher, H. (June, 2019). Reflective practice in palliative care. InPsych, 41(3), 14-19.