Better Thinking

Listen on Apple Podcasts and SpotifyIn this episode of Better Thinking, Nesh Nikolic speaks with Dr James Morandini about advancing research across gender identity, gender dysphoria, sexual orientation, and the mental health challenges connected to these areas.James Morandini is a clinical psychologist and researcher whose clinical and research work focuses on matters of gender dysphoria/identity and sexuality. James has published widely on sexuality/gender in academic journals, including more than 20 empirical articles on these topics, and maintains active involvement in clinically relevant research in sex and gender. James completed a Ph.D in Psychology at The University of Sydney under A/Prof Ilan Dar-Nimrod and Professor Alex Blaszczynski between 2011 and 2016, examining ontological beliefs about sexual orientation held by LGBTQ+ individuals and their implications for self-acceptance and mental health. He subsequently completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship with A/Prof Ilan Dar-Nimrod between 2016 and2020 funded by Australian Research Council and Templeton Grants. Dar-Nimrod and Morandini have created a hub for sexuality and gender research in the School of Psychology, at The University of Sydney, that is both socially minded and affirming while being scientifically rigorous and at the very cutting edge of sex research. James has pursued an “alternative” academic  career since 2020 founding King Street Psychology Clinic.James lectures on gender/sexuality diversity in undergraduate and postgraduate clinical programs (including UTS, UWS, ACU, ACAP, USYD), is an Honorary Research Associate at The University of Western Sydney and University of Technology Sydney, as well as a Ph.D. and higher degree supervisor at The University of Sydney School of Psychology. He  provides clinical supervision on these issues to clinical psychologists and other health professionals in Australia and abroad, including in his capacity as National Convenor of the Psychology of Diverse Bodies, Genders, Sexualities Interest Group of the Australian Psychological Society (APS). 

In this episode of Better Thinking, Nesh Nikolic speaks with Lou Lasprugato about ACT within the therapeutic relationship, including process-based functional assessment and shaping psychological flexibility.Lou Lasprugato is a psychotherapist and internationally recognized trainer in the field of psychology. He is a Peer-Reviewed Trainer in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS), for which he also served as Chair of the Training Committee from 2022-2025. In 2025, Lou was elected into the ACBS Fellowship for his contributions in ACT dissemination. Lou is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, with private practices in both California and Virginia (United States), working with both individuals, including college students, and couples. He also has extensive experience in facilitating skill-building and process-based groups. Lou specializes in therapy for intimate partners and the treatment of anxiety disorders, and is a member of the International OCD Foundation. He has worked as a psychotherapist in a variety of settings, including county-operated crisis intervention services with underserved populations; a mental health and substance abuse intensive outpatient program at Kaiser Permanente that he subsequently managed; and an integrative medicine program at Sutter Health. Lou has taught mindfulness meditation to health care practitioners and facilitated over one hundred training events on ACT, including InterACT for couples and clinically-applied relational frame theory (RFT), as well as co-created courses on nutritional psychology and integrative mental health treatment. Lou has also provided supervision to other behavioral/mental health professionals and students and continues to provide individual and group consultation on ACT and other contextual behavioral approaches. He earned his Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology, with a specialization in Holistic Studies from Lesley University, Cambridge, MA, following a career as a professional musician.

In this episode of Better Thinking, Nesh Nikolic speaks with Professor Philip Batterham about advancing more efficient and precise methods for assessing suicidality and mental disorders.Philip Batterham is a Professor and Co-Head at the Centre for Mental Health Research, The Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. Phil is a research leader in improving access to evidence-based support for mental ill health and suicidal thoughts. He has specific interests in the etiology of suicidal behaviour, assessment of suicidality and mental disorders, implementation of online prevention programs, and reducing barriers to help seeking. Phil has published 320 journal articles and received >$50M in research funding as a Chief Investigator. He has received national and international awards for his research, including the Commonwealth Health Minister’s Award for Excellence in Health and Medical Research, the Professor Vera Morgan Medal for Mental Health Epidemiology, and the inaugural NHMRC Peer Review Excellence Award. He currently leads a major longitudinal cohort study to better understand transitions into suicidal behaviour.

In this episode of Better Thinking, Nesh Nikolic speaks with Dr Donel Martin about new and innovative approaches to improving cognition, with a focus on brain stimulation technologies.Dr Donel Martin is a clinical academic researcher based at the Black Dog Institute and University of New South Wales and practicing Senior Clinical Neuropsychologist. He has a Ph.D in psychology and a Masters in Clinical Neuropsychology. He is the Head of the Neurocognition team at the Black Dog Institute, which investigates the cognitive and emotional effects of interventional treatments for psychiatric disorders, including ketamine, psilocybin, non-invasive brain stimulation (e.g., transcranial direct current stimulation: tDCS; repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation: rTMS) and ECT. He has been a researcher for over 18 years and published >150 peer reviewed papers and 13 book chapters, and has been cited over 5000 times. Dr Martin has won two internationally competitive early career researcher awards and attracted over $9.2Mil in competitive research funding as a Chief Investigator. In the field of Psychiatry/Psychology he is in the top 1% of highly cited authors. 

In this episode of Better Thinking, Nesh Nikolic speaks with Dr. Jerry Rosenbaum anxiety disorders, depression, and how psychedelics change the brain — and what this could mean for the future of psychiatry. Dr. Jerry Rosenbaum is the Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and former Chair of the Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatry Department, where he led one of the nation’s largest and most influential psychiatric programs for two decades.Dr. Rosenbaum has authored more than 400 scientific papers, edited 20 books, and has been recognized with numerous awards—including the C. Charles Burlingame Award for lifetime achievement in psychiatric research and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. His career spans pioneering longitudinal studies on anxiety and depression, major leadership roles across national mental health organisations, and groundbreaking work in neuroscience and psychopharmacology. He now directs the Center for Neuroscience of Psychedelics, where his research focuses on how psychedelics change the brain and what this could mean for future treatments of psychiatric disorders.

In this episode of Better Thinking, Nesh Nikolic speaks with Robert Whitaker about how the disease model of mental illness emerged, what evidence it was built on, and why it may not be as scientifically grounded as many believe.Robert Whitaker is an American journalist and author who has won numerous awards as a journalist covering medicine and science, including the George Polk Award for Medical Writing and a National Association for Science Writers’ Award for best magazine article. In 1998, he co-wrote a series on psychiatric research for the Boston Globe that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. His first book, Mad in America, was named by Discover magazine as one of the best science books of 2002. Anatomy of an Epidemic won the 2010 Investigative Reporters and Editors book award for best investigative journalism. He is the publisher of madinamerica.com. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor (Adjunct) in the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science.

In this episode of Better Thinking, Nesh Nikolic speaks with Professor Dianna Kenny about understanding gender dysphoria in young people and the complexities surrounding their care and wellbeing.Dr Dianna T. Kenny is an experienced psychologist in Sydney who offers a range of services including individual adult psychotherapy, child, adolescent, couple, and family therapy, mediation and family dispute resolution, and medico-legal consultancy.A former professor of psychology at The University of Sydney, Dianna is now a consulting, developmental and educational psychologist and psychotherapist who provides a range of psychological services to adults, children, adolescents, couples and families, including psychological assessment, psychotherapy, specialist treatment for music performance anxiety, mediation, family dispute resolution, and medico-legal consultancy. She is also an expert court report writer, researcher, and author. She has authored bestselling books on child development, child sexual abuse, psychotherapy, gender dysphoria, and music performance anxiety. She has consulting rooms in Concord (Inner West), and Glebe (near Camperdown, Newtown, Ultimo, Darlington, and Annandale).Dr Kenny provides a range of services covering psychological assessment and therapy, parent management training, mediation, family dispute resolution, and medico-legal consultancy.

In this episode of Better Thinking, Nesh Nikolic speaks with Arthur Thomas Ware about fostering long, happy, and purposeful years in retirement, and how psychology can help us create meaning beyond work.Arthur Thomas Ware (He prefers to be called, Tom) will be turning ninety in April next year. He was born in the U.K. and came to Australia as a “Ten Pound Pom” in 1951. From that year he had a variety of jobs: Post Office, Navy, Aviation, Electrical Power, Truck Driver, Foundry Laborer, Lab Assistant, NSW Police and even a year as an Antarctic Expeditioner. His final work was the usual 9 to 5 in a government office job. He worked for 44 years and took voluntary redundancy in 1995. Since that time, Tom has been engaged in a dozen or so different types of volunteer work. Mostly, though, he has stuck to his three main passions: Creative Writing, Speaking to Audiences, and pursuing Self-knowledge and greater Self-understanding. Thirty years retired, Tom’s current focus is on enabling upcoming retirees to find their “Why” so that they, too, can live long, happy, and meaningful retirements. Tom has been married to the same little lady for 65 years. He and his wife, Rita, are parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. They live in Sydney.

In this episode of Better Thinking, Nesh Nikolic speaks with Paul Rhodes about moving beyond individual psychology to explore systemic thinking, family therapy, eco-psychology, and affect theory.Professor Paul Rhodes is a clinical psychology academic and at The University of Sydney where he teaches family therapy, community-based approaches to mental health and a new lived experience co-designed course exploring insider knowledge of recovery. His current research is diverse including eco-psychology, liberation psychology, the decolonisation of the field and innovations in qualitative methods. He is currently writing a book from Thames and Hudson called Liberating Psychology: Anti-Fascism in a Post-Human World. He also works as a clinician at Mind Plasticity in Ultimo, Sydney. In his private time on weekends he is a fine artist at Lennox St Studios in Newtown and currently has an exhibition at The Dax Centre called Troubled/&beyond about the life of the therapist. Last month he released a travel book about Italy called A Psychogeography of Florence, blending psychology with poetry, art and history.

In this episode of Better Thinking, Nesh Nikolic speaks with Professor Zoltán Sarnyai about his recent randomized controlled trial on ketogenic metabolic therapy for serious mental illness and the broader implications of this emerging field for the future of psychiatric treatment.Professor Zoltán Sarnyai, Director of the Margaret Roderick Centre for Mental health Research at James Cook University, is a medically trained neuroscientist with an internationally recognised expertise in the neurobiology of stress and mental health disorders. Before moving to Australia, he was University Lecturer in the Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Pembroke College, where he was Director of Studies for Medicine. He trained at McLean Hospital at Harvard Medical School and at The Rockefeller University, supported by the DuPont-Warren Award and a NARSAD Young Investigator Award, respectively. His group described the role of stress neuropeptides oxytocin and corticotropin-releasing factor in addiction, for which he was awarded the Richter Prize by the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology. More recently, he discovered the efficacy of ketogenic metabolic therapy in preclinical models of schizophrenia and is currently conducting the world’s first randomised controlled clinical trial to investigate this in clinical populations. Zoltán was appointed Lady Davis Visiting Professor at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to study the neuro- metabolic aspects of schizophrenia. Zoltan has published over 150 original research papers, reviews and book chapters, his works have been cited over 10,000 time, with an H index of 50. He is Associate Editor for Nutritional Neuroscience and Frontiers in Neuroscience, and editorial board member of Nutritional Psychiatry and Stress.