Bespoke Members
Introduction
A growing body of research suggests that death anxiety functions as a transdiagnostic factor across a wide range of mental health disorders. Developing the skills to recognise and address existential fears may therefore be crucial for achieving stable, long-term recovery in clients presenting with anxiety- and mood-related difficulties.
While concerns about death can sometimes motivate adaptive coping (such as striving for meaning, connection, or achievement), they can also fuel intense fear and maladaptive behaviours. Increasingly, death anxiety has been conceptualised as an underlying construct that may contribute to presentations including panic disorder, illness anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, specific and social phobias, separation anxiety disorder, PTSD, depression, and more.
If existential dread sits at the core of many clinical presentations, treatment approaches that explicitly target death-related fears may be necessary. When death anxiety remains unaddressed, clients may cycle through shifting diagnoses across the lifespan, despite receiving evidence-based care. Research has also linked fear of death to markers of greater clinical severity, including higher overall distress, increased diagnostic comorbidity, and greater hospitalisation.
This half-day workshop will introduce clinicians to a focused set of evidence-based and clinically practical strategies for assessing and treating death anxiety, designed to be integrated alongside standard CBT to enhance outcomes across a range of mental health conditions.
The event will be equivalent to 2.3/4hrs of CPD.
Content
This workshop will cover:
The conceptualisation of death anxiety and its relevance across common mental health conditions
Why death anxiety is frequently missed, disguised, or avoided in clinical assessment
Empirical links between death anxiety and disorders such as panic disorder, health anxiety, OCD, PTSD, depression, and more
Practical assessment strategies and evidence-based measures
Evidence-based CBT and existentially informed treatment strategies for death anxiety
Learning Objectives
By the end of this half-day workshop, participants will be able to:
1. Understand relevant theoretical accounts for death anxiety
2. Understand the role of death anxiety across multiple diagnostic categories
3. Build awareness of relevant assessment strategies
4. Learn practical, evidence-based strategies to address death anxiety within therapy
Training Modalities
Didactic teaching grounded in current research
Interactive polls and Q&A throughout
Key References
BOOKS
Menzies, R.E., & Veale, D. (2022). Free Yourself from Death Anxiety: A CBT Self-Help Guide for a Fear of Death and Dying. London, UK: Jessica Kingsley Publishing
Menzies, R. E. & Menzies, R. G. (2021). Mortals: How the fear of death shaped human society. Sydney, Australia: Allen and Unwin.
Menzies, R. G. & Menzies, R. E. (2019). Tales from the Valley of Death: Reflections from psychotherapy on the fear of death. Samford Valley, Qld: Australian Academic Press.
EDITED BOOKS
Menzies, R. G., Menzies, R. E., & Dingle, G. (2022). Existential concerns and cognitive-behavioral procedures: An integrative approach to mental health. Switzerland: Springer Nature.
RELEVANT JOURNAL ARTICLES
Iverach, L., Menzies, RG., & Menzies, RE. (2014). Death anxiety and its role in psychopathology: Reviewing the status of a transdiagnostic construct. Clinical Psychology Review, 34, 580-593.
Menzies, R.E., McMullen, K., Riotto, G., Petrovic, B., Iliescu, S., & Remfrey, M. (2024). From dread to disorder: A meta-analysis of the impact of death anxiety on mental illness symptoms. Clinical Psychology Review, 113, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2024.102490
About the presenter
Dr Rachel Menzies is a lecturer at the University of Sydney, where she completed her Honours, Masters and PhD degrees in psychology. Rachel published her first paper on death anxiety and mental illness in Clinical Psychology Review as an undergraduate student. Her experimental work on death anxiety and psychopathology has been published in the leading journals in clinical psychology. Rachel has been invited to deliver numerous keynote and plenary addresses at national and international conferences. In 2021, Rachel won the national PhD Prize from the Australian Psychological Society (APS) for her work on death anxiety, its role in psychopathology, and its treatment. In 2023, she was awarded the national APS Early Career Research Award. Rachel has published five books on the topic of existential issues. Her book “Mortals” was awarded several national and international book prizes, including the Nib People’s Choice Prize and American Psychological Association’s 2023 William James Book Award. Rachel serves on the editorial board of Death Studies, and the Board of Directors of the International Society for the Science of Existential Psychology. In addition to her academic work, Rachel is a clinical psychologist and director of the Menzies Anxiety Centre, Australia’s first treatment and research centre for death anxiety and related concerns.
Professor Ross Menzies completed his undergraduate, masters and doctoral degrees in psychology at the University of NSW. He is currently Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney (UTS). In 1991, he was appointed founding Director of the Anxiety Disorders Clinic at the University of Sydney, a post which he held for over 20 years. He is the National President of the Australian Association for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (AACBT). He was the editor of Australia's national CBT journal, Behaviour Change, for 17 years and has trained psychologists, psychiatrists and allied health workers in CBT around the globe. Professor Menzies is an active researcher with three decades of continuous funding from national competitive sources. He has produced 10 books and more than 230 journal papers and book chapters and was the President and Convenor of the 8th World Congress of Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies (WCBCT) in Melbourne in 2016. He is the President-Elect of the World Confederation of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies (WCCBT) based in New York. Ross runs a large private practice in Glebe, where he has been based for 25 years. He lives in the inner-west of Sydney with his wife, youngest children and two labradoodles.
Who should attend
This workshop is for all mental health professionals interested in understanding how to assess and treat death anxiety.