Vicki Bitsika
Professor, School of Science and Technology
Qualifications
BBsc (Hons), MPsych, PhD, Grad Dip App Ch Psych
Contact
| Email: | vbitsika@bond.edu.au |
| Room: | Physiology (W28) |
| Phone: | 02 6773 2596 (or +61 2 6773 2596 overseas) |
| Fax: | 02 6773 2192 |
Vicki Bitsika has spent 25 years in clinical assessment, diagnosis and treatment of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and is regarded as one of the most outstanding professionals in this field. In addition, she is Professor of Behaviour Management, Counselling & Clinical Psychology at Bond University, and has established the Centre for Autism Spectrum Disorders there, which focuses upon applied research into treatment of children and adolescents with an ASD. She is also Associate Dean (Teaching & Learning), Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences at Bond University.
Vicki has recently joined with staff in Physiology at UNE to undertake joint research within the Centre for Bioactive Discovery in Health and Aging and is an Honorary Professor here.
Affiliations
Bond University, Qld
Areas of Teaching
- Assessment and Diagnosis (at second year and postgraduate levels);
- Theory and Practice in Counselling (at second year level);
- Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (at second year and postgraduate levels);
- Managing Difficult Behaviour (at first and second year and postgraduate levels);
- Theory and Practice of Functional Analysis (at second year and postgraduate levels);
- The Scientist-Practitioner Model (postgraduate level)
Research interests
Autism Spectrum Disorder; Neurophysiological and Psychological aspects of anxiety, stress and depression; Functional Analysis of challenging behaviour.
Selected Publications
Bitsika V., “But I’m Not Really Bad”: Using an Ideographic Versus a Nomothetic Approach to Understanding the Reasons for Difficult Behaviour in Children, Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 13, 87-99, 2003.
Bitsika V. and Sharpley C.F., Stress, anxiety and depression among parents of children with ASD Spectrum Disorder, Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 14, 151-161, 2004.
Bitsika V., Beyond nomothetic classification for behavioural difficulties: Using Valued Outcomes Analysis to deal with the behaviour problems that occur in the classroom, British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 33, 199-224, 2005.
Bitsika V. and Sharpley C.F., Treating the client rather than the symptoms: Moving beyond manualised treatments in psychotherapy, Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 16, 159-175, 2006.
Bitsika V., Limitations of Functional Analysis: The case for including Valued Outcomes Analysis in the investigation of difficult behaviour. Behaviour Change, 23, 250 -259, 2007.
Bitsika V., Sharpley C.F. and Hawkins R., A variation on Functional Analysis in the Classroom: A Clinical Note, Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 17, 97-100, 2007.
Sharpley C.F., Bitsika V. and Christie D.R.H., Causal "mapping" of depression among prostate cancer patients: A preliminary interview study, Journal of Men’s Health & Gender, 4, 402-408, 2007.
Bitsika V., Including an analysis of difficult behaviour in the assessment of children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder: Implications for school psychologists, Australian Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 18, 1-14, 2008.
Bitsika V., Sharpley C.F. and Orapeleng S., Using cognitive, adaptive and behavioral indices for Cluster Analysis of ASD subgroups, Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 52, 973-985, 2008.
Sharpley C.F., Bitsika V. and Christie D.H.R., Psychological distress among prostate cancer patients: Fact or fiction?, Clinical Medicine: Oncology, 2, 563-572, 2008.
Sharpley C.F., Bitsika V. and Christie, D.R.H., Positive (but not negative) punishment predicts anxiety and depression among prostate cancer patients: An exploration of the behaviour analytic model of depression, Behaviour Change, 26, 235-244, 2009.
Sharpley C.F., Bitsika V. and Christie D.R.H., Helping prostate cancer patients understand the causes of anxiety and depression: Comparing Cancer-caused vs Patient response events, Journal of Men’s Health, 6, 345-353, 2009.
Sharpley C.F., Bitsika V. and Christie D.R.H., Understanding the causes of depression among prostate cancer patients: Development of the Effects of Prostate Cancer on Lifestyle Questionnaire, Psycho-Oncology, 18, 162-168, 2009.
Bitsika V. and Sharpley C.F., Joining the dots: neurobiological links in a Functional analysis of depression, Behavioral and Brain Functions, 6, http://www.behavioralandbrainfunctions.com/content/6/1/73 , 2010.
Sharpley C.F. and Bitsika V., The diverse neurogeography of emotional experience: Form follows function, Behavioural Brain Research, 215, 1-6, 2010.
Sharpley C.F. and Bitsika V., Is depression “Evolutionary” or just “Adaptive”? A comment, Depression Research and Treatment, vol. 2010, Article ID 631502, doi:10.1155/2010/631502, 2010.
Sharpley C.F., Bitsika V. and Christie D.R.H., Incidence and nature of anxiety-depression comorbidity in prostate cancer patients, Journal of Men’s Health, 7, 125-134, 2010.
Sharpley C.F., Bitsika V. and Christie D.R.H., “Why I feel bad”: Refinement of the Effects of Prostate Cancer upon Lifestyle Questionnaire and an initial exploration of its links with anxiety and depression among prostate cancer patients, Psycho-Oncology, 19, 839-846, 2010.
Bitsika V, Sharpley C.F. and Christie D.R.H., “What made me unhappy”. Experiences of, and responses to, lifestyle changes in breast cancer patients, British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 38, 179-189, 2010.
Sharpley C.F. and Bitsika V., Four potential criteria for deciding when to use antidepressants or psychotherapy for unipolar depression-A literature review, International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 15, 2-11, 2011.