Ko wai au? Who am I?
Ko Puketutu te maunga
Ko Takahue te awa
Ko Pakeha te iwi
Ko Ngāti Apakura taku hoa rangatira te hapū
Nō Te Tai Tokerau ahau
Dr. Miriam Larsen-Barr
BA, PGDipArts, MA (first class hons), DClinPsy
I am a clinical psychologist and family therapist with lived experience and a background in the service-user workforce. My pronouns are she/her. Before my clinical training, I held roles as a support worker in both the mental health and disability sectors, volunteered as a phone counsellor, worked to reduce stigma as part of the Like Minds Like Mine programme, tutored creative writing groups, and created Engage Aotearoa to share the service-user informed resources that grew out of my Master’s research. After training as a psychologist, I spent several years working in our DHB services, first with children and adolescents facing moderate to severe mental health challenges, and then with adolescents and young adults dealing with a first episode of psychosis. One of the highlights of my time with DHB services was the opportunity to spend five years offering family therapy as part of a reflective family therapy team. I now operate my own small, service-user led private practice alongside my efforts to make recovery resources easier for the community to find and voluntary work as one of the co-founders of Aotearoa Therapists with Lived Experience Network (ATLEN). As a poet, performer, and occasional visual artist, I have a special interest in the way creative arts can be used for therapeutic ends.
I am registered with the NZ Psychologists Board under the clinical scope of practice, hold a current Annual Practicing Certificate, and take part in regular supervision. I am also a full member of the NZ College of Clinical Psychologists, and belong to several different professional interest groups including the Professional Association for Transgender Healthcare Aotearoa (PATHA), the Association for Contextual Behavioural Science (ACBS), the NZ chapter of the International Society for Psychological and Social approaches to psychosis (ISPS Aotearoa NZ), the International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal, the Building User/Survivor Research Capacity & Leadership Workgroup, and Aotearoa Therapists with Lived Experience Network.
I completed all four of my psychology degrees at the University of Auckland. My Master’s research evaluated the outcomes of a transdiagnostic anxiety support group called Engage Group that I designed for people who experience anxiety alongside depression, psychosis, or bipolar diagnoses. My doctoral research explored service user experiences of antipsychotic medication from first prescriptions through to attempted discontinuation. I continue to contribute to research in the field of service-user perspectives and medication withdrawal both here in NZ and abroad. One of the highlights of this part of my work has been the opportunity to serve as a special topic advisor for Will Hall’s World Antipsychotic Withdrawal Survey (see 2019 progress report). Very occasionally, I can be enticed to write a blog for Mad in America.
My research:
- We Are The Many, Not the Few: Initial Results of a Survey of Attitudes Towards Lived Experience of Mental Distress Among Clinical Psychologists in New Zealand – Skirrow, Larsen-Barr, Weastell & Senior, 2024, Journal of the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists, 34(1), 112–115.
- Service-user efforts to maintain their wellbeing during and after successful withdrawal from antipsychotic medication – Larsen-Barr & Seymour, 2021, Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology 11, 1-16
- Attempting to stop antipsychotic medication: success, supports, and efforts to cope – Larsen-Barr, Seymour, Read & Gibson, 2018, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 53, 745-746
- Attempting to discontinue antipsychotic medication: Withdrawal methods, relapse and success – Larsen-Barr, Seymour, Read & Gibson, 2018, Psychiatry Research 270, 365-374
- Experiencing Antipsychotic Medication: From First Prescriptions to Attempted Discontinuation – Larsen-Barr, 2016, University of Auckland, Doctoral Thesis
- Transdiagnostic support and education can reduce anxiety in people diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorders – Barr & Owens, 2013, Psychosis, 5:2, 197-199
- The Transdiagnostic Approach to Anxiety Treatment in an Education and Support Group Setting – Barr, 2010, University of Auckland, Master’s Thesis
You can learn more about my research at Research Gate.
Here are some of the other studies and resources that refer to my work:
- Barriers to stopping neuroleptic (antipsychotic) treatment in people with schizophrenia, psychosis or bipolar disorder – Joanna Moncrieff, Swapnil Gupta and Mark Horowitz, 2020, Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology 10
- The case for including antipsychotics in the UK NICE guideline: “Medicines associated with dependence or withdrawal symptoms: safe prescribing and withdrawal management for adults” – Ruth E. Cooper, L. M. Grünwald and M. Horowitz, 2020, Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches 12/4
- Using open questions to understand 650 people’s experiences with antipsychotic drugs – John Read and Ann Sacia, 2020, Schizophrenia Bulletin 46/10. This study used The Experiences of Antipsychotic Medication Survey that I designed for my research.
- Positive and negative effects of antipsychotic medication: an international online survey of 832 recipients – John Read and James Moore, 2019, Current Drug Safety 14/3. This study used The Experiences of Antipsychotic Medication Survey that I designed for my research.
- ‘Effective’ at what? On effective intervention in serious mental illness – Susan Hawthorne and Anne Williams-Wengerd, 2019, Health Care Analysis 27
- Retrospective accounts of the process of using and discontinuing psychiatric medication – Shimon Katz, Hadass Goldblatt, Ilanit Hasson-Ohayon and David Roe, 2018, Qualitative Health Research 29/2
- Drug-free after basal exposure therapy – Jan Hammer et al, 2018, Tidsskrift for Den norske legeforening 138/6
- Psychiatric medication withdrawal: survivor perspectives and clinical practice – Will Hall, 2018, Journal of Humanistic Psychology 59/5
- Subjectivity and autonomy: meanings and narratives on the discontinuation of psychiatric drugs – Tatiana Castillo Parada, 2018, Collective Health 14/3. Spanish: Subjetividad y autonomía: significados y narrativas sobre la discontinuación de fármacos psiquiátricos, Tatiana Castillo Parada, 2018, Salud Colectiva 14/3
- Discontinuing psychiatric medications: a survey of long-term users – Laysha Ostrow et al, 2017, Psychiatric Services 68/12
- Equally Well: The physical health of people with mental health conditions and/or addiction – evidence update – Te Pou, 2017, New Zealand
- A critical literature review of the direct, adverse effects of neuroleptics: essential information for mental health consumers, carers, families, supporters and clinicians – Kate Dorozenko and Robyn Martin, 2017, National Mental Health Consumer and Carer Forum, Australia
