Academy Fellow

My research asks why some people experience overwhelming obsessions and compulsions or an extreme tendency to save their possessions, and how we can treat these problems more effectively. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and hoarding disorder affect many Australians, often for decades, and carry substantial costs for their families, communities, and health systems. Yet many of these people do not receive evidence-based treatment promptly, if at all.

My early work provided the first findings on hoarding’s onset and course, its neuropsychological features, and how it differs from OCD. This evidence contributed to hoarding being recognised as an independent disorder in the DSM-5, the international diagnostic manual, in 2013, which opened the way for dedicated research, services and funding. My students and I have since helped develop and inform the compensatory model of hoarding. Our studies of loneliness, object attachment and interpersonal stress suggest that attachment to objects may be partly driven by unmet emotional needs, which has supported the development of new treatment strategies.

I have worked to translate these findings into better outcomes for people with hoarding disorder. For over a decade, I have partnered with Lifeline Harbour to Hawkesbury and their hoarding treatment program. With my collaborators, I developed an enhanced treatment that adds distress tolerance training, based on our findings about emotion dysregulation. More than 200 Australians have received it, and dropout fell from 30% to 10% while rates of clinically significant improvement doubled. I have also advised NSW and ACT government agencies and the Land and Environment Court of NSW on complex hoarding cases.

In my OCD research, I used the Dunedin birth cohort to identify early neuropsychological and socio-emotional risk factors for OCD. I later pioneered cognitive bias modification methods that experimentally shift how people interpret uncertainty and responsibility, showing that this may reduce symptoms. As one of three leads of OCD BOUNCE, a national partnership addressing treatment gaps for young Australians with OCD, I have helped advocate for better services to Federal parliamentarians and contributed to a national referral directory of clinicians with specialised training in OCD (ocd.org.au). My collaborators and I are dedicated to expanding access to evidence-based care for young people with OCD and have several ongoing funded projects in this area.

Recent research in my lab has investigated the role of mental imagery in maintaining and treating OCD and hoarding disorder. We have examined how imagery-based techniques, which can work like a form of “mental time travel” by revisiting past experiences or imagining future ones, may help us target underlying mechanisms and improve how we treat both disorders. In my recent work I have also considered how nudges and other implicit approaches might help prevent excessive acquiring, both for people at risk of hoarding and more broadly in a consumer society.

I have been fortunate to serve as Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Clinical Psychology from 2018 to 2025 and to supervise many talented postgraduate students, which has been among the most rewarding parts of my career.

Scientific Convenor 2027 Australian Association of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Conference

Editor in Chief British Journal of Clinical Psychology (2018-2025)

Young Tall Poppy Award, Australian Institute of Policy and Science

Future Fellow, Australian Research Council

Outstanding Supervisor, UNSW Postgraduate Student Council

UNSW Faculty of Science Award for Excellence in Research

Clara Mayo Dissertation Award, Boston University

Member of International OCD Foundation

Member of Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (US)

Member of Australian Association of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

1. Yap, K., Sabel, I., Cooper, D.D.J., Chen, W., & Grisham, J.R. (2026). Loneliness in hoarding disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 1-19.
2. Sabel, I., Phipps, A.B., Stavropoulos, L., & Grisham, J.R. (2026). Treating hoarding disorder with imagery rescripting following insufficient response to cognitive behavioural therapy: A randomised multiple baseline case series. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 105115.
3. Dyason, K.M., Wilson, S., Pham, P., Perkes, I.E., Farrell, L.J., Grisham, J.R., et al. (2026). Implementing evidence-based care for paediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder in public mental health services: Clinician perspectives of barriers and enablers. Australian Journal of Psychology, 78(1), 2692599.
4. Grisham, J.R., & Timpano, K.R. (2024). Nudging society toward more adaptive approaches to material possessions: Harnessing implicit approaches to reduce overconsumption and excessive saving. Current Opinion in Psychology, 60, 101933.
5. Grisham, J.R., Yap, K., Isemann, S., Svehla, J., Briggs, N., & Norberg, M.M. (2022). A naturalistic study of emotion regulation-enhanced cognitive-behavioral group therapy for hoarding disorder in a community setting. Journal of Affective Disorders Reports, 10, 100450.