Dr Michelle Lim

Dr Michelle Lim is a senior lecturer in clinical psychology at Swinburne University of Technology. Dr Lim is the head of the Social Health and Wellbeing Laboratory which aims to generate rigorous research related to loneliness. Specifically, the aim of the research is to develop and design evidence-based and consumer relevant interventions that can effectively target loneliness. Dr Lim’s main target group has been in young people aged 16 to 25 years.

Dr Lim is a registered clinical psychologist and a full member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS). She received her PhD at the University of Melbourne and post-doctoral training in the US – at the Anxiety and Psychotherapy Laboratory at Washington University in St Louis. She obtained her master of clinical psychology at RMIT University and holds multiple collaborations throughout Victoria, including Eastern Health, Alfred headspace and Orygen Youth Mental Health.

Dr Lim is the chief scientific advisor to the Australian Coalition to End Loneliness, a national Australian network made up of ten universities and 20 industry partners. She is considered the leading Australian expert in loneliness, with 20 national media appearances to date. Dr Lim also provides consultation to not-for-profit organisations and government. Her online articles such as The Deadly Truth about Loneliness for The Conversation, have generated a readership of over 300,000 people.

Her work thus far has focused on developing evidence-based digital interventions that can promote social health and wellbeing in young people. Dr Lim is currently the chief investigator on projects testing the effectiveness of a positive psychology based intervention called Positive Connect for young people (18-25 years old). Dr Lim is also currently conducting a pilot of Positive Connect, a smartphone app delivered intervention for young people who report high levels of loneliness. She is the associate editor of an upcoming issue on loneliness, title, “Loneliness: contemporary insights on causes, correlates, and consequences” for the Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology journal.