About me
Dr Cait McMahon OAM is an innovator, thought leader, and skilled educator, and one of the few psychologists globally who has dedicated over 30 years working with those in the media industry on work related trauma exposure.
Dr McMahon was instrumental in training and developing the program content for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The Washington Post, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines Peer Support programs and more recently the ARIJ peer support program in Jordan. She has created a specific journalist mental health first aid process called CARES.
In 2016 Cait was honored with one of Australia’s highest civil awards, the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her commitment to the mental health of journalists and the broader media community. Beyond the award, she authored one of the pioneering research pieces on journalists and trauma in 1993 at Latrobe University, Bundoora. This early work laid the foundation for a subsequent PhD in the same field examining posttraumatic stress and posttraumatic growth in trauma exposed journalists.
She was the Founding Managing Director of the Dart Centre Asia Pacific (2003-2021), a project of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and is a 2024 recipient of a Churchill Fellowship to examine world practices for Indigenous journalists’ mental health.
Today, Cait McMahon is an Honorary Fellow of Phoenix Australia, Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health, at the University of Melbourne.