Professor Peter Norton

PhD

  • Associate Dean (Research)
  • Course Coordinator
  • Research Supervisor
Professor Peter Norton

Research Expertise

Professor Norton’s research interests include developing transdiagnostic interventions for emotional disorders, clinical trials, treatment processes, and basic research into underlying factors associated with the development, maintenance, and successful treatment of emotional disorders.

Research Supervision

  • Doctorate/PhD
  • Masters
  • Honours

Teaching

Professor Norton teaches into the Master of Psychology (Clinical Psychology) unit CLN503, the Master of Clinical Psychology (Post-Registration) unit CLP601, and the Graduate Diploma of Psychological Science unit PSY408.

Clinical Expertise

Clinical Psychologist and PsyBA Approved Supervisor

  • Anxiety Disorders
  • Depressive Disorders
  • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

About

Over the past decade, Professor Norton’s research has been focused on developing and evaluating transdiagnostic and diagnosis-specific factors across anxiety and other emotional disorders and translating these factors into efficacious and efficient interventions. This work involves a combination of basic and experimental research to better understand common and unique aspects of affective psychopathology, and clinical outcomes research to develop and evaluate new or modified interventions to target these core features. As a result, Norton’s research and treatment are at the forefront of an international movement toward transdiagnostic models of psychopathology.

His work is wide-ranging and highly cited, and includes cross-sectional, longitudinal, and clinical trial methodologies investigating the impact of anxiety disorders, assessment and diagnosis, comorbidity, and treatment outcomes. Many of his papers on transdiagnostic CBT appear on the “most cited papers” listings of top journals in clinical psychology and psychiatry.

His intervention work has focused on adults with anxiety disorders and includes psychological clinical trials. His work investigating the impact of transdiagnostic CBT has been of major interest among academic and applied circles, and the treatment protocols derived from this work have been adopted in many private clinics and hospitals.

He has nearly 190 journal articles and chapters, and 4 published books (one of which has been translated to 5 different languages). He serves on the Editorial Board of Cognitive Therapy and Research and Journal of Anxiety Disorders and has secured over $2,000,000 in funding since 2015.

Peter’s outstanding contributions to psychology have led to his election to Fellow Status in the Society of Clinical Psychology (APA) in 2018, receiving the Australian Psychological Society (APS) Outstanding Academic Mentor Award in 2019, and receiving the Distinguished Career Award by the Australian Association for Cognitive and Behaviour Therapies (AACBT) in 2020. He is a PsyBA registered Clinical Psychologist.

Key Publications

Norton, P. J., Provencher, M. D., & Roberge, P. (in press). Transdiagnostic approaches to cognitive-behavioural therapy for negative emotional disorders. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne.

George, M. G., Roberge, P., Provencher, M. D., & Norton, P. J. (2024). The effectiveness of transdiagnostic cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety disorders: The role of and impact of comorbid depression. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 53, 105-118. doi: 10.1080/16506073.2023.2274290

Silverstone, U. R., Roberge, P., Provencher, M. D., & Norton, P. J. (2023). Sudden gain prevalence during transdiagnostic cognitive behavioural therapy for principal anxiety disorders: The effects of comorbid depression. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 95, 102697. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2023.102697

Roberge, P., Provencher, M. D., Gaboury, I., Gosselin, P., Vasiliadis, H-M., Benoît, A., Carrier, N., Antony, M. M., Chaillet, N., Houle, J., Hudon, C., & Norton, P. J. (2022). Group transdiagnostic cognitive-behaviour therapy for anxiety disorders: A pragmatic randomized clinical trial. Psychological Medicine, 52, 2460-2470. doi: 10.1017/S0033291720004316

Norton, P. J., Provencher, M. D., Kilby, C. J., & Roberge, P. (2021). Impact of group transdiagnostic cognitive-behaviour therapy for anxiety disorders on comorbid diagnoses: Results from a pragmatic randomized clinical trial in primary care. Depression and Anxiety, 38, 749-756. doi: 10.1002/da.23184