ProfessorAntonina Mikocka-Walus

Research Interests

Psychogastroenterology; women's health; endometriosis and persistent pelvic pain; psychological and behavioural interventions; digital and telehealth interventions; neuromodulators; clinical trials; implementation and translation.

Knowledge Areas

Professor Mikocka-Walus leads an interdisciplinary program of research at the intersection of health psychology, behavioural medicine, gastroenterology and women's health. Her work focuses on developing, evaluating and implementing psychological and behavioural interventions to improve health and quality of life for people living with chronic conditions, particularly inflammatory bowel disease, endometriosis and persistent pelvic pain.

She is the co-creater and former Lead of the MIRTH (Mind-Body Research in Health) Lab within the Deakin University Lifespan Institute. MIRTH brings together research focused on improving mental and physical health through the development, evaluation and translation of psychological and behavioural interventions.

Her research spans randomised controlled trials, co-design, digital and telehealth interventions, observational studies and systematic reviews. A major focus is understanding the interaction between psychological wellbeing and physical disease and translating this knowledge into accessible, evidence-based models of care.

She has particular expertise in psycho-gastroenterology, including psychological therapies and centrally acting neuromodulators for gastrointestinal conditions, alongside a growing program of research in women's and adolescent health. Her work is multidisciplinary and collaborative, bringing together psychology, medicine, allied health, health services, consumers and community organisations.

Professor Mikocka-Walus's research has strong international reach and citation impact. Her field-weighted citation impact in psychogastroenterology is 2.24, placing her research in the 98th percentile worldwide, with similarly high citation impact across women's health and cancer. She is ranked among the world's top 1% of researchers in Psychology and top 0.26% in inflammatory bowel disease research by ScholarGPS.

Major Research Programs

CAYAC – Supportive Care for Adolescents and Young Adults with Crohn’s and Colitis and their Carers Trial
A major collaborative research program focused on improving psychological and supportive care for adolescents and young adults affected by inflammatory bowel disease.

CoDeEndo – Co-designing, Evaluating and Implementing Supportive Care for Endometriosis Trial
A large multidisciplinary program developing and evaluating evidence-based supportive care approaches for people living with endometriosis, including psychological and mind-body interventions.

REST – Randomized E-hypnotherapy for Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome Trial

A major clinical trial evaluating digital psychological intervention for people living with chronic pelvic pain.

Other current work includes scalable digital and telehealth interventions addressing menstrual pain, peri- and menopause, sleep and emotional wellbeing in adolescents.