DrEllie Mullins

Dr Ellie Mullins is a Research Associate in Digital Mental Health at Imperial College London. She is an experienced postgraduate researcher in the field of psychology and is extremely passionate about evidence-based practice, psychological assessment, and clinical research.

Ellie completed her PhD in Psychology at Deakin University in 2018. Her research background has focused on couple and family relationships, with an emphasis on abuse and the role of attachment insecurities and motivational processes. She has specialised knowledge and research experience in this area of research, as well as in the area of family relationships and caregiving of an older parent, and program implementation and evaluation in the drug and alcohol sector with participants experiencing a range of mental health difficulties.

Since completing her PhD, she has worked as a Research Fellow in the School of Psychology at Deakin University in Australia, managing research projects and working closely with Deakin academics and research collaborators based in both Australia and the US, as well as with industry partners in the drug and alcohol sector.

In one of her previous Research Fellow roles, she worked in a joint Research Fellow position with Deakin University and Odyssey House Victoria. In this role, Ellie managed the pilot of an evidence-based online relationship intervention aimed at reducing relationship conflict for drug and alcohol users seeking treatment in community and residential services at Odyssey House Victoria. In this role, she managed all aspects of the project. This included liaising with the developers of the program in the US and the steering group committee to ensure that the intervention was being implemented as planned, training clinicians in both residential and community settings in the delivery of the intervention, and conducting risk assessments for all clients that were referred into the program. She also coordinated the evaluation of the intervention by conducting pre and post assessments with the participants, organising and conducting focus groups with participants, and scheduling and conducting interviews with clinicians and staff administering the intervention to gain data about the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention. The pilot of this project resulted in a successful grant application, and the project is now currently being expanded to more sites throughout Australia. In this role, Ellie worked closely with clinicians, researchers, and clients, to ensure that the research was addressing the needs of clients.

Ellie is also a Registered Psychologist in Australia. She completed the Master of Educational and Developmental Psychology course at Monash University, where she gained extensive experience in the mental health field supporting people with their mental health concerns and with improving their wellbeing and quality of life. Ellie has a good understanding of mental health and the impact of mental health on people’s lives, and the systems and services operating to support young people. She has experience working in schools with young people to support their wellbeing, as well as in community services. Ellie also has experience conducting psychoeducational assessments with children and adolescents in Australia, and has counselling experience working with clients of all ages.



Publications:

Karantzas, G. C., Romano, D., Chesterman, S., Marshall, E. M., Knox, L., Mullins, E. R., Lawless, N., Ferguson, E., Miller. P. G., Eckhardt, C. I., Pilkington, P., Patel. A., & Simpson, J. A. (2025). The 'twin pandemics'? Modelling and predicting the trajectories of IPV perpetration during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. British Journal of Social Psychology, 64(3), https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12911

Marshall, E. M., Karantzas, G. C., Romano, D., Lee, J., Feeney, J. A., Mullins, E. R., McCabe, M. P., & Simpson, J. A. (2023). Older adults’ support-seeking from their adult children: The support-seeking strategy scale. Journal of Family Psychology, 37(6), 841-852. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0001063

Lawless, N., Karantzas, G. C., Mullins, E. R., & McCabe, M. P. (2022). Does it matter who you feel sexually aroused by? Associations between sexual arousal, relationship quality, and sexual satisfaction. Journal of Sexual Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esxm.2022.100523

Romano, D., Karantzas, G. C., Marshall, E, M., Simpson, J, A., Feeney, J, A., McCabe, M, P., Lee, J., Mullins, E. R. (2022). Carer burden: Associations with attachment, self-efficacy, and care-seeking. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075211049435

Staiger, Karantzas, Mullins, Gruenert, Bruscella, Romano, Curtis, Miller, Toumbourou, Long, Davies, Daws, Babineau, Doss & Christensen (2021). A pilot Evaluation of the OurRelationship Program implemented within Alcohol and other Drug Residential Services in Australia. Report: https://odyssey.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/The-OurRelationship-Program-A-Pilot-Evaluation-within-Australian-AOD-Residential-Services.pdf

Randall A. K., Leon G., Basili, E…. Mullins, E. R., et al. (2021). Coping with global uncertainty: Perceptions of COVID-19 psychological distress, relationship quality, and dyadic coping for romantic partners across 27 countries. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075211034236

Curtis, A., Booth, B., Gruenert, S., Long, C. M., Karantzas, G. C., Harries, T., Mullins, E. R., & Miller, P. (2021). Identified support needs for intimate partner violence engagement in an alcohol and other drug treatment sample. Journal of Substance Use, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/14659891.2020.1867660

Karantzas, G. C., Chesterman, S., Ferguson, E., Knox, L., Lawless, N., Mullins, E. R., Romano, D. A., Toumbourou, J. W., Stokes, M. A., Westrupp, E. M. (2020). Parent’s Relationship Wellbeing and Loneliness during COVID-19: A Test of the Vulnerability-Stress and Stress-Buffering Hypotheses, pre-print. doi:10.31234/osf.io/w2cps.

Romano, D., Karantzas, G, C., Marshall, E, M., Simpson, J, A., Feeney, J, A., McCabe, M, P., Lee, J., Mullins, E, R. (2020). Carer burden and dyadic attachment orientations in adult children-older parent dyads. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2020.104170.

Mullins, E. R., & Karantzas, G. C. (2019). The association between abuse and the perpetration of subtle sexual coercion: The role of approach and avoidance motivations. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 36(5), 1509-1526. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407519827643

Pizzirani, B., Karantzas, G. C., & Mullins, E. R. (2019). The Dehumanization in Romantic Relationships Scale (DIIRS): Development and validation. Frontiers in Psychology, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02754.

Aloni, J., Karantzas, G. C., Ferguson, E. K., Marshall, E. M., & Mullins, E. R. (2019). The accommodation model of self-regulation: A framework for how couples communicate about problems with sexual desire. Sexual and Relationship Therapy, https://doi.org/10.1080/14681994.2019.1660762.

Mullins, E. R. (2018). Attachment and approach-avoidance motivations for sexual coercion in romantic relationships. [PhD thesis, Deakin University]. https://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30115783

Karantzas, G. C., McCabe, M. P., Karantzas, K. M., Pizzirani, B., Campbell, H., & Mullins, E. R. (2016). Attachment style and less severe forms of sexual coercion: A systematic review. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 45(5), 1053-1068. , https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-015-0600-7