Postdoctoral Fellows & Research Associates
Marlise Hofer
Marlise received her PhD from the University of British Columbia in 2020 and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at UVic. Her current research focuses on communication within close relationships (both parental and romantic) as well as how these close relationships influence health and wellbeing. Marlise is interested in discovering the avenues by which relationship partners improve health, such as via social odours or improved sleep.
Graduate Students
Jessica Ryan
Jessica is a Master’s student in the Lifespan stream of the Clinical Psychology program at UVic. Having also completed her Undergraduate Honours degree at UVic, she then completed a Research Master’s degree in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience at Maastricht University where she developed an interest in transdiagnostic approaches to psychopathology. Jessica’s research focuses on the comorbidity of non-suicidal self-injury with other dysregulated behaviours, particularly disordered eating. Specifically, she is interested in utilizing micro-longitudinal assessments and advanced statistical methods to understand the underlying mechanisms that contribute to their frequent co-occurrence and explore the factors that influence why individuals shift between such behaviours over more acute periods of time. Outside of work, Jessica enjoys team sports and is an avid crafter.
Carolyn Helps
Carolyn is a third-year PhD student in the Clinical Lifespan Psychology program. She previously completed her Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in Psychology at UVic, and she subsequently worked as the Lab Coordinator of the Risky Behaviour Lab before transitioning to the role of a grad student. Her research interests focus on understanding when, how, and why individuals can manage, reduce, or cease engaging in self-damaging behaviours (especially nonsuicidal self-injury and suicidal thoughts and behaviours) and how this subsequently affects mental health and wellbeing. She also has a strong interest in involving people with lived experience in the research process.
Christina Robillard
Christina is a Ph.D. candidate in the Lifespan stream of the Clinical Psychology program at UVic. Christina completed her M.Sc. in Clinical Psychology at UVic and her Honours B.Sc. in Psychology at McGill University. Christina’s research applies a developmental framework to understand when and why some adolescents engage in self-damaging behaviours, including self-injury, disordered eating, and substance misuse. In particular, Christina is interested in combining longitudinal and microlongitudinal designs with multi-informant methods to examine how these behaviours develop within family systems. For instance, her dissertation integrates parent- and adolescent-reports to investigate how families navigate the disclosure of a youth’s self-injury, including how dynamic parent-child interactions support or hinder recovery. The goal of Christina’s research is to produce knowledge that can refine developmental models of self-damaging behaviours, foster empathy for individuals who engage in these behaviours, and improve therapeutic interventions.
Andrew Switzer
Andrew is a first-year PhD student in the Clinical Psychology program (Lifespan specialization) at the University of Victoria. Before coming to UVic, Andrew completed a M.A. in psychology at Concordia University in Montreal, where he studied the role of heart-rate variability, a biomarker of self-regulatory capabilities, in parents’ ability to cope with stress associated with raising a young child. As a member of the Risky Behaviour Lab, Andrew is most interested in studying non-suicidal self-injury and suicide-related thoughts and behaviours. Andrew is interested in applying novel methodologies (e.g., psychophysiology, wearables, EMA, etc.) to better understand when and why individuals engage in these behaviours, as well as identifying individual differences or contexts associated with higher risk. Andrew is also working on applying natural language processing techniques to text data collected from online peer-support forums for at-risk individuals, with the aim of identifying which thoughts, feelings, or themes are most commonly expressed in social support interactions online.
Alice Shen
Alice is a second-year Masters student in the Lifespan stream of the Clinical Psychology program at UVic. Alice completed her Bachelor of Arts with an Honours Specialization in Psychology at Western University and worked as a Research Coordinator for an addictions medicine project at Fraser Health Authority. Her research interest involves biopsychosocial risk and protective factors underlying risky behaviours such as substance use and behavioural addictions, disordered eating, and non-suicidal self-injury. She is also interested in exploring how adult ADHD influences risky behaviours through factors such as emotion regulation, impulse control, and distress tolerance. Alice plans on taking a transdiagnostic and mixed-method approach to identify qualitative contextual gaps in the current literature and give a voice to people who are often overlooked in research and clinical settings. Her goal in research is to help implement effective primary prevention interventions that promote knowledge and skill-building to bolster resilience against common mental health issues.
Geneva Mason
Geneva is a first-year master’s student in the lifespan stream of the Clinical Psychology program at UVic. She completed her undergraduate degree at Queen’s University and worked as a Research Assistant for projects on self-injurious thoughts and behaviours (SITBs) at Butler Hospital, an affiliate of Brown University. Her research interests include the temporal dynamics of SITBs as they unfold in daily life, including modeling the complexity of these processes (i.e., moving away from one-to-two assessments of a small number of risk factors combined in a simple manner). She is also interested in the intersection between the momentary and developmental processes in SITBs, such as how patterns of affect surrounding self-injury change based on the stage of engagement. Ultimately, this research might inform the delivery of timely and adaptive interventions.
Family NSSI Study Coordinator
Brett Krasman
Brett is a fourth-year psychology major at the University of Victoria and Study Coordinator for the Family NSSI Study. His interests in the field of psychology centre around executive functioning and the broad array of disorders associated with difficulties in self-regulation and inhibition. Brett is passionate about exploring the intersections between mental health and self-regulatory dysfunction across the lifespan.
He is currently applying his interests through the UVic Psychology Department’s Honours Program, building a project focused on the use of mobile health applications as a means of delivering health and fitness behavioural interventions. Using user preference information, his project explores the overlap between the use of mobile health applications and user mental health, executive functioning, personality, and self-reported self-efficacy. Following graduation, he intends to pursue clinical psychological training to serve the public and help reduce the strain of self-regulatory disorders on individual well-being and daily functioning.
Smell Study Coordinator & Honours Student
Lily Rigaud
Lily is a second-year psychology major at UVic and is so excited to join the Risky Behaviour Lab. Her main area of interest is NSSI in adolescents and young adults diagnosed with BPD. She is also interested in lifespan development and how traumatic events in childhood can affect individuals’ mental health as they grow into adulthood. After completing her undergrad, she is hoping to pursue a degree in either clinical or developmental psychology to continue to learn more about the human brain and its protective strategies against traumatic experiences.
Research Assistants
Laura Hoeflich
Laura is a research assistant and former Smell Study Coordinator at the Risky Behaviour Lab. She completed her undergraduate honours degree at the University of Victoria and plans to pursue a degree in clinical psychology, aiming to contribute to the removal of the stigma surrounding mental health while making treatment more accessible. Laura‘s main research interests are mental health disorders in children, adolescents, and young adults; she is particularly interested in anxiety, mood, and psychotic disorders. Outside of work, Laura enjoys playing tennis, baking, and drawing.
Erin Fahey
Erin is a second-year master’s student in the counselling psychology program at UVIC. She completed her undergraduate degree in Sociology and Education. Erin’s thesis is being completed under the supervision of Dr. Sarah Nutter and focuses on the body- and eating-related experience of women rowers. Broadly speaking, she is interested in how participation in competitive sport impacts the mental health of athletes. Erin is completing her counselling internship with Child and Youth Mental Health, Saanich, and primarily works with adolescents with depression and anxiety. In her free time, she enjoys playing tennis, doing Pilates, and cooking. Erin is excited to be part of the Risky Behaviour Lab!
Collaborators
Wonjin Seo
Wonjin is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Nursing at UBC-Okanagan and a collaborator with the Risky Behaviour Lab.
Former Honours Thesis Students
- Holly Pellatt – 2017/2018, formerly a Law student at University of Ottawa
- Anthony Dean-Boucher – 2017/2018
- Chitra Balakrishnan – 2020/2021
- Alayna Gretton – 2020/2021, now a PhD student in Clinical Psychology at University of Regina
- Zack Senay – 2018/2019, Lab Manager 2020-2022, soon to be a MSW student at the University of Calgary
- Lina Losier – 2022/2023
- Sarah Engler – 2023/2024
Former Study Coordinators & Lab Managers
- Si Ning Yeo – Lab Manager 2018/2019, now a PhD student in Clinical Psychology at Queen’s University
- Cassandra Turner – Lab Manager 2019/2020, now a PhD student in Clinical Psychology at Simon Fraser University
- Emily Spargo – RA 2020-2022, Lab Manager 2022/2023, now a Masters student in Clinical Psychology at the University of Utah
- Sydney Waddington – RA 2022-2023, Study Coordinator for Smell Study 2023-2024
- Emma Kiedyk – Lab Manager 2023-2025, now a Masters student in Clinical Counselling at City University of Seattle
Former Graduate Students
- Nicole Legg, PhD 2017-2024
- Julie Prud’homme, PhD 2017-2024