Postdoctoral Fellows & Research Associates
Wonjin Seo
Wonjin is an international Research Contractor with the Risky Behavior Lab. He completed his PhD in Health and Rehabilitation Sciences with a specialization in Measurement and Methods at the University of Western Ontario in January 2024. With a background in Clinical Health Psychology during his master’s studies, Wonjin has displayed a keen interest in developing measurement tools, particularly self-report questionnaires, within the realms of clinical and health psychology. As a psychometrician, he is committed to creating well-validated questionnaires and enhancing the validity of existing tools. Furthermore, he has instructed advanced quantitative research methods, including Structural Equation Modeling, factor analysis, Rasch analysis, Multilevel Model, and ROC Curve analysis, both at universities and during conference sessions (one-day lectures). Wonjin finds joy in rainy days, making Victoria’s weather a perfect match for his preferences.
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
Julie Prud’homme
Julie completed her MSc in Psychiatry at McGill University and joined the Clinical Psychology graduate program at the University of Victoria in the fall of 2017. Her research focuses on mental health risk and resilience in LGBTQ+ young adults and the use of micro-longitudinal methodologies. Notably, she is interested in better understanding why LGBTQ+ young adults engage in risky health behaviours, including disordered eating, substance use, and self-injurious thoughts and behaviours, and how we can bolster resilience and prevent these behaviours from occurring. Her current work also includes knowledge mobilization of LGBTQ+ research, intending to improve mental health care access and provision for underserved LGBTQ+ communities in Canada and internationally. Julie is currently completing her clinical internship at the University of Ottawa Centre for Psychological Services & Research.
Nicole Legg
Nicole is a Ph.D. student in the Lifespan stream of the UVic Clinical Psychology program. Nicole competed her M.Sc. in Clinical Psychology at UVic and her Honours B.Sc. in Psychology at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. Nicole’s Masters research investigated how personality traits are related to disordered eating among first-year undergraduate students using longitudinal methods. Nicole’s dissertation will examine how exercise motivations and behaviors relate to disordered eating. Nicole is a passionate advocate of mental health awareness and community knowledge translation of research, and is co-founder of WellIntel. In her spare time, Nicole enjoys skiing, hiking, traveling, and yoga. Nicole is currently completing her clinical internship at Fraser Health.
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.
Daily Self-Monitoring Study Coordinator
Emma Kiedyk
Emma is the EMA Study Coordinator at the Risky Behaviour Lab. She completed her undergraduate degree at McGill University with an honors in psychology and a second major in world religions (specializing in Buddhist studies). After graduation, Emma worked as the lab coordinator at the Cognitive Science Lab at McGill before moving to South Korea for a year to teach English. Now, back on the West Coast, Emma is beyond thrilled to be coordinating the EMA study at the Risky Behaviour Lab. Her future career goals include delivering psychotherapy to underrepresented and struggling youth in the community. When she is not working, Emma enjoys painting, cooking, listening to audio books, and being out in nature with her dog, Chloe.
Smell Study Coordinator
Laura Hoeflich
Laura is a third-year psychology student at UVic and happy to join the Risky Behaviour Lab. Her main interests in psychology are mental health disorders in adolescents and young adults; she is particularly interested in anxiety, mood, personality and psychotic disorders. After her undergrad, she hopes to pursue a degree in clinical psychology and do her part in removing the stigma surrounding mental health while making treatment more accessible.
Honours Students
Sarah Engler
Sarah is an honours student in the Risky Behavioural Lab and is currently completing her thesis under the supervision of Dr. Brianna Turner, with co-supervision by Christina Robillard. Sarah’s research focuses on understanding the impact of substance use disorder on the family system and how family members are supported throughout their loved ones’ recovery process. Her interest in recovery-oriented research is driven by her passion for health promotion and disease prevention. Sarah hopes to pursue graduate school in either Public Health or Clinical Psychology.
Sydney Waddington
Syd is a Neurobiology-Psychology undergraduate student who joined the RBL in the summer of 2022 as a Research Assistant. Since then, Syd has been promoted to Research Coordinator for one of the lab’s current studies and is also pursuing her own research as an honors student. Syd is primarily interested in the overlap between biology and psychology and intends to pursue a career in psychiatry. Outside of school and research, Syd enjoys working in non-profit sectors, such as the Vancouver Island Neurosurgical Foundation, the Victoria Brain Injury Society, and NEED2; running outdoors; reading; adventuring with friends; and handcrafting greeting cards.
Research Assistants
Maria Guadarrama
Maria is a fourth-year psychology major at UVic, and she is thrilled to join the Risky Behavior Lab. Her research interests are centered around mental health disorders, trauma, and addiction within the adolescent and adult population. Maria aspires to further her academic journey by pursuing a graduate degree in counseling psychology, with a commitment to making a lasting impact in the realm of youth mental health. Beyond her academic pursuits, Maria is passionate about quality time with friends and family, traveling, hiking, cooking and surfing.
Brett Krasman
Brett is a 3rd year psychology major at the University of Victoria. His interests in the field of psychology center around executive functioning and the broad array of disorders associated with self-regulation and inhibition. After his undergrad, Brett intends to pursue a degree in clinical psychology with the hopes of aiding in the treatment process for individuals struggling with symptoms of neurological disorders.
Reema Dhaliwal
Reema moved from the Okanagan to complete her undergraduate studies at the University of Victoria. She is a fourth-year undergraduate psychology student, and recently joined the Risky Behaviour Lab in the Fall of 2023. Reema views psychology as an endless opportunity for exploration and enjoys making connections between different the modalities in the field.
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.
Madison Lee
Photo and bio coming soon!
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
Former Study Coordinators and 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