Current Graduate Students

I am a sixth-year doctoral candidate in the clinical psychology program at McGill. I am co-supervised by Dr. Dirks in the CASC Lab and Dr. Frank Elgar with the Social Inequalities in Child Health Research Group. My research interests centre around social inequalities and determinants of health, specifically how the experience of food insecurity impacts adolescents' mental health. My interest in this area stems from several years of working with at-risk youth and their families in community-based programs, as well my undergraduate studies in interdisciplinary health sciences. I hope to employ a wide range of research methods, including epidemiological analysis of large international data sets as well as community-level studies. I also care very deeply about mobilizing research findings into actionable policies to effect change.

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Allison MacNeil

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John Cyfko

I am a sixth-year doctoral candidate in McGill’s clinical psychology program. I’m interested in the impact of sibling and friend relationships on day-to-day well-being. Specifically, I am exploring whether an adolescent’s interactions with their siblings and best friend is associated with their mood both the same and the next day. I am also interested the interplay between sibling and best friend relationships, and how overall relationship quality interacts with daily interactions in these relationships. My clinical interests are broad, but lean towards adolescents and adults with severe mental and physical challenges. I am currently completing my full-time psychology residency, split between the Personality Disorder Program and the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit of the MUHC.

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Ally Zikic

I am a sixth-year doctoral candidate in the experimental psychology program. Broadly, I am interested in understanding affective social competence in the friendships of adolescents and young adults.  In my research, I aim to understand the concept of empathic accuracy – individuals’ ability to accurately infer others’ emotions. Thus far, most empathic accuracy research has focused primarily on the role of the individual who is responsible for reading and understanding their friend’s emotions. My work aims to draw attention to the role of the individual who is expressing and communicating their own emotions to their friend. More specifically, I am interested in examining the role of expressive accuracy – individuals’ ability to accurately express their emotions. Taken together, my work aims to shed light on the importance of the roles of both friends in conversations that involve affective communication. I am also interested in examining age-related differences in these skills from adolescence to young adulthood. In addition to my main line of research, I have conducted some work examining linguistic elements that are associated with perceptions of support during supportive interactions. I am also working on a theoretical review discussing the social cognitions involved in navigating important tasks of friendship, including instrumental and emotional support.

Katya Santucci

I am a fifth-year doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program at McGill University. My dissertation is focused on advancing understanding of friendship maintenance and dissolution in young adulthood. Specifically, I am interested in examining the role that interpersonal cognition and internalizing symptoms play in shaping friendship outcomes. I am also interested in using our research findings to develop and inform interventions that aim to help young adults maintain and strengthen their friendships. Clinically, I am interested in working with youth and young adults in crisis. I am completing a half-time internship with the Teenage Health Unit at the Jewish General Hospital. 

Anik Setti

I am a third-year doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program at McGill University. I am interested in how youth regulate their emotions, either with or without help, and how greater skill at regulating emotions can help them navigate their relationships with peers. 

I currently have two more specific research questions. The first asks how emotion regulation influences might help teens better express their feelings to a friend. The second takes a more longitudinal approach and asks how positive and negative interactions with friends over time can impact the development of emotion dysregulation. Clinically, I am interested in working with children, adolescents, and their parents or teachers to promote social competence.

Nour Haddad

I am a third-year doctoral student in the clinical psychology program at McGill University. My doctoral research broadly focuses on the impact of daily interactions with peers on adolescents’ well-being. More specifically, my current research project uses a daily-diary design to examine whether adolescents’ everyday positive and negative interactions with best friends and siblings are associated with their experiences of loneliness. I am also interested in examining whether reciprocal relations between these interactions and loneliness exist over time. Clinically, I am particularly interested in the treatment of internalizing disorders in older adolescents and young adults. I am currently doing a practicum at the MUHC Centre for CBT Research, Training and Intervention.

Jordan Pumphrey

I am a first-year doctoral student in the clinical psychology program at McGill University. I am currently interested in exploring how the associations between adolescents’ emotional communication skills and their friendship functioning and quality may be impacted by symptoms of depression. In my undergraduate and master’s work, I examined social cognition and wellbeing in an adult health population. I am excited to continue exploring these important concepts in my doctoral work while expanding my research to adolescent populations. Clinically, I am broadly interested in health psychology interventions and the support of family structures and social networks in the context of chronic health challenges.

Alumni

Post-Doctoral Fellows

Doctoral Students

Drs. Morningstar, Cuttini, Kirmayer, and Dirks

Drs. Morningstar, Cuttini, Kirmayer, and Dirks

 

Dr. Erin Macdonald

 Undergraduate Students

Carla Castillo

Skylar Armstrong

Katya Santucci

Melissa Vitagliano

Jessica Cohen

Angela Brett

Jessica Burdo

Thyna Catamaran

Emily Todorov

Kaitlyn Axelrod

Lara Feldman

Olivia Petric

Shannen Ciricillo

Vanessa Scarapicchia

Todd Chan

Julia Boggia

Gillian McGovern

Leandra Desjardins

Ariane Desmarais

Marilyn Ahun

Finn Brennan-Kipp

Ariane Desmarais

Marlee Brownstein

Meagan Forest-Dionne

Julia Aboud

Sydney Turk

Sally Cuthbertson

Jaymee Fowler

Chloe Levesque

Jingfei Wang

Maria Leis

Jean-Philippe Gagne

Saskia Ferrar

Verity Le

Erinn Acland

Katrina Kairys

Nicholas Ostapchuk

Kimberly Dossett

Elizabeth Shum

Alyssa Wiseman

Emma Malcomber

Chaitali Desai

Katerina Giannoumis

Laura Bensimon

Jack Mangini

Emma Ponath

Stephanie Rajabi

Nathalie Cooke

Natalie Klein

Charlotte Ebsary

Christina Robillaird

Irene Giannis

Serena Romanelli

Maria Alcaraz

Catherine Archambault

Jade Pelletier Brochu

Addison Mott

Shiming Huang

Joshua Jackson

Megan Alton

Laura Bellhouse

Ciara Briscoe

Kathleen Charles

Bailey Bird

Ella Vezina

Fiona Mant