Research Lab Priority Topics for MA and PhD students
At present, for MA and PhD students, the lab is currently particularly interested in recruiting graduate students who have one of the following interests. Even within these broad topics, strong alignment with existing or past research from the lab is usually required.
○ Investigating counselling and psychotherapy as Western cultural healing practices rather than as universally valid and applicable treatment approaches (see Frank and Frank’s [1993] model of psychotherapy as cultural healing and Bedi [2018] in Archives of Scientific Psychology).
○ The intersection of South Asian Indian indigenous/traditional/cultural healing practices and counselling/psychotherapy. This can include examining similarities between these healing practices and counselling/psychotherapy or between indigenous/traditional/cultural healers and counsellors/therapists. It can also include looking at the integration of traditional/indigenous healing practices with counselling/psychotherapy. An interest or background in medical anthropology is welcome.
○ Professional issues or disciplinary issues in Canadian counselling psychology, such as the experience of men (who are a large minority group) in counselling psychology training programs, the need to create a scale of Canadian counselling psychology professional identity, and perceived differences between counselling psychology and clinical psychology.
○ Neglected topics in the Psychology of Men and Masculinity, such as the benefits of traditional masculinity, intimate partner abuse or violence against men, and investigating access barriers for men seeking counselling/psychotherapy.
○ Counselling/psychotherapy with Punjabis, Sikhs, or other individuals of Indian heritage, such as culturally-adapted counselling and psychotherapy with Punjabi Sikhs.
○ Heterodox issues in counselling psychology that challenge dominant narratives and sacred ideas in counselling psychology, such as political/ideological bias in counselling or psychotherapy and investigating the experiences of highly religious or conservative counselling psychology students or faculty. Research using Aversive Racism/Prejudice theory to examine counsellors, psychologists, professors, and students, particularly those who are highly liberal or who most believe themselves to be non-discriminatory, is welcome.