Join the Lab

The lab welcomes undergraduate/graduate volunteers, undergraduate students seeking independent/directed study course credit, master’s students, doctoral students, mental health professionals, post-doctoral researchers, and academics to join the lab. Please send a cover letter outlining your interest in joining the lab, a copy of your resume/cv, and a copy of your transcript of courses/grades (if a student) to Dr. Rob Bedi at Robinder.Bedi@ubc.ca

Research Lab Priority Topics

The lab is particularly interested in recruiting individuals who have one of the following research, teaching, or practice/service interests (Please note that the  exact recruitment focus may vary year by year due to existing support for each topic area within the lab at that time).

○ Investigating counselling and psychotherapy as Western indigenous/traditional healing practices rather than as universally valid and applicable treatment approaches (see Frank and Frank’s [1993] model of psychotherapy as cultural healing or Wampold and Imel’s [2015] contextual model of psychotherapy). This includes, for example, examining variables like counselling/psychotherapy outcomes, drop out, and help-seeking (attitudes, intentions, or behaviours) as a function of variables like acculturation, Westernization, colonial mentality, cross-cultural treatment credibility, Western values, individualism/collectivism, etc. I am particularly but not exclusively interested in better understanding counselling/psychotherapy help-seeking for individuals of South Asian Indian heritage, whether in India or abroad.

○ The intersection indigenous/traditional healing practices and counselling/psychotherapy. This can include examining similarities between indigenous/traditional healing practices and counselling/psychotherapy or between indigenous/traditional 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. A focus on South Asian Indian healing practices is especially welcome but not required.

○ Comparing the efficacy of different counselling theoretical approaches in India using meta-analysis, specifically comparing a theory that emerged in India (or is highly compatible with Indian culture) versus one that emerged in the West and is less culturally congruent with traditional Indian culture, to test the hypothesis that the one developed in India using Indian cultural understandings will be more effective. I would be open to doing this with another country and theoretical approach (e.g., Japan and Morita Therapy).

○ Professional issues or disciplinary issues in Canadian counselling psychology (e.g., development of a professional identity scale, professional identity of counselling psychologists in medical settings, public perceptions on the similarities/differences between counselling and clinical psychology, systematic review of research on Canadian counselling psychology.

○ Benefits of traditional masculinity, intimate partner abuse or violence against men, or investigating access barriers for men seeking counselling/psychotherapy.

○ Counselling/psychotherapy with Punjabis, Sikhs, or other individuals of Indian heritage.

○ Heterodox issues in counselling psychology that challenge dominant narratives and sacred ideas in counselling psychology, such as political/ideological bias and and trigger warnings. Some projects within this area include but are not limited to (a) administering Heterodox Academy’s Campus Expression Survey to counselling psychology students in Canada or the US, (b) investigating the experiences of highly religious or conservative counselling psychology students or faculty, (c) looking at Liberal or ideological privilege in counselling psychology (e.g., Replicate Inbar & Yammars [2012] and Honeycut & Freberg [2017] in counselling psychology), (d) investigating the effectiveness of trigger warnings with counselling psychology students, and (e) replicating Johnson and Peackock’s (2020) Breaking the Bubble article about ideological diversity with counselling or counselling psychology students.

 

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For Volunteer Research Assistant Applicants

Volunteers are expected to commit a minimum of 8 hours per week for a minimum of an 8 months (two semester) commitment (preferably 12 months/3 semesters). Please send a cover letter outlining your interest in joining the lab, a copy of your resume/cv, and a copy of your transcript of courses/grades to Dr. Rob Bedi at Robinder.Bedi@ubc.ca. Most initial volunteer positions involve working on a project directly overseen by one of the graduate students in the lab (and only indirectly by Dr. Bedi). Upon completion of of an initial volunteer contract (8 months to 1 year), the top volunteers may be invited to join a directly overseen by Dr. Bedi. Paid research assistant positions are only available to graduate students in the lab and undergraduate students who have completed a direct volunteering position with Dr. Bedi (8 months to 1 year).

For Undergraduate or Graduate Independent Study Applicants

In order to be admitted to the lab as an independent/directed studies student, a student must first be a research volunteer in the lab. Each year, usually the top one or two volunteers get invited to complete an independent study project.

For Prospective MA and PhD Applicants

Most MA students accepted the lab do their thesis research on a project (a) related to projects already going on in the lab, (b) that builds directly on an already published research study (by addressing a specific limitation of  that particular study or next specified step in that program of research), or (c) that has been partially conceptualized and pre-approved already by Dr Bedi.

Completely novel research projects that do not meet one of the three conditions listed are typically not accepted for MA students.  This is due to the high level of background knowledge, methodological sophistication, and supervisor expertise required to meet the quality standards in the lab. Exceptions to this are made on a case-by-case basis for incoming MA students who are already highly accomplished researchers for their level, those continuing a previously initiated research program, or those with external contacts who will collaborate on the study and/or provide funding or extra resources to support the proposed project. Greater flexibility and options are provided to PhD students.

A strong research match is necessary for joining the lab. Those seeking admissions to the MA or PhD program are invited to inquire about a potential research match, if their proposed research does not clearly fall into one of the above listed priority areas. Past research or professional experience in one of the areas related to one’s proposed thesis or dissertation project (or a very closely related area) is required for those who wish to join this lab as MA or PhD students.  Without this, an applicant is much less likely to be offered admissions because the amount of background knowledge necessary to design and implement a study to lab standards (and publishable in a very high quality journal) often exceeds what a novice student in that particular topical area can usually achieve within the standard program of study curricular length (4 years for the PhD, 3 years for the MA).

Please note: All master’s and PhD students in the lab who are enrolled in the UBC counselling psychology program are expected to devote a minimum of 4 hours per week to the lab on top of their own thesis/dissertation research. Typically, this involves attending a weekly two-hour lab meeting and providing assistance to others in the lab on their projects or working on a collaborative lab project for 2 hours per week on a volunteer basis. Those interested in earning authorship on conference presentations or publications may choose to compete additional hours, but this is not required.

Admission to UBC’s Counselling Psychology MA and PhD programs is extremely competitive. Every year, many excellent candidates get turned away, many of who get admitted to other programs or would have no problem getting admitted to other programs. Information on rejection rates for MA applicants to the program is available here under the tab “Enrolment, Duration & Other Stats”: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/prospective-students/graduate-degree-programs/master-of-arts-counselling-psychology. Information on rejection rates for PhD applicants to the program is available here under the tab “Enrolment, Duration & Other Stats”: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/prospective-students/graduate-degree-programs/phd-counselling-psychology.

To give you a better sense of the competitiveness of the Bedi RTS Lab and some of the qualifications of those who get accepted, please see below. This information can help you better assess your chances of acceptance into the lab assuming a strong research match:

Admitted MA students to the Bedi RTS Lab

Indicator at Time of Application	Average	Median	Mode	Maximum
# of Journal Article (peer-reviewed) Authorships	1.25	1	multimodal	2
# of Journal Article (peer-reviewed) First Authorships	0.75	0.5	multimodal	2
# of submitted Journal Articles/Book Chapter Authorships	1	1	multimodal	2
# of Authorships on Chapters, Proceedings and other Peer-Reviewed Works	0	0	0	0
# of First Authorships on Chapters, Proceedings and other Peer-Reviewed Works	0	0	0	0
# of Authorships on Conference Presentations	3.5	3.5	multimodal	7
# of First Authorships on Conference Presentations	2	1.5	multimodal	5
Calendar Years of Paid/Volunteer Research Assistant Experience	2.5	1.75	multimodal	6.5
Calendar Years of Paid/Volunteer Social Service/Helping/Teaching Experience	4.87	4	multimodal	8.5
GRE-Quantitative Percentile	65	63.5	52 (lowest)	81
GRE-Verbal Percentile	53.75	45.0	34.0 (lowest)	98
GRE-Analytical Percentile	80.5	85	19.3 (lowest)	98

 

 

Admitted PhD students to the Bedi RTS Lab

Indicator at time of Application	Average	Median	Mode	Maximum
# of Journal Article (peer-reviewed) Authorships	0.50	0.50	0	1
# of Journal Article (peer-reviewed) First Authorships	0.25	0.25	0	1
# of submitted Journal Articles/Book Chapter Authorships	0.5	0.5	0	2
# of Authorships on Chapters, Proceedings and other Peer-Reviewed Works	0.25	0.25	0	1
# of First Authorships on Chapters, Proceedings and other Peer-Reviewed Works	0.25	0.25	0	1
# of Authorships on Conference Presentations	10.25	10.0	8	18
# of First Authorships on Conference Presentations	4.75	5.0	7	7
Calendar Years of Paid/Volunteer Research Assistant Experience	5.25	5.5	3	9
GRE-Quantitative Percentile	57.0	59.0	34 (lowest)	76
GRE-Verbal Percentile	66.25	70.0	37 (lowest)	88
GRE-Analytical Percentile	70.75	70.5	49 (lowest)	93.0

 

% who published their thesis by time of application: 0%

% who submitted their thesis for publication by time of application: 25%

% who obtained SSHRC/CIHR/large-scale national funding during master’s degree: 25%

% who were registered/certified as a counsellor by time of application: 50%

 

If you are still interested in joining the lab as an MA or PhD student and believe you are competitive based upon the above information, you are welcome to to contact me by email prior to submitting an application to confirm I would be interested in your proposed thesis/dissertation project. When you email me, please let me know how you believe our research interests overlap and the specifics of your proposed research project. Include a copy of your CV/resume and transcript (unofficial copy is fine).

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Research not Rhetoric, Proof not Politics, Evidence not Emotion, Doubt not Dogma.

Without critical thinking, this is not education but indoctrination. I do not want to teach you what to think but how to think…for yourself.

Confusion is a precursor to Discovery