Jennifer Lingbaoan began her MA in Counselling Psychology at the University of British Columbia in September 2019. Through her thesis, she explored the implications of a Contextual Model of counselling amongst a sample of Filipino participants. A Psychology Honours and Counselling Minor graduate from Kwantlen Polytechnic University, her undergraduate thesis focused on cultural frame-switching and meaning in life among a sample of Filipino and Western bicultural participants. Her primary research interests are in the areas of cultural psychology, community psychology, positive psychology, and knowledge translation. Upon graduation in 2023, Jen started working at the BC Institute of Technology as a Case Manager for their Student Life Office and also works as a casual/part-time counsellor at a local private practice.
Virginia Dreier began her MA in Counselling Psychology at the University of British Columbia in September 2019 (under the supervision of Dr. Beth Haverkamp) and joined the lab in January 2020 as a volunteer assistant. As an undergraduate at Oberlin College in Ohio, her research in ethnography included how Buddhist and Christian beliefs impacted environmental attitudes and practices, travelling to India, Thailand, Taiwan and Japan for research. Her volunteer work in the lab related to a project exploring the religious competencies of various mental health professionals in collaboration with Dr. Betty Cardona from the University of Northern Colorado. She graduated from the MA program in 2022 and continued volunteering in the lab on this project after graduation. Upon graduation and completion of her project, Virginia took up employment as a higher education counsellor at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine and maintains a private practice called Enliven Counseling and Wellness.
Satoko Nagashima was undergraduate psychology student at UBC. She joined the lab in October of 2021 as a volunteer research assistant for a study on implicit bias against Muslims and South Asians and then completed an directed study course with Dr. Bedi for a qualitative research project that looked at the effectiveness of different counselling approaches used with Punjabi Sikh clients based on multiple case study analysis. After finishing her work in the lab in 2023, Satoko was employed by the BC Crisis Centre.
Syler Hayes joined the lab as a PhD student in 2019. His dissertation project focused on the transitions that occur in recovery from addiction. In late 2023, during Dr. Bedi’s parental leave, Syler switched supervisors and defended his dissertation under the oversight of Dr. Marla Buchanan. After graduating, Syler took up employment as an associate at The Beacon Centre Clinical Psychologists and Associates in Newfoundland.
Michael Waters was a master’s student (MA) in Counselling Psychology at UBC and joined the lab as a volunteer research assistant in January 2021, and then as an MA in May 2022, after transferring over from the MEd program. His research and volunteer work was centred around the topics of identity and addiction. Dr. Bedi resigned as his supervisor and Michael was no longer part of the lab as of April 2023.
Dorna Rahimi wasa doctoral student in the school and applied child psychology program and a graduate research assistant in this lab from 2019 to 2023. Her lab work was focused on evaluating a program related to providing culturally-adapted settlement and counselling services to immigrant/refugee female survivors of intimate partner violence in partnership with DIVERSEcity Community and Resources Society. Her research interests are understanding immigrant parents’ experiences in the schools, immigrant cultural identities, and culturally and linguistically responsive ways of providing psychological services. Upon completing her lab project, Dorna continued on towards completing her PhD in school and applied psychology at UBC.
Sabina Lupasco was a master’s student (M.Ed.) in Counselling Psychology at UBC and officially joined the lab as a volunteer research assistant in May 2019. Her research volunteer work was centered around the topic of immigrants and refugees and is done in partnership with DIVERSEcity Community Resources Society. She was working on a project that has as a goal to implement standard outcome measures for assessing counselling effectiveness with immigrant and refugees, including for the Schwartz Outcome Scale. As future career goals, Sabina would like to specialize in the area of cross-cultural counselling. After graduation in 2022 and completing her lab volunteering, Sabina went on to secure a position as a counsellor-in-residence at UBC.
Manmeet Chhina began her MA in Counselling Psychology at the University of British Columbia in May 2021. Her research interests include cultural psychology, grief, trauma, and addiction. Through her thesis idea, she was hoping to develop culturally relevant counselling guidelines for clinicians to use when providing counselling and psychotherapy services to Sikh immigrant clients. In 2022, she transferred to the M.Ed. program.
Fides Arguelles joined the lab as a volunteer research assistant in April 2020 and then completed an undergraduate independent study project working on a study that addressed whether counselling and psychotherapy practices were more prevalent and utilized in Western societies. Her future research endeavours involve dealing with issues within the domains of clinical and developmental psychology through an intersectional lens. Upon completing her independent study project in 2022, Fides continued working towards her undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of British Columbia.
Tom Willman is a graduate of the Psychology Undergraduate program at the University of British Columbia and was volunteering in Dr. Bedi’s lab. He worked on a study investigating the use of religion and spirituality in counselling and psychotherapy in BC, Canada. Tom moved onto various social service positions in the Vancouver area before joining the master’s program in Counselling Psychology at the University of Toronto in 2023.
Hei Wing Lau (Isabel) was a Mitacs-funded, summer research intern in the lab from May to August 2021. At the time, she was enrolled in the University of Hong Kong, majoring in Psychology and Sociology. She joined the lab because was interested in further exploring the field of Psychology as well as Cross-cultural research, upon finishing with the lab, was making her way to pursue a postgraduate Psychology research program.
Ava Outadi was a MA in Counselling Psychology in September 2017 and completed in 2020. Her thesis examined religious bias in access to counselling for Muslim men. After completing her MA, Ava went onto work as a full-time research assistant as part of the Addictions and Concurrent Disorders Research Group in the Department of Psychiatry at UBC.
Tom Douce became involved with the lab in November 2017 in an informal basis, and officially joined as a volunteer research assistant in May 2018. His academic background is in cell and molecular biology (BS), biomedical engineering (MSE), and theology (MA). Tom investigated how/why Canadian counselling psychology doctoral students choose their programs. He is also interested in the role of religion & spirituality (RS) in coping and vocational choices, as well as how RS-related concerns are addressed in the counselling process. After completing his work in the lab, Tom was accepted into the PsyD program in Clinical Psychology at Wheaton College in Illinois, USA in 2023.
Mohit Bassi joined Dr. Bedi’s lab in September 2018. During his time in the lab, he worked on a qualitative research project on incorporating Indian cultural traditions in counselling practice with Indian clients , he presented a poster presentation at the South Asian Mental Health Conference on integrating traditional South Asian healing practices with Western Counselling & Psychotherapy, and, with Dr. Bedi, published an article in the journal Ethical Human Psychology & Psychiatry, on the dangers of the World Health Organization’s Mental Health GAP program imposing Western healing in Eastern and Indigenous cultures. Mohit switched to the M.Ed program in 2020, and graduated from the program in 2021.
Iva Erceg joined the lab as a volunteer research assistant in January 2020 and in September 2020 became a master’s student (M.A.) in Counselling Psychology at UBC under Dr. Bedi with an intention to work on a thesis project investigating identity transformation among adults with a history of addiction. She eventually transferred to a different supervisor to pursue a thesis in line with other research interests.
Triston Plante was an Undergraduate Psychology student at the University of British Columbia. He was working on a project involving integrating family yoga into group counselling addiction treatment for South Asian men. In addition to his interest in yoga, other research interests include psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and harm-reduction methods for the treatment of addiction. After completing his work in the lab, Triston moved back to California.
Niguel Barrio was a Psychology Undergraduate at Western Washington University, where Dr. Bedi was formerly at. He became a volunteer member of Dr. Bedi’s lab in May 2019 for one year. His research interests focus around the area of cross-cultural counselling. He was working on a project translating and adapting a specific psychological health and well-being measure, called the Schwartz Outcome Scale 10, for a Punjabi-reading population and to be used by a local community organization that specializes in serving immigrant and refugees. He plans to pursue a graduate program in clinical psychology.
Kesha Pradhan started in the lab during her terminal MA degree in Counselling Psychology at the University of British Columbia under Dr. Bedi’s direction. Upon graduation, she entered the PhD program in counselling psychology at UBC under the supervision of Dr. Richard Young (Dr. Bedi was on her dissertation committee). Her master’s thesis was related to investigating love marriage in India using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis.
Jesus Calderon Villalon was an undergraduate psychology student at Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City. He became a member of Dr. Bedi’s lab in May 2019, being part of the Globalink Mitacs research intership program for 12 weeks. His research interest focus on psychometry, neuroscience, neuropsychology, human sexuality and gender areas. His bachelor thesis was oriented to analyze the correlation between the cortical volume in Huntington’s disease patients and high order visual processing. In Dr. Bedi’s lab, he was assisting with a psychometric research project related to measuring career-related hope in individuals with a past/present history of problematic substance use.
Dr. Rajneesh Choubisa was an Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus. He is a behavioral scientist by training and teaches courses such as Organizational Psychology and Human Resource Development at his home institution. Dr. Choubisa was associated with Dr Bedi’s Lab as a Visiting Assistant Professor (for summer term May to July 2019) where the research team worked on understanding the attitude of Indian students towards counselling and seeking professional help as a function of variables such as acculturation, Asian values, European values, collective self-esteem, cultural mistrust, westernization, and ethnic identity.
Official Webpage: https://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/Pilani/rajneeshchoubisa/Profile
Dr. Nimarta Mann joined the lab as Visiting Assistant Professor in July 2018 until December 2018. She was also serving as Assistant Professor, permanent faculty, at Punjabi University since 2012. Her major field of specialization is Banking & Finance, and minor is E-Business and Personnel Psychology. Her present field of active research is focussed on psychological and social health of all stakeholders of a business, and is committed to social justice through research and teaching of Business Ethics and Corporate Governance. She worked on collaborative research with Dr. Bedi pertaining to the scope of Corporate Social Responsibility in addressing the societal drug abuse, both amongst Indo-Canadians and Punjabi Sikh Indians resident in India.
Xiaoxiao Jin was Mitacs-funded, summer research intern in the lab from June 2018 to September 2018. She was enrolled in Wuhan University in China pursuing a major in global health. She is interested in cross-cultural counselling as well as counselling with children. She is devoted to promoting human health from a psychology perspective.
Dr. Reetinder Kaur joined the lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow in February 2018 until June 2018. Her research interests include South Asian traditional healing, mental health, and environmental health. She worked with Dr. Bedi on “Traditional healing practices among Punjabi Sikh mental health clients in India and Canada: Insights for counsellors and psychotherapists” using qualitative research methods. Her research in Canada wasbeing funded by the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, New Delhi. In India, she was a University Grants Commission Postdoctoral Fellow in Department of Anthropology at Panjab University, Chandigarh. Dr. Kaur currently works as a reseach assistant with two organizations and is upgrading her education in Canada.
Dr Mohit Bhatara previously served for one year as an non-resident member of the lab in 2016/2017 (first as a non-resident postdoc researcher and then as affiliate faculty while he was a professor in Africa) while working on a survey of counselling psychologists in India. Dr. Bhatara has a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and a PhD in Psychology. His professional career has been focused on wellness in both the hospitality and healthcare domains of practice. Dr. Bhatara’s research interests pertain to counselling psychological and behavioural interventions related to illnesses. After this time, he worked as a professor in Africa before returning to India.
Huimin Xu was a Mitacs-funded, summer research intern in the lab from June to September 2017. She was enrolled in Nanjing University in China. CN with a major in information management and a minor in journalism. She was interested in exploring the field of Counselling Psychology.
Isaac Kelly was a volunteer High School research assistant intern in the lab from July to August 2017. He was studying at the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, NY. His objective for his internship was to learn as much as possible about psychology research methods and expand his understanding of the field.
Dr. Bedi’s 2015/16 Research lab team from Western Washington University (where he remained on as a Research Associate until March 2016). Some of these individuals continued to work with Dr. Bedi from a far, and Kayla Christiani, Pavithra Thomas and Katie Rogers subsequently published with Dr. Bedi
Prior lab members from Western Washington University (2008 to 2015):
Thesis students from the University of Victoria (2006 to 2008):
Arlene Simpson, M.A., counselling psychology (2010). Upon graduation, Arlene became an addictions counsellor with Island Health in Nanaimo, BC, as well as a counsellor in private practice in Nanaimo, BC. [updated December 2016].
Carlton Duff, M.A., counselling psychology (2008). Upon graduation, Carlton went on to complete a PhD in counselling psychology at the University of Alberta and then became a Psychologist at Vancouver Island Psychological Services and at the Greater Victoria School District [updated December 2016].
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”
“Great minds do not always think alike.” (Heterodox Academy)
“The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.” (William Osler)