Biography

I’ve been a professor at UVic since 1991 and have been conducting research on interpersonal violence for even longer.  I’m a clinical psychologist and so am actively involved in training graduate students in the Clinical Psychology program, I engage in clinically-relevant research, and I am a practicing psychotherapist.  Hence, I am a “scientist-practitioner” and strive to model the benefits of this exciting career to our students.  In my research program, I focus on the long-term sequelae of interpersonal victimization, including childhood sexual, physical, and psychological abuse and neglect, sexual assault, and intimate partner violence.  I am interested in the long-term psychological and physical health effects of violence along with mediational variables such as stress and coping, adult attachment styles, posttraumatic stress, and health-risk behaviours.  Along with my research collaborators at the University of Southern California (USC: John Briere) and the University of Quebec at Montreal (Natacha Godbout) and current and former graduate students from UVic, UQAM, and USC, we are also working on identifying and measuring other key aspects of child maltreatment (e.g., disengaged parenting) and adult attachment (e.g., disorganized adult attachment). Other recent projects conducted at UVic with my current and former grad students relate to the construct of optimal sexuality in survivors of CSA, childhood maltreatment and substance abuse, the factor structure of complex PTSD, and ACEs and mental health outcomes during pregnancy. 

I recently completed a 5-year term as Associate Dean in the Faculty of Graduate Studies and am serving as the Director of Clinical Training from July 1, 2021 to Dec. 30, 2022.

I will be on study leave from Jan. 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023.

Please note: I will not be not accepting any new graduate students for fall of 2023.