Graduate Students & Postdoctoral Researchers

Sarah Cabecinha-Alati

Sarah Cabecinha-Alati is a Doctoral Candidate in the Counselling Psychology program at McGill University. Her research focuses on the relationship between childhood adversity and parental emotion regulation. Her primary goal is to determine whether parents’ experiences of childhood adversity (e.g. abuse or neglect) impact their emotion regulation skills and subsequently, their parenting behaviours related to the process of emotion socialization.


Carley Marshall

Carley Marshall is a PhD student in the School/Applied Child Psychology program at McGill University. She is interested in child trauma and resilience, more specifically intergenerational trauma. Her research focuses on the intergenerational continuity of child sexual abuse, which entails conducting a mixed method study to identify psychosocial risk and protective factors.

Sereena Pigeon

Sereena Pigeon is a Doctoral student in Counselling Psychology at McGill University. She is interested in studying both individual and interpersonal risk factors that maintain intergenerational cycles of child maltreatment. She previously completed a Master of Science in Psychiatry at McGill University, during which she studied the feasibility of incorporating a prediction error into Reconsolidation TherapyTM with propranolol to treat the adjustment disorder stemming from romantic betrayal. 

Polly Cheng

Polly Cheng is a PhD Candidate in the Counselling Psychology Program at McGill University. She is interested in understanding the mechanisms between childhood trauma, emotion regulation processes and post-traumatic stress symptoms. Her research is focused on unpacking how different types of childhood trauma may impact different aspects of emotion regulation and how intergenerational continuity may influence these relationships.

Audrey Kern

Audrey is a Ph.D. candidate in Counselling Psychology at McGill University. She also completed her master’s degree in Counselling Psychology with Dr. Langevin. Audrey’s research examines intergenerational patterns of child maltreatment within Montreal families involved with Child Protective Services. She also researches the intergenerational impacts of child maltreatment on child mental health. She is interested in transforming her research into accessible modalities for the public and clinical use to inform prevention initiatives. 

Marie-Emma Gagné

Marie-Emma is a PhD candidate in Counselling Psychology at McGill University. Her research documents the adaptation and implementation of a trauma-informed framework in a community organization offering medical and psycho-social services to young mothers and their infants. Marie-Emma previously completed her master’s degree in Counselling Psychology at McGill University (clinical program). 

Alesha Frederickson

Alesha Frederickson is a PhD student in Counselling Psychology at McGill University. She is interested in investigating how childhood sexual abuse impacts individuals during pregnancy, labour, and future parent-child attachment. She also completed her Master’s degree with Dr. Langevin, where she did an integrative review of the literature on which aspects during the perinatal period (re)traumatize child sexual abuse survivors. Previously, she completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Winnipeg, where her thesis explored women’s feelings of threat and belonging in gym environments.

Teresa Pirro

Teresa Pirro is a Master of Arts student in Counselling Psychology at McGill University. Currently, her research interests are to examine how dissociation mediates the associations between mothers’ traumatic life events and maltreatment, and mother-infant bonding during the perinatal period. She has completed a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, with a double minor in Behavioural Science and Education at McGill University, and a Master of Arts in Child Studies (Thesis Option) at Concordia University. Her previous Master’s thesis investigated interpersonal disagreements in conversations between mothers and their children with a focus on distinctions between disagreements about facts and values.

Aimée Wallace

Aimée completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology at McGill University with minors in Behavioural Science and Education. She will soon complete her Masters in Sexology (Research-Intervention Profil) at UQAM and is co-supervised by Dr. Langevin. Her research focuses on an analysis of risk and protective factors associated with the cyber-dating violence victimization of adolescent girls. She is now a Psychosocial Intervention Worker at Fondation Marie-Vincent, a multidisciplinary center for children and adolescents victims of sexual abuse and/or who are demonstrating problematic sexual behaviors. Eventually, her goal is to complete a second Masters in clinical sexology at UQAM to provide more specialized services to victims of sexual abuse.

Dr. Dany Laure Wadji is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology at McGill University. She obtained her PhD at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland with support from the Excellence Scholarship of the Swiss Confederation. Her postdoctoral fellowship is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). She is interested in the effects of early life adversity, including child maltreatment and exposure to intimate partner violence, with a focus on psychobiological impacts and intergenerational transmission.

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