People | Action Theory

Researchers

	Dr. Richard Young is Professor of Counselling Psychology at the University of British Columbia. He is a Fellow of both the Canadian Psychological Association and the American Psychological Association and a Registered Psychologist in British Columbia. His current research interests include the application of action theory and the qualitative action-project method to a variety of research topics, including the transition to adulthood, families, career development, counselling, health, and suicide. He is the author of over 100 articles published in scholarly journals, and a number of other publications, including seven co-edited or co-authored books. His most recent co-edited book, addressing the application of action theory to counselling practice, is Counseling and action: Toward life-enhancing work, relationships, and identity (R. A. Young, J. F. Domene, & L. Valach, Eds., Springer-Science, 2015). Email: richard.young@ubc.ca Website: http://ecps.educ.ubc.ca/faculty/r_young.htm
	Dr. Sheila Marshall is a Professor in the School of Social Work and associate faculty in the Division of Adolescent Health and Medicine at the University of British Columbia. Sheila is the research director of the Division of Adolescent Health and Medicine and an associate editor of the Journal of Adolescence. Her current research interests include the use of action theory to elaborate understanding of adolescent social identity development in the context of social relations with adults, how adolescents’ construction of their social identities contribute to social and emotional well-being, and examining the ways adolescents’ actively engage in their own development during interactions with parents and peers. Email: Sheila.Marshall@ubc.ca http://socialwork.ubc.ca/persons/sheila-marshall/
	Dr. Ladislav Valach studied in Berne, Switzerland (lic. phil. 1980 in Psychology, Dr. phil. 1984; psychotherapy licensure 2000). He was a visiting scholar at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst in 1994, and worked at the Universities of Berne and Zurich in Switzerland (until 2007). He is currently in private practice in Burgdorf, Switzerland. He conducted research in action theory since the late 1970s and published extensively with R. A. Young, UBC Vancouver, on action theory in counseling and also with K. Michel, Switzerland, on action theory in suicide prevention. Email: ladislav.valach@swissonline.ch http://www.aeschiconference.unibe.ch/
	Dr. José F Domene is a Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in School to Work Transition in the Faculty of Education at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton Campus. His educational background is in counselling psychology (MA, Trinity Western University) and measurement, evaluation and research methodology (PhD, University of British Columbia). His areas of teaching include theories of counselling, career development and counselling, and statistics and research methodology. His areas of research interest include (a) relational contexts of career development, (b) emerging adults’ transition into the workforce, and (c) professional issues in counselling and counselling psychology in Canada. He has published over 50 journal articles and book chapters on these topics. His research has been supported by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, and the New Brunswick Foundation for Innovation. Dr Domene also does pro bono work as a licensed psychologist at UNB Counselling Services, where he where he provides counselling services to university students presenting with a range of complex academic, career, and mental health difficulties. For more information, see: http://www.unb.ca/fredericton/education/people/josedomene.html
	Filomena Parada is a MSCA Individual Fellow at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland; Project Reference: 749313 – TeenEduGoals), since June 2016. Previously, she was a researcher at the Centre for Psychology at University of Porto. Between 2009 and 2015, she was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Coimbra and spent some time working as a Visiting Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia (Canada). She has a PhD in Psychology (2008) from the University of Porto. Her main research interests are youth transitions to work and adulthood and positive youth development. Contextual Action Theory, career counselling and development, and lifelong learning are among her topics of specialization. Email: filomenaparada@gmail.com

Students

	Vanessa Silva is in her second year of the MA Counselling Psychology program at UBC. Her current research interests include looking at the caregiving transition for family members where a parent has been diagnosed with a progressive neurological disease. She is completing this thesis project under the supervison of Dr. Richard Young. For four years previously, she worked as a genetic study research coordinator for the Pacific Parkinson’s Research Centre at UBC. During that time she supported a multi-site research program and presented the findings at various events around BC. She is a co-author on three research publications and has given two symposium presentations at international academic conferences.
	Meredith MacKenzie is a doctoral student in the Counselling Psychology Program. Her research interests include the process of adolescent recovery from an eating disorder, in the context of their relationships with their caregivers. She is currently preparing her dissertation proposal applying the qualitative action-project method to explore the joint projects and goal-directed actions of caregivers and adolescents with eating disorders during the nutritional rehabilitation phase of anorexia nervosa recovery.
	Kesha Pradhan is an MA student in the Counselling Psychology Program at the University of British Columbia. Her current research interests include using CAT/APM to investigate immigrant/refugee transitions and adaptations, and parent-child relationships in the transition to adulthood.
	Rose Record-Lemon is a third-year doctoral student in the counselling psychology program. Her research interests concern investigating effective counselling practices with children and youth. She is currently involved in Dr. Young’s research studies investigating an action-project counselling intervention aimed at supporting the transition projects of immigrant youth and young adults. Her dissertation research investigates school counsellors’ experiences of implementing a school-based trauma-informed counselling program for refugee children.
	Magali Chevalier
	Mindy Chiang
	Sara Ahmadian is a first year MA student in the Counselling Psychology program at the University of British Columbia. She is particularly interested in the psychosocial and cognitive effects of chronic illness. In addition, she is interested in hope centered and goal directed interventions.
	Andrea Rivera is an M.Ed student in the Counselling Program at the University of New Brunswick. She has worked with culturally diverse groups as an ESL Coordinator and a Student Career Advisor and consequently, she is interested in counselling culturally diverse groups. Additionally, she is keen to contribute to the development of online counselling services.
	Cassidy Wilson is a graduate student at the University of New Brunswick, working alongside the University of British Columbia. She is currently taking a Masters of Education in Counselling Psychology. Cassidy is currently working on research in the field of career counselling, specifically the role self-efficacy plays on a persons sense of, and living a “calling” in the LGBTQ population. Her general research interests include: career counselling, career development, organizational psychology, issues relating to the experiences of sexual and gender minorities, policy reform and change, transition in to adulthood, the therapeutic relationship, and counselling. Email: cwilso17@unb.ca
	Christine M. Yu is a doctoral student in the Counselling Psychology program. Her research interests include the prevention and early intervention of childhood anxiety disorders, as well as increasing awareness and promotion mental health literacy in the community. She is currently involved in Dr. Young’s research study investigating an action-project counselling intervention aimed at supporting the transition projects of young adult newcomers to Canada.

International Collaborators

Dr. Luciana Dutra-Thomé is a Professor at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Salvador, Brazil. She works with a contextualist perspective to investigate human development, having as theoretical background the Ecological Approach and the Action Theory. Her research themes are Youth and Work, Emerging Adulthood, Vulnerable Populations, and Positive Youth Development. She is the Co-Chair of the Topic Network on Latin America of the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood (SSEA; 2014-present). She has collaborations with the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil, 2014-2015), Le Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (Paris, 2017-present), and University of British Columbia (2016-present). She was awarded with fellowships by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel, and the Research Agency from the State of Rio Grande do Sul. She is currently co-editing a book on emerging adulthood in Brazil, focused on regional variabilities and non-normative development within the country.

Marcos Moura is a doctoral student in Social Psychology at the Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil; he holds a Master of Sciences degree in Social Psychology and a Bachelor degree in Psychology. He is specialist in Career Counselling by Instituto de Psicologia da Universidade de São Paulo and in Brief Psychoanalytic Therapy by Instituto Sedes Sapientiae (São Paulo, Brazil). He was a Visiting International Research Student at UBC in 2016-2017 and collaborates on the Youth Support Program for the Transition to Adulthood and Contextual Action Theory research conducted by Dr. Richard Young.