February 2025 –Trainee spotlight
Supervisor: Ian Gold
Co-supervisor: Geneviève Sauvé
Current program: Master of Science (MSc)
Year of Study: 2
Program of Study: Mental Health
Why did you choose to come to the Douglas?
My connection to the Douglas started early—I was a participant in the ‘98 Ice Storm longitudinal birth cohort study for nearly 20 years. Despite beinghome to an alarming number of geese, I always left my visits struck by how serene and secluded the Douglas was, challenging every preconceived notion I had about psychiatric care. Years later, I officially joined the Douglas to follow my graduate co-supervisor, Geneviève Sauvé, after previously working with her as a research coordinator at Université du Québec à Montréal.
During my gap years working in the public sector and for non-profit organizations, I often felt discouraged by limited resources and overwhelming workloads, making it hard to see how meaningful change could happen. But the initiatives happening at the Douglas felt like a fantasyland, reminding me that innovative solutions are feasible within our healthcare system. Its collaborative nature also made it the perfect incubator for my academic curiosity.
What did you do before coming to the Douglas?
Before joining the Douglas, I took a detour from academia—a side quest, if you will—to gain field experience, working for two years after my bachelor’s. During this time, I served as a research coordinator under Geneviève Sauvé, developing the research skills I am now building upon in my master’s thesis work.
Prior to my graduate studies, I did my bachelor’s in psychology at McGill University, where I first developed my interest in mental health research. As an undergraduate, I completed a one-year internship at the Montreal Neurological Institute under the supervision of Dr. Michael Petrides, where I studied the morphological patterns and surface spatial probability maps of the superior frontal sulcus in the human brain. Additionally, I volunteered as a crisis hotline responder at Montreal’s Suicide Prevention Centre, an experience that exposed me to mental health challenges in its rawest form across a culturally diverse population.
Sell your research :
We are testing a tailored version of the Minds@Work intervention to improve the quality of work life for adults with ADHD. Originally designed for individuals living with severe mental illness (e.g., schizophrenia, bipolar disorder), this intervention equips participants with personalized strategies to navigate workplace challenges. By adapting it for ADHD, we aim to create a feasible, accessible, and effective solution for enhancing quality of work life.
What excites you most about your research?
The possibility of creating something truly useful—an intervention that doesn’t just exist in an academic vacuum but can actually improve people’s daily lives. What makes this especially exciting is that I get to contribute from start to finish: from the initial development of the intervention to its deployment, where I receive direct feedback from service users. This end-to-end involvement not only gives me valuable insights into how our research translates into real-world impact, but also allows me to refine and improve the intervention based on direct user experiences. That, and the occasional “aha!” moments when things finally start making sense.
If you could go back in time and give your “younger self” advice, what would you do differently?
How young are we talking? Doesn’t matter—I probably wouldn’t have listened anyway. But if I could, I’d tell myself to worry less about having a perfectly linear career path and stop agonizing over whether I was “wasting time”—detours can be useful if they help you learn something about yourself along the way. Also, never underestimate the power of networking; building connections early on makes navigating academia far less daunting. Having spent two-thirds of my bachelor’s under COVID lockdown measures, I didn’t fully grasp just how much a strong social network can shape the ease (or difficulty) of everything that follows.
Please share any additional experiences or advice that you’d like to share with prospective Douglas trainees.
Doing research at the Douglas is like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book—except instead of fighting dragons or exploring lost civilizations, you’re navigating research questions, interdisciplinary collaborations, and the occasional existential crisis about your future. Don’t be afraid to take unexpected turns—talk to people from different labs, dive into projects outside your comfort zone, and take advantage of the opportunities around you.
That said, learn to say no. The opportunities at the Douglas are endless—which is both a blessing and a curse—but your time and energy aren’t, so be selective about where you invest yourself. Learning to be selective is an indispensable skill for maintaining both your sanity and your enthusiasm for research.
Whether you’re here to refine your expertise or still figuring things out (like me!), the Douglas provides the perfect environment to explore, learn, and carve your own path—and hopefully, your adventure doesn’t end with “and then the geese attacked.”