At the 2022 CPA Convention we sold orange T-shirts designed by Indigenous artist Betty Albert. The proceeds from those sales were donated to the Legacy of Hope Foundation, an Indigenous-led charity educating Canadians about residential schools. We spoke to Legacy of Hope President Adam North Peigan about residential schools, the sixties scoop, and Legacy of Hope’s mission.
Vulvodynia expert Dr. Caroline Pukall rejoins the CPA podcast Mind Full for a special episode on Provoked Vestibulodynia and a major study happening in Sweden.
We speak with members of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity section about issues facing the LGBTQ+ community during the pandemic, the history of the fight for marriage equality and the more recent effort to ban conversion therapy. We also learn a new term: ‘Femmephobia’.
Dr. Steve Joordens gave his first-year psychology class a group project – bust some myths around homelessness by collaborating with a local organization. Zaynab Azeem was inspired to work with Blankets for TO, and has turned that inspiration into a podcast of her own!
Dr. Meghan McMurtry joins Mind Full to talk about needle fears, needle pain, and coping strategies for all of us who experience one or the other. This includes advice about vaccinating infants and very young children.
Dr. Houyuan Luo joins Mind Full to talk about his own struggles during the pandemic, and how he tries to avoid burnout. We also discuss options for people who are able to access therapy, and for those who can not.
Dr. Stryker Calvez and Dr. David Danto talk Truth, Reconciliation, and the role of Psychology from the perspective of an Indigenous psychologist and an ally. We discuss Indigenous ways of knowing and how the apply to psychology, as well as the genocide perpetrated by Canadians against our Indigenous people.
Dr. Jesse Bosse is a gender-queer psychologist in Ottawa who works primarily with trans, non-binary, and gender-diverse people. Aida is a young trans person who is currently undergoing Hormone Replacement Therapy. We spoke to them both about the issues confronting gender diverse people, human rights issues, and the effects of the pandemic on this population.”
Dr. Ada Sinacore is an expert in human rights issues surrounding gender diversity. Dr. Keira Stockdale is an expert in the psychology of criminal justice. They are part of a group working to put out a statement on gender diversity amid an increase in violence and legislation targeted at the gender diverse community. We discuss LGBTQ2s+ rights in relation to education, the criminal justice system, and the discipline of psychology itself.
Canadian Indigenous Artist Betty Albert has created a design for a T-shirt that the CPA sold at the 83rd annual convention in Calgary. All proceeds went to an Indigenous charity working towards healing for Indigenous communities in Canada. We discuss art, residential schools, and the remarkable capabilities of Photoshop!
Gina Ko is a psychologist in Alberta who has been working in anti-racism for a while. She realized many of her colleagues in that space had great stories to share, so she started the podcast Against The Tides Of Racism. You can find her podcast on Spotify, or at the website here:
www.againstracismpodcast.com/
Glenn Brimacombe is the director of Policy and Public Affairs at the Canadian Psychological Association, and has just created an advocacy guide for the CPA’s member psychologists to help them in their efforts to speak with MPPs and get their message out. He joins Eric (who just created a companion Working-With-The-Media guide for members) to discuss advocacy and the role of psychologists in public policy making.
Vulvodynia is a condition that affects between 8-28% of all women – but it’s still a relatively unknown term. Dr. Caroline Pukall, one of Canada’s leading experts in vulvodynia, joins Mind Full to explain it to Eric and Kathryn.
Charlotte Smith spent years as a youth experiencing homelessness on and off again. Avery has also recently experienced homelessness and abuse in the foster care system. They join Mind Full with Dr. Nick Kerman, a psychologist who has spent his career studying homelessness and housing interventions.
Dr. Melissa Tiessen and Dr. Karen Dyck created the Intentional Therapist network to help female mental health professionals (themselves included!) stay healthy and happy through intentional and playful self-care.
Dr. Mari Swingle wrote the book ‘i-Minds: How and Why Constant Connectivity is Rewiring Our Brains and What to Do About it’. We discuss the revelations from Facebook research that shows Instagram’s negative effect on young girls, in particular – something Dr. Swingle has been writing about for years.
Dr. Krishana Sankar returns to Mind Full to talk about the science and data around vaccines and COVID-19. Dr. Sankar and the other experts at Science Up First are continuing to combat online disinformation, which is ever-changing and doesn’t show signs of slowing down.
Dr. Tyler Black is a psychiatrist who specializes in suicidology. When, early in the pandemic, wild claims were being made about the spike in suicide we were sure to see as a result of lockdowns, he pushed back with his expertise in the field (spoiler alert – he was right, and suicide actually decreased). He became one of the experts at Science Up First, combatting disinformation online.
Zuraida Dada is a psychologist in Alberta who grew up under the apartheid system in South Africa. She was an activist despite the danger, a scholar despite the odds, and was part of the intelligentsia that rebuilt the country as it became a democracy.
Dr. Adrienne Leslie-Toogood and University of Manitoba psychology student (and Olympic swimming medallist) Chantal Van Landeghem discuss the mental health of elite athletes in the wake of Naomi Osaka’s withdrawal from Wimbledon.
Students at the University of Calgary created podcasts for their final project in Jim Cresswell’s History of Psychology course. Listen here to learn more about Cognitive Dissonance Theory with one group, and the Bystander Effect with another.”
Dr. David Goldbloom’s new book We Can Do Better: Urgent Innovations to Improve Mental Health Access and Care lays out 8 different innovations that can improve access and care right now in Canada. The CPA’s director of policy and public affairs, Glenn Brimacombe, speaks to Dr. Goldbloom about his book and the future of mental health care in this country.
Psychology Month has focused on dozens of aspects of the pandemic, a global catastrophe that is deeply tragic. To close out Psychology Month 2021, we focus on a few positives that have come about as a result of COVID-19.
Introducing The Coping Toolbox: A Child Psych Podcast. Dr. Jenn Vriend, Dr. Laila Din Osmun, and Dr. Mary Simmering McDonald are three child psychologists from Ottawa.
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-coping-toolbox-a-child-psych-podcast/id1553993639
Some of the psychologists doing interesting things during the pandemic
Meet some of the psychologists who have been profiled in this Psychology Month. We speak with Dr. Adrienne Leslie-Toogood, Dr. Christine Chambers, Courtney Gosselin and Dr. Mélanie Joanisse about their work during the pandemic.
Dr. Maya Yampolsky spoke to us about the intersection of the pandemic and both structural and overt racism. It was too much to put into just one profile, so we are sharing the whole conversation on Mind Full.
Dr. Steven Taylor of UBC was the first person to identify a need for a comprehensive look at the psychology surrounding pandemics. His book, “The Psychology of Pandemics: Preparing for the next Global Outbreak of Infectious Disease” was published presciently in October of 2019, a month before the first COVID-19 case appeared in Wuhan.
TK Manyimo will be hosting a workshop over two days, November 5th and 6th, for the CPA. Having A Courageous Conversation is all about equity, diversity, and inclusion in Canadian workplaces. Details on the workshop to come, in the meantime here is a sneak preview.
October 8 is the Carleton University Department of Psychology’s Psychology Mental Health Day. The keynote speaker this year is former CPA President Dr. Keith Dobson. We spoke with Dr. Dobson on the CPA Podcast, so his upcoming appearance (and his upcoming conference call with the World Health Organization) wouldn’t seem so daunting by comparison.
Dr. Marnin Heisel co-wrote the CPA Fact Sheet on suicide, and also co-wrote the Canadian media guidelines for the reporting on suicide. He joins us to talk pandemic, advocacy, and moving forward with a National Suicide Prevention Strategy.
Dr. Monnica Williams, Canada Research Chair in Mental Health Disparities and Associate Professor in the Clinical Psychology program at the University of Ottawa, joins us to talk about the effects of racial trauma, the path of racial justice, and why we need to stop sharing the George Floyd video.
Dr. Anusha Kassan is an Associate Professor at UBC. She helped launch an innovative program to increase diversity in the counselling psychology program when she was at the University of Calgary, and is carrying it over to her new location. We discuss the lack of diversity in mental health professionals, and what psychologists can do to be prepared to help people dealing with racial trauma.
Dr. Judi Malone, CEO of the Psychologists Association of Alberta, and Dr. Ray Bollman, Rural and Small Town specialist with Statistics Canada, join us to talk about rural and northern communities in the time of COVID-19.
Connected North from TakingITGlobal was the recipient of the CPA’s 2020 Humanitarian award for their work connecting youth in remote northern Canadian communities to educational programs, activism, and mentors through 2-way video technology. We spoke to Waukomaun Pawis at Connected North about their programs, indigenous role models, and coping with COVID.
Dr. Helen Ofosu is a Work and Business Psychologist who runs I/O Advisory Services, a HR Consulting, Career and Executive Coaching firm. She has spent a lot of time solving problems in the workplace and joins us to discuss the dual crises of COVID-19 and anti-Black racism. The blog articles referred to can be found on https://ioadvisory.com/
Dr. Heather Prime and two colleagues collaborated on a paper called “Risk and Resilience in Family Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic”. They turned to previous crises (natural disasters, economic crashes, etc) to better understand where families are at and may be headed during COVID-19. You can find their paper here: psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2020-34995-001.html
E.L. Adams II is a psychologist based in Kingston who has started a podcast to connect music with mental health. To listen to his podcast Mental Health, Mood, and Music, click here: https://vimeo.com/elapsychology
Dr. Wendy Wood is a clinical psychologist in Montreal, the epicentre of Canada’s COVID-19 crisis. She is launching the #NotAlone campaign to get free mental health assistance to as many Canadians as possible.
How has the change in our work environment due to COVID-19 affected us? And when we eventually all go back to work, what will that environment look like? Dr. Lindsay McCunn, chair of the CPA’s Environmental Psychology section, elaborates.
Dr. Amy Tan is an MD in Calgary, and recently became the CPA’s 5,000th Twitter follower. We spoke to her about this tremendous achievement (and also about Advanced Care Planning and being an MD during COVID).
Dr. Khush Amaria and her colleagues at Mind Beacon have launched a free online mental health resource for the time of the COVID pandemic. Stronger Minds has many videos and interactive features designed to support mental health and assist those who need help.
For a long time, Dr. Khush Amaria has been working with technology to provide remote psychological services. As her group Mind Beacon launches the free online platform Stronger Minds, she joins us to discuss the unique challenges and opportunities of online therapy.
Quick chat with Dr. Brent MacDonald of MacDonald Psychology Group in Calgary. Dr. MacDonald discusses coping strategies we can all use during the pandemic, and remaining hopeful about the good things that can eventually arise as a result.
Quick chat with Dr. Kimberly Sogge of Ottawa River Psychology Group. Is the current response to the COVID pandemic an opportunity for us to take on climate change next?
Newly elected Chair of the CPA’s Traumatic Stress Section talks about the Nova Scotia shooting, and the power of social media to engender a sense of community in the wake of such a tragedy.
Quick chat with Dr. Brent MacDonald of MacDonald Psychology Group in Calgary. Dr. MacDonald sees several interesting opportunities arising from COVID-19 and the way we’re all adapting to isolation.
Quick chat with Dr. Brent MacDonald of MacDonald Psychology Group in Calgary, who discusses the rise in anxiety thanks to COVID-19.
Daily Audio Update: Dr. Heather MacIntosh on ‘Big T’ vs. ‘little t’ trauma
It’s something of a colloquialism, but the distinction between ‘Big T’ and ‘little t’ trauma is one that matters in the current context of COVID-19. Dr. Heather MacIntosh joins us to discuss that distinction.
Daily Audio Update: Dr. Heather MacIntosh, 7 tips for coping with trauma
Daily Audio Update: Dr. Karen Cohen on advocacy during COVID-19
Quick chat with CPA CEO Dr. Karen Cohen about advocacy during COVID-19. Calling for insurers to cover tele-psychology, and drop the requirements for a physician referral for psychological services.