Second Annual CPA Satellite Conference

Anne Bowker & Janet Mantler

Title of Plenary: We need to talk about menopause: The menopausal transition and women’s mental health

Presenting on: Friday, October 23rd from 9:45am-11:00am at Carleton University
Description of Plenary: Despite menopause being a universal experience for women, it remains surprisingly difficult to talk about. Too often, it is framed as a period of deficiency, decline, or loss rather than as a significant life transition with psychological, social, and occupational dimensions. We draw on interviews with 60 women to explore their lived experience of the menopausal transition and consider their experiences in the context of women’s mental health. Our participants described a wide range of experiences that affected their sleep, mood, confidence, relationships, body image, and sense of aging. For some, changes in weight and appearance intensified longstanding body image concerns; for others the menopausal transition offered an opportunity to develop a more accepting relationship with their bodies. Women also discussed menopause as a workplace mental health issue. Many described brain fog, disrupted sleep, anxiety, and loss of confidence that affected their ability to work. Concerns about stigma and career consequences made conversations with colleagues and supervisors difficult. Finally, we consider the relationships and conversations that women have with their health care providers. Some women found these conversations supportive and validating, whereas others encountered dismissal, inadequate information, or no conversation at all. We argue that talking openly about menopause is not simply normalizing a biological transition, it is an important step in improving women’s mental health by improving their relationships with themselves, family members, colleagues, supervisors, and health care practitioners.

Anne Bowker, PhD – Carleton University

Bio:

Anne Bowker is the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Carleton University and a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Carleton University. She is a developmental psychologist, and her research focuses on transitions, most recently examining mid-life transitions, including the menopausal transition and how body image at mid-life influences well-being.

 

Janet Mantler, PhD – Carleton University

Bio:

Janet Mantler is an Associate Professor in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and is Director for the Centre for Initiatives in Education at Carleton University. The key focus of her research is on work, stress, and mental health with an overall concern of how to improve workplaces to have a positive impact on employee well-being.

 

Suzanne Stewart

Title of Plenary: TBA

Presenting on: Friday, October 23rd from 11:15am-12:30pm at Carleton University
Description of Plenary: TBA

Suzanne Stewart, PhD – University of Toronto

Bio:

Biography coming soon!

 

Jennifer Dimoff

Title of Plenary: Bringing the Body to Work: Pregnancy Loss and Postpartum Mental Health in the Workplace

Presenting on: Friday, October 23rd from 1:30pm-2:45pm at Carleton University
Description of Plenary: Work is an inherently embodied experience, yet women’s reproductive and perinatal health remain markedly underexamined in occupational health research, despite important implications for employee well-being and work outcomes. This presentation examines women’s health at work through the lens of embodiment, drawing on a program of research focused on pregnancy loss and postpartum mental health. A phenomenological study (N = 29) illustrates how experiences of pregnancy loss permeate work and nonwork boundaries and are embedded within interconnected organizational, healthcare, family, and sociocultural systems. Building on this work, ongoing longitudinal research (N = 420) examines the intersection of postpartum mental health and work, with particular attention to supervisor support and turnover. Together, these studies position reproductive and perinatal health as consequential workplace phenomena and highlight the value of integrating embodiment into psychological research on the intersection between work, health, identity, and employee well-being.

Jennifer Dimoff, PhD – University of Ottawa/Université d’Ottawa

Bio:

Dr. Jennifer K Dimoff is the Kathryn Tremblay Endowed Professor of Workplace Mental Health and Wellness Leadership at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa. She specializes in employee mental health, women’s health, and leadership-focused workplace interventions. As an award-winning researcher, Dr. Dimoff’s work reflects her firm endorsement of the scientist-practitioner model – to provide evidence-based solutions to real workplace challenges. She has worked with local, national, and international organizations, including the American Psychological Association (APA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Sun Life Financial, Multi-Health Systems (MHS), and Harvard University. Notably, Dr. Dimoff has co-developed two mental health training programs for workplace leaders – two of the only programs in North America to demonstrate return-on-investment (ROI) and lasting impact on employee well-being. Her work has been internally recognized and cited by multiple policy-influencing organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.K.’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Safe Work Australia, and the Canadian Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). In addition to several peer-reviewed publications in organizational psychology and public health journals (e.g., Journal of Vocational Behavior; American Journal of Public Health), she has also co-edited the book Leading to Occupational Health and Safety: How Leadership Behaviours Impact Organizational Safety and Well-Being and is a co-founder of the Canadian Foundation of Innovation-funded Inclusion, Interaction, and Intervention Lab (Triple-I Lab) at the University of Ottawa—the largest state-of-the-art research center in Canada dedicated to analyzing social interactions in work settings.

 

Myrna Lashley

Title of Plenary: Black women and intergenerational trauma

Presenting on: Friday, October 23rd from 3:00pm-4:15pm at Carleton University
Description of Plenary: The African Canadian Legal Clinic states that “Racialized women in Canada consistently and disproportionately experience poverty, homelessness, sexual assault, incarceration, and discrimination…(Furthermore) Canadian women of African descent are particularly vulnerable to such marginalization.” Although Black women are not a monolithic group, there are some things which affect them communally and which have the probability of creating and/or intensifying mental health difficulties. Many of these issues are imposed by social forces and conditions, the existence of which often force Black women to adapt to or adopt behaviours which they prefer to eschew. Unfortunately, such adaptations and adoption often exacerbate or trigger intergenerational trauma. It is important to recognize these social forces and work together to identify way to address them, Thus, working towards creating a better and healthier society for all.
This interactive presentation will provide an opportunity to consider some of those factors and discuss means in which to address them in culturally appropriate ways.

Myrna Lashley, PhD – McGill University

Bio:

Dr. Myrna Lashley, CM,  holds a Ph.D in counseling psychology from McGill university. She was an Associate Academic dean at John Abbott College She is also an associate professor in the department of psychiatry of McGill University as well as a researcher at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research at the Jewish General Hospital and a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Geopsychiatry, Bern, Switzerland. She is an internationally recognized clinical, teaching and, research authority in cultural psychology, and serves as an expert psychological consultant to institutions, including the juvenile justice system. For seven years, she was the Chair of the First-Line Psychosocial Science Committee of the Clinical Ethics Committee of CIUSS de centre-ouest-de-l'ile-de-Montréal. She has worked both as a consultant to First Nations and the Jewish communities, and as the Cross Cultural Trainer for the Grievance Committee office of the secretariat for McGill University.  She has also conducted training workshops locally, nationally, and internationally and has acted as a consultant to the Brazilian health care system. She was a director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and has also served on the Comité consultatif sur les relations Interculturelles et Interraciales de la Communauté Urbaine de Montréal. From 2008 to 2017 she was the Chair of the Cross Cultural Roundtable on Security.  She was Vice-chair of the board of the École Nationale de Police du Québec from 2004 - 2017.  As well as conducting research on police matters, she has also been appointed to the Comité expert en matière de profilage racial of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal and to the Comité-conseil sur l'organisation d'une consultation sur le racisme et la discrimination systémique. She is a consultant to government and non-governmental agencies at the Canadian federal, provincial and municipal levels on issues of equity and inclusivity.  In addition to academic publications, she has also authored two training manuals on intercultural issues in the workplace and co-authored book chapters. She has received several awards including Barbados High Commission Inaugural Award 2026;  Great Concordian 2024; Order of Canada, 2024; Horary Doctorate from University of Ottawa, 2024, 2021 CBC Changemaker, 2015 Woman of Merit Award from the Playmas Montreal Cultural Association; the Queen Elizabeth II 2012 Diamond Jubilee award; 2006 Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Award for Holocaust studies; the 2004 Martin Luther King legacy award; as well as the 1995 Merit Award for the Kanawake Native survival school. Her current research focuses on the intersections of culture, terrorism and national security. Dr. Lashley is co-chair of the Caribbean Centre for Geopsychiatry. She is currently Barbados’s Honorary Consul to Montreal.

 

Ada Sinacore

Title of Plenary: Gender Based Violence: The Intergenerational Impact on Women, Trans-Women and Girls

Presenting on: Saturday, October 24th from 9:45am-11:00am at the University of Ottawa
Description of Plenary: The history of gender-based violence (GBV) towards women, trans women, and girls is well documented. Gender-based violence (GBV) is defined as any act that results in physical, sexual, emotional and/or psychological suffering based on a person’s gender. These acts can be cyber threats, coercion, economic abuses and/or deprivation of liberty (to name a few). The World Health Organization (WH0) has identified violence against women and girls as a global crisis with one in three women experiencing sexual violence and/or intimate partner violence at least once since they were 15 years of age. However, due to under reporting this estimate is quite low. The statistics in Canada are no different than those reported by the WHO. In fact, it is estimated that over 4.7 million women have been victims of sexual violence since the age of 15. As well, Indigenous women, lesbians, bisexuals, non-binary and trans women are at an increased risk for sexual violence compared to non-Indigenous women and heterosexual women. Moreover, individuals with disabilities and older populations are among some of the most vulnerable to gender-based abuse. According to the Canadian Psychological Association’s 2024 position statement the elimination of gender-based violence requires a multi-pronged approach which includes all levels of government, workplaces and educational institutions. However, currently women’s and tran’s rights are being whittled away in Canada and the United States as is exemplified by the overturning of Roe vs Wade by the US Supreme Course, the anti-gender movement and the growing ideology of the “manosphere”. GBV is endemic in Canadian Society and affects women, trans women and girls in profound ways. Given the pervasiveness of GBV as well as the longstanding and on-going calls to address this problem it is important to consider the intergenerational impact of living in a society where GBV has been and is so prevalent. Thus, in this presentation the speaker will provide an analysis of the past and current situation related to GBV in Canada as well as the on-going challenges and rising resistance to address the problem. Finally, the speaker will discuss the intergenerational trauma resulting from GBV and offer insights on how to offer trauma informed gender affirming care to women, trans-women, girls and their families.

Ada Sinacore, PhD – McGill University

Bio:

Ada L. Sinacore, Ph.D. is a professor in the Counselling Psychology Program in the Faculty of Education at McGill University. They are the Graduate Program Director for the Master of Education program an associate member of the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, and the Director of the Social Justice and Diversity Research Lab.  Additionally, Professor Sinacore is the current president of the International Council of Psychologists, a past-president of the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA), and a member of the advisory council of the Global Network of Psychologists for Human Rights. They have been a member of the Psychology Coalition and the United Nations and co-Chaired Psychology Day at the United Nations in 2022.  They have over 25 years of experience working in the U.S., Canada, and abroad, and is internationally recognized for their expertise and extensive presentations, publications and activism addressing social justice and human rights concerns at the individual, institutional, societal, governmental, and policy levels. They are actively involved in research that addresses topics related to societal inequities and disparities in education and mental health. Professor Sinacore has received numerous honors and awards, and is a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association and honored as a Distinguished Member of the Counselling Psychology Section (CPA). At McGill University, Professor Sinacore received the Faculty of Education Award for Distinguished Teaching, is recognized as a Distinguished Supervisor. As well, they were honored with the McGill University, Award for Equity and Community Building.  Internationally, Professor Sinacore has been a visiting scholar in a number of universities around the world. They were a  key speaker at the XV and XVII International Weeks at the University of Chile.  Professor Sinacore was a Distinguished Visiting Scholar with the Department of International Cooperation and Science Education, in Taiwan. They worked with Canadian Embassy in Chile as an Expert in Gender where they collaborated with university students, women leaders, NGOs and Government Officials to discuss ways to address sexual violence in their respective institutions.

 

Serena Corsini-Munt

Title of Plenary: How we can help with the mental health and relational impact of chronic pelvic pain

Presenting on: Saturday, October 24th from 11:15am-12:30pm at the University of Ottawa
Description of Plenary: Chronic pelvic pain disproportionately affects women and those assigned female at birth, with high correlations between chronic pelvic pain and depression and lifetime history of interpersonal trauma. Pain conditions affecting female reproductive health carry an impact beyond the pain and can have deleterious effects on mental health, sexual functioning, relationships, and their fertility. Women and individuals assigned female at birth experiencing chronic pelvic pain will be benefitted by clinicians who have an understanding of pain and how it is experienced, the mechanisms through which it has an impact on the person in pain, its consequences to mental health and relationships, and psychological treatment options. This presentation will review the psychological and relational impact of conditions contributing to chronic pelvic pain such as endometriosis, uterine fibroids, and provoked vestibulodynia, among others, identify relevant therapeutic targets, discuss the challenges and value in working with this clinical population and present empirically reviewed interventions relevant to clinical and health psychologists. Following this presentation, participants will be able to: 1) Identify and discuss the mental health impacts of female chronic pelvic pain; 2) Describe the types of mental health support identified as helpful for and by patients with chronic pelvic pain; and 3) Select interventions for their practice to support clients experiencing chronic pain with more confidence.

Serena Corsini-Munt, PhD – University of Ottawa/Université d’Ottawa

Bio:

Dr. Serena Corsini-Munt is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology, Director of the Relationship and Couple Health Lab, and Vice-Dean of Graduate Studies for the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ottawa. She is also a registered Clinical and Health Psychologist, registered with the College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario. She completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the Université de Montréal in 2016, focusing her dissertation on the dyadic perspective of trauma antecedents and treatment effectiveness in couples coping with genito-pelvic pain. Her research, which has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and clinical work are grounded in a strong commitment to autonomy, relational well-being, and supporting individuals and couples through complex life experiences. She has received several distinctions, including the Canadian Psychological Association’s Section on Women and Psychology Feminist Mentoring Award, and has contributed extensively to teaching, clinical supervision, research, and professional service. She and her team conduct multi-methods research, including experimental, quantitative, and qualitative designs, prioritizing dyadic methods and analyses. Overall, she and her students are dedicated to understanding couples’ experiences of sexual and health challenges, focusing on identifying factors that can ultimately contribute to relationship, sexual and psychological well-being for individuals and couples.

 

Jennifer Bossio

Title of Plenary: Let’s Talk About Sex. Clinically. Women’s Sexual Health in the Therapy Room

Presenting on: Saturday, October 24th from 1:30pm-2:45pm at the University of Ottawa
Description of Plenary: Popular culture offers women remarkably limited sexual scripts: effortlessly insatiable, perpetually uninterested, or too exhausted to consider the question. Yet sexual health is associated with better physical, mental, and relational well-being, making it an important consideration in psychological care (Vasconcelos et al., 2024).
Population research indicates that 43% of women report sexual difficulties, although fewer experience associated distress (Laumann et al., 1999; Shifren et al., 2008). Feeling equipped to discuss sexual health is therefore relevant across psychological practice. These conversations can reveal concerns about pain, depression, anxiety, and relationships that warrant attention in assessment and care.
Drawing on research and clinical experience, Dr. Jenn Bossio, Clinical and Health Psychologist and founder and director of Tri Health Clinic, Ontario’s largest sex and couples therapy clinic, will explore the expectations women bring into therapy—and those clinicians may bring themselves.
The presentation will introduce Basson’s Sexual Response Cycle (Basson, 2000) as a practical framework for understanding women’s sexual health. It will examine how this model can guide assessment, case formulation, and intervention while making sexual experiences easier to discuss. Attention will also be given to how clinicians’ beliefs, assumptions, and discomfort influence what gets asked, recognized, and understood as a problem.
Evidence-based interventions, particularly third-wave psychotherapies such as mindfulness-based sex therapy (MBST; e.g., Brotto et al., 2021), will illustrate treatment approaches for common sexual concerns in women.
Designed for psychologists, psychological associates, and psychology trainees working with women across practice settings, this talk offers an accessible foundation for integrating sexual health into everyday clinical care. Participants will develop a clearer understanding of sexual response, ways to open the conversation, potential avenues for intervention, and when specialist referral is appropriate.

Jennifer Bossio, PhD – Queen’s University, Tri Health Clinic

Bio:

Dr. Jenn Bossio is a Clinical and Health Psychologist. She is the founder and director of the Tri Health Clinic, one of Ontario’s largest sex and couple’s therapy clinic, with more than 15 dedicated therapists of multiple disciplines, including Psychologists, Social Workers, Psychotherapists, and Nurse Psychotherapists. She is Adjunct Faculty at Queen’s University in the Departments of Urology, Gynecology, and Psychology. Dr. Bossio completed her clinical training at Queen’s University, and her clinical residency at Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, where she also completed a postdoctoral fellowship funded by Prostate Cancer Canada and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. While in Vancouver, Dr. Bossio developed and evaluated psychological interventions aimed at improving the sexual lives for men and their partners following cancer treatment. She has published and presented widely in sexuality and has won multiple academic honours and awards, including, most recently, Kingston’s Top 40 under 40 in 2023 and Kingston’s Business Person of the Year in 2025.

 

Sophie Lebel

Title of Plenary: Beyond the Fear of Recurrence: Psychological Interventions for Women Living After Cancer

Presenting on: Saturday, October 24th from 3:00pm-4:15pm at the University of Ottawa
Description of Plenary: Overall, 63% of Canadians diagnosed with cancer are expected to live 5 years or more. This means there is a growing number of women that are referred to as ‘survivors’; for example, 2% of all Canadian women are breast cancer survivors. While this is undeniably good news, cancer survivorship comes with physical, social, spiritual, emotional, and psychological sequalae. Foremost among these is the fear of cancer recurrence (FCR), defined as the ‘worry, fear, or concern relating to the possibility that cancer may come back or progress’, with 59% of cancer survivors reporting at least moderate amounts of this fear. Care partners also report FCR, sometimes even more so than the patients themselves. Identifying as a woman has been a robust predictor of FCR in both survivors and care partners. The last two decades have seen several evidence-based treatments being validated to help women manage their FCR. Among these if the Fear Of Recurrence Therapy (FORT) we developed, a six-week, cognitive-existential manualized group therapy. FORT was first pilot tested among women with breast and ovarian cancer, followed by two randomized controlled trials, and a pan-Canadian implementation study that demonstrated its effectiveness in clinical settings. We have pilot tested FORT adaptations for women care partners of adult cancer survivors and for parents of survivors of childhood cancer and have contributed to cultural adaptions of FORT internationally. The learning objectives of this talk are to:

1. Familiarize the audience with cancer survivorship and its impact on mental health, focusing on fear of cancer recurrence;
2. Give an overview of evidence-based psychological treatments for FCR, including an introduction to the six sessions of FORT and some practical tools and resources;
3. Discuss challenges regarding implementation of evidence-based innovations for FCR and equity gaps in terms of who accesses these services and possible solutions.

Sophie Lebel, PhD – University of Ottawa/Université d’Ottawa

Bio:

Dr. Sophie Lebel is a clinical psychologist and a professor at the School of Psychology at the University of Ottawa. Her research focuses on cancer survivorship and psychosocial interventions. Her expertise is on managing fear of cancer recurrence (FCR). Over the past 20 years, she has been working on an FCR intervention called FORT, a group intervention for survivors that has been tested through clinical trials and is currently being culturally adapted in several countries. FORT is now available in several locations across Canada as part of standard of care. She is currently testing FORT adaptations for caregivers and parents of pediatric cancer survivors. Clinically, she works with cancer survivors and their loved ones across all phases of the disease trajectory.