Research Team
Director
Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel
Director
Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel is the Director of the SAIL Lab and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. She completed her Ph.D. in Psychology at the Université Laval and then a postdoctoral fellowship at the Université de Montréal. She is also a registered clinical psychologist. Her research focuses on sexuality, couple, and trauma, mainly on the effects of childhood interpersonal trauma and pornography use on couples’ sexual well-being.
Research coordinator
Marilyn Branchaud
Research coordinator
Marilyn is the research projects coordinator of the SAIL Lab. With a Bachelor’s degree in public communication from Université Laval, she has several years of experience in communication, management and coordination.
Postdoctoral fellow
Véronique Charbonneau-Lefebvre
Postdoctoral Fellow
Véronique is a psychologist and postdoctoral fellow under the supervision of Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel at l’Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and Ateret Gewirtz at the University of Haifa in Israel. Her research interests focus on romantic relationships in adulthood, particularly on the interpersonal factors related to couples’ sexual and relational well-being, such as romantic attachment, sexist attitudes and beliefs, and experiences of trauma. As a psychologist, she specializes in sex and couple therapy and supports individuals undergoing fertility treatments. Véronique has received postdoctoral fellowships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Society and Culture (FRQ-SC). She also won a complementary scholarship from the National Institute of Scientific Research as part of the Family in Movement Research Partnership to specifically study the links between sexist attitudes, structural sexism, and the sexual well-being of couples.
Graduate students
Mandy Vasquez
Graduate student
Mandy graduated in April 2020 from the Université de Montréal where she completed a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She accomplished her Honor program under Dr Sophie Bergeron’s supervision. She is therefore completing her second year as a PhD student in Clinical Psychology (R/I) at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières under Dr Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel’s supervision. In 2020, she obtained a Graduate Scholarship from the Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Intimate Relationship Problems and Sexual Abuse. She also received the Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Master’s Scholarships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada as well as a master’s research scholarship from the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Society and Culture for the 2021-2022 competitions. Her research interests are diverse, including motivations for pornography use, domestic violence, and sexual well-being. At the clinical level, Mandy is interested in marital therapy and issues surrounding personality disorders.
Marianne Charest
Graduate student
Marianne has completed a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a microprogram in Sexology at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. She became a doctoral student (intervention profile) in the fall semester of the year 2021. She received a scholarship from the Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire sur les problèmes conjugaux et les agressions sexuelles for the year 2021-2022. Her research interests include couples’ pornography use, relational intimacy and sexual communication. Her clinical interests include marital therapy, attachment relationships, victims of sexual assault and post-traumatic resilience.
Catherine Fortier
Graduate student
Catherine obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières in 2021 and is now a doctoral student (intervention profile) at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières since fall 2022. Catherine’s research interests include childhood maltreatment, romantic relationships and couple sexuality, and the impact of touch in romantic relationships. Her clinical interests include victim sexual assault and child maltreatment and attachment.
Florence Sansoucy
Graduate student
Florence will begin in September 2022 her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières under the supervision of Dr Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel. She completed her bachelor’s degree in psychology at the Université de Montréal. Her clinical and research interests include sexual violence, domestic violence, romantic relationships and childhood maltreatment.
Amélie Beaulieu
Graduate student
Amélie, a second-year doctoral student at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR), graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Sherbrooke. Under the supervision of Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel, her research focuses on sexual behaviors following sexual assaults and predictive factors of adopting these behaviors among female victims. She is also interested in clinical aspects such as traumas, personality disorders, and attachment relationships.
Clarence Pepin
Graduate student
Clarence holds a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Université de Montréal. She is currently in her second year of a doctorate in clinical psychology (Psy.D) at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, under the supervision of Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel. Her research interests include victims of sexual assault, child abuse, domestic and sexual violence, and deviant sexuality.
Co-supervised graduate students
Sabrina Bernier
Co-supervised graduate student
Sabrina completed her bachelor’s degree in psychology at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières in 2021 and is now a Ph.D. student in psychology (intervention and research profile) at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. Her research interests focus on family dynamics, childhood abuse, the repercussions of intergenerational transmission of trauma, and mentalization. Her thesis, under the supervision of Nicolas Berthelot and Marie-Pier Vaillancourt Morel, focuses on the physiological, affective and socio-cognitive processes of trauma resolution in adults.
Allyson Gillard
Co-supervised graduate student
Allyson holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Université Laval. She is currently a PhD student in psychopedagogy at the same university under the supervision of Dr Sylvie Parent and Dr Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel. She is interested in issues of safety and integrity in sport. Her thesis focuses on factors associated with the experience of sexual violence in sport among Quebec adolescents. She obtained doctoral scholarships from both the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Society and Culture.
Noémie Viens
Co-supervised graduate student
Noémie completed a Bachelor’s degree with Honors from Bishop’s University in applied psychology. Since September 2021, she is completing a graduate degree in clinical psychology (Ph. D.) at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, under the supervision of Mr. Frédéric Langlois and Ms. Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel. Her research interests focus on romantic relationships, sexuality and psychopathology. Her thesis work focuses on the associations between perfectionist tendencies and couples’ sexual and relational well-being. Noémie has been awarded a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for 2022-2023.
Undergraduate students
Ema-Florence Boisvert
Undergraduate thesis student
Ema-Florence is a student currently completing her bachelor’s degree at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. She will begin her undergraduate thesis under the supervision of Dre Vaillancourt-Morel (2023-2024). Her research interests are notably interpersonal relationships, sexuality, and social psychology.
Marc-André Dalpé
Undergraduate thesis student
Marc-André Dalpé is currently a bachelor’s degree student at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. His research interests include interpersonal relationships, marital conflicts and problems, couple’s relational trajectory and domestic violence.
Alumni
Beáta Bőthe
Postdoctoral fellow 2019-2023
Beáta is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Psychology at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (Canada) and at the Psychology Department at the Université de Montréal (Canada), under the supervision of Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel, Ph.D. (Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières) and Sophie Bergeron, Ph.D. (Université de Montréal). She focuses on addictions, compulsive sexual behaviors, and problematic and non-problematic pornography use. The overarching aims of her research program are to use state-of-the-art methods to (1) develop well-validated, theory-based assessment tools, (2) identify who may develop compulsive sexual behaviors and why, (3) examine the context (e.g., motivations) that may differentiate between sexual behaviors’ positive and negative outcomes, and (4) develop and evaluate innovative, early intervention strategies to reduce compulsive sexual behaviors. She has published more than 80 international research papers in top-tier scientific journals and 13 book chapters. She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Behavioral Addictions and a member of the editorial boards of other top-tier journals (e.g., Journal of Sex Research, Archives of Sexual Behavior). Among others, she was the recipient of the Society for Sex Therapy and Research’s (SSTAR) Sandra R. Leiblum Student Research Award (2020), the Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health’s (SASH) Research Award (2021), and the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council’s (SSHRC) Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship (2022).
Judith Kotiuga
Postdoctoral fellow 2023
Judith is a psychologist and a postdoctoral intern at the department of psychology at the Université du Québec in Trois-Rivières, under the supervision of Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel, Ph.D. Her research interests primarily focus on adolescent psychosexual development, as well as the developmental, psychological, and interpersonal factors associated with the sexual health and well-being of young individuals and adult couples. Additionally, she works as a psychologist, primarily providing individual therapy to adolescents, as well as co-facilitating group therapy for families who cope with PTSD in their home.
Carolyne Gosselin
Graduate student
Carolyne obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at the Université Laval in 2019 and is now a doctoral student (intervention profile) at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières since fall 2019. Carolyne’s research interests include childhood maltreatment, romantic relationships and couple sexuality, and her clinical interests include marital therapy and personality disorders. She received a scholarship from the Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire sur les problèmes conjugaux et les agressions sexuelles (CRIPCAS) for three consecutive years, 2019-2022.
Marie-Chloé Nolin
Graduate student
Marie-Chloé holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Université Laval and she is a PhD student in Research Psychology and Intervention at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières since September 2019. Her research interests focus primarily on the associations between the use of different pornographic media and contents and individuals and couples’ sexual well-being and relationship satisfaction. Marie-Chloé received a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for 2019-2020 and a grant from the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Society and Culture for 2020-2021. For 2022-2025, she obtained doctoral scholarships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Society and Culture.
