Research Team
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.
Beáta Bőthe
Postdoctoral Fellow
Beáta is a post-doctoral 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).
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.
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.
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.
Mégane Michaud
Graduate Student
Mégane is a Ph.D. student in psychology (research) at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières since Septembre 2020. For her thesis, she is co-supervised by Dr Simon Rigoulot and Dr Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel. She completed her bachelor’s degree in psychology at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. Her research interests focus on the use of psychotropic drugs, hostility, sexuality, cognitive process and delinquency.
Angélique Mony
Undergraduate Thesis Student
Angélique is an undergraduate student in Psychology at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. She will begin her undergraduate research project under Dr Vaillancourt-Morel’s supervision (2022-2023). Her research interests include childhood maltreatment, trauma, romantic relationships, sexuality and pornography use.
