Research
As a researcher, I collaborate with autistic adults to learn more about masking and co-design autism-friendly groups.
Current Projects
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Current Projects -
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Masking or camouflaging is described in the context of autism, where folks try to fit into neurotypical contexts.
This project combines:
Surveys + paired interviews
Perspectives across clinicians, autistic adults and their loved ones
Perspectives across autism, ADHD & other neurotypes
GOAL: To better understanding the concept of masking and how it’s currently discussed in the community and in practice.
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DBT is a modality that supports emotion regulation (i.e., noticing and managing your emotions).
The modality isn’t always autism-friendly (e.g., certain strategies can trigger sensory difficulties, etc.).
This group is co-designed
with a core working group of autistic researchers and clinicians, and DBT-trained professionals
reviewed by a panel of autistic adults
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ACT is a type of therapy that focuses on:
making choices and actions based on values
having a more open relationship with difficult thoughts and feelings
This group is co-designed and co-facilitated with autistic adults for autistic adults.
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In this project, we qualitatively learn about autistic adults experiences post-diagnosis, accessing therapy supports and navigating work and school.
Preprint available on OSFPrePrints
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In response to the pandemic, a virtual adaptation of an in-person ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) group was evaluated for effectiveness (i.e., did it work?).
We look at whether carers’ mental health and wellbeing improved, and whether they learned and used ACT-based strategies in their life to navigate the challenges and barriers they may face in supporting their neurodivergent loved one in accessing care.
Recent Publications
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Recent Publications -
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By: Louisa Man, Adeline Lacroix, Meng-Chuan Lai
Summary: Geared towards physicians supporting autistic adults, this article goes through 5 easy-to-implement strategies to use in clinical practice.
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In this project, we looked at how sex and gender relate to climate-related mental health in youth and learned that gender-diverse youth, as well as those assigned female at birth and cisgender girls, reported higher levels of eco-anxiety and eco-depression than their peers, even after accounting for overall psychological distress.
Deep Into the Archives
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Deep Into the Archives -
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In this project, we looked at how people pay attention to the foreground and background of scenes and learned that while we notice and respond to foreground objects faster, the helpful effect of an object “fitting” its scene is weaker in the foreground than in the background.
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In this project, we looked at how the brain helps people sort and group objects in different ways, and learned that a person with damage to both sides of their temporal lobe had trouble ignoring unimportant details when deciding how to group things, showing that this part of the brain is important for flexible thinking about what things mean.
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In this project, we looked at how people notice things in the front or back of a scene and learned that while we respond faster to items in the foreground and to things that “make sense” in their setting, the helpful effect of meaning is weaker in the foreground than in the background. This helps us understand how 3D space is processed when you enter a room (e.g., information closest to you might be the most important as you might soon interact with them).
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In this project, we looked at how cultural differences in information processing affect implicit memory and learned that East Asian Canadian participants, unlike non-Asian Canadians, showed stronger memory for distracting words when the original picture context was reinstated, reflecting their holistic processing style.