Dr. Dawn McBride

Dr. Dawn McBride is a tenured associate professor in the graduate counsellor education program at the University of Lethbridge. She is also a registered psychologist, a supervisor for prosional psychologists, and a former ethics examiner for the College of Alberta Psychologists (CAP). She has won numerous teaching awards and is an active volunteer in the community. She is an international speaker, researcher, and writer. Her specialty areas include the advance study of counselling ethics; clinical psychology, integrating a trauma-informed, culturally sensitive, attachment perspective into her work, especially with complex mental health issues such as personality disorders and DID; teaching and using processed based therapies, including group therapy (for all ages) focusing on a stage model of growth where processing using expressive arts and somatic techniques are highly valued; and training and supervision of counselling supervisors.

Research Interests

Dawn's areas of interest evolve around these primary themes (these are areas that she tends to read about, treat clinically, and/or are topics that she is interested in supervising for students' projects/theses): (a) advance ethical practice in counselling - focusing on relational consent, using transparent session notes, and resolving complex ethical dilemmas in the field (teaching, counselling, research, businesses). In addition, I am dedicated to helping non-profit agencies develop and refine their code of ethics and standards of practice. (b) clinical psychology issues pertaining to all ages (e.g., ethics; trauma; self-harm behaviors including disordered eating; positive discipline methods in the classroom; clinical supervisor/supervisee issues; creative art therapy; crisis management to psychodynamic theories/treatment; premarital therapy; and treating most DSM issues including complex disorders such as dissociative identity disorder and personality disorders). (c) supervision practices of counsellors and counselling students. (d) program development & evaluation, including creating group therapy programs. (e) teaching and supervising group therapies, with a focus on integrating expressive arts, culturally sensitive, and attachment theory into the practice, and (f) I am increasingly becoming interested in learning how to protect professors' mental health as well as explore the various sources of pressures professors may be facing to reduce their expectations related to student workload and performance.