Dr. Toupey Luft
Associate Professor
About
Dr. Toupey Luft has specialized in understanding the needs of marginalized groups in both research and practice. Her work on mentors in teen girls’ lives earned her a National Doctoral Fellowship with SSHRC. Toupey has been a Registered Psychologist for the past 16 years and is currently examining how systemic oppression affects wellness and resilience. She is passionate about counsellor education and has weaving research and practice knowledge with her teaching.
Teaching Interests
1) Counselling Psychology - Theories, Skills/Working Alliance, Interventions, Counselling Children and Youth, Ethics, Group Counselling, Practicum 2) General/Interdisciplinary: Research Methods, Social Ecology of Addiction
Research Interests
Toupey's research program is guided by the belief that accessing empathy and compassion benefits everyone and allows for healthy relationships and growth. Thus, her research program is titled “Healthy Relationships Within Systems”. There are two main streams: 1) Enhancing Health for Counselling Professionals; and 2) Meeting the Needs of Diverse and Marginalized Clients. Toupey is interested in how compassion, empathy, and their expression affect those working in the mental health and counselling fields and the impact of these on the therapeutic alliance (working relationship between professional/therapist and client; its own subsystem); impact on the supervisory alliance (working relationship between clinical supervisor and those providing services; its own relational subsystem); and the overall efficacy of counselling. She views empathy as a key piece for enhancing the health and well-being of those who have been marginalized by virtue of many factors - including age, race, gender, and socio-economic status. To deliver competent services, it is imperative to understand how intersectionality and marginalization are connected to mental health needs. Her research is focused on understanding how positive relationships with others can promote positive mental health and includes elucidating the connection between marginalization experiences and poorer mental health.