Areas of interest

As a licensed psychologist in the Counselling Psychology program, Dr. Socholotiuk's research focus is youth mental health and the relational systems (e.g., families, parents, schools/educators, and counsellors) that support their well-being. Central to her work is a commitment to centring the processes by which people collaborate with and on behalf of youth, with attention to the diverse cultural contexts and communities within which young people and their supporters are situated.

Recent projects have examined how therapeutic alliance is established between cross-cultural counsellor-youth dyads in telehealth settings, parent actions and processes during family-based treatment for adolescent eating disorders, and how teachers can engage youth in career conversations that also support their mental health.

Methodologically, she is drawn to approaches that centre relational processes. She frequently uses and supervises work applying the action-project method, which attends to the purposeful, joint actions people take together in context. She has also written on how counsellors can integrate empirical assessment with children, youth, and families in ways that remain congruent with counselling psychology's humanistic values.

She typically supervises one thesis student per year and welcomes inquiries from prospective MA students whose interests align with this work. She is also interested in partnering with community practitioners and agencies serving young people who want to embed inquiry within their settings to respond to practice needs.