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Biography

Laura is a graduate student in the Child Track of the Clinical Psychology Program at ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV and at the Institute for the Reduction of Youth Violence, studying under the supervision of Dr. Robert McMahon. She received her Master’s degree in Clinical and Health Psychology from the Freie Universitaet Berlin in Germany, where she also completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology. Laura fell in love with Canada while completing her Master’s thesis at the University of British Columbia, researching the underlying cognitions of parent-child relationships. For her dissertation, Laura plans to examine the role of traumatic and stressful life events in pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Broadly, Laura is interested in research that helps to foster healthy child development. Prior to starting her Ph.D. at ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV, Laura worked at the OCD Clinic at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver and at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton in Ontario.

Representative Publications/Presentations

Belschner, L., Lin, S. Y., Franco Yamin, D., Best, J., McDermid, J., Edalati, K., & Stewart, S. E. (2020). Mindfulness-based skills training group for parents of obsessive-compulsive disorder-affected children: A caregiver-focused intervention. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 39, 101098. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2020.101098

Negreiros, J., Belschner, L., Selles, R., Lin, S. Y., & Stewart, S. E. (2018). Academic skills in pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder: A preliminary study. Annals of Clinical Psychiatry, 30(3), 185-195.

Belschner, L., Lin, S. Y., Edalati, K., & Stewart, S. E. (2018, April). Does a parent’s mindfulness practice have an impact on their OCD-affected child? Results of a mindfulness-based skills training for parents of youth with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Poster session presented at the meeting of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), Washington, DC.

Selles, R. R., Belschner, L., Negreiros, J., Lin, S. Y., Schuberth, D., McKenney, K., Gregorowski, N., Simpson, A., Bliss, A., & Stewart, S. E. (2017). Group family-based cognitive behavioral therapy for pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder: Global outcomes and predictors of improvement. Psychiatry Research, 260(11), 116-122. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2017.11.041

Johnston, C., Belschner, L., Park, J., Stewart, K., Noyes, A., & Schaller, M. (2017). Mothers’ implicit and explicit attitudes and attributions in relation to self-reported parenting behavior. Parenting: Science and Practice, 17(1), 51-72. http://doi.org/10.1080/15295192.2016.1184954

Belschner, L., Johnston, C., Noyes, A., Stewart, K., & Park, J. (2015, November). Explicit and implicit maternal attributions in relation to positive and negative parenting. Poster session presented at the meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Chicago, IL.