PEOPLE
Dr Sonya Deschênes, Associate Professor and Lab Director
Dr Sonya Deschênes is a Lecturer/Associate Professor (Ad Astra Fellow) in the School of Psychology at UCD and the Principal Investigator of the UCD PATH Lab. She obtained her doctoral degree in Psychology from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, and conducted her postdoctoral research in mental health epidemiology at McGill University in Montreal. Her research is at the intersection of health psychology and epidemiology, with interests in the comorbidity between mental and physical health conditions, the biopsychosocial mechanisms (mediators and moderators) of these associations, and more broadly, psychosocial aspects of physical and mental health. She is also interested in applying longitudinal data analysis methods to address research questions with prospective cohort studies.
Sonya currently teaches health psychology at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels and has previously taught modules on introductory psychology, social psychology, and psychosocial aspects of disease. Off campus, Sonya enjoys spending time with her family, hiking and being outdoors, and soap making.
More information can be found here.
Elaine Lowry, PhD Candidate
Elaine Lowry is a PhD student supervised by Dr Sonya Deschênes and Dr Paul D’Alton. Her research aims to investigate the psychosocial needs of patients attending the high familial risk cancer clinic at St. Vincent’s University Hospital and throughout the country in order to inform the development of a suitable clinical psychology service for these patients. Prior to pursuing her PhD, she earned a BA in Psychology from Maynooth University and a Masters in Psychological Science from University College Dublin. She is interested in health and clinical psychology, particularly the biopsychosocial impact of adverse childhood experiences on individuals across the lifespan, as well as the importance of developing trauma-informed treatment approaches.
Off-campus, she enjoys hiking, cooking, reading novels (especially fantasy, historical fiction, and thrillers), and going to the theatre.
Samantha Trevaskis, PhD Candidate
Samantha Trevaskis is a PhD Candidate in the UCD School of Psychology, supervised by Dr Sonya Deschênes. Samantha’s research focuses on Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD), mental illness and health behaviours associated with the presentation of women’s symptoms. Her research will utilise ecological momentary assessment to investigate the presentation of PMDD symptoms for women over the course of their menstrual cycle and use this methodology to identify which health behaviours are beneficial for women with PMDD. She is particularly interested in Women’s Health Psychology, and the unique health conditions women experience.
Samantha graduated with a BA in Psychology in 2020 from Dublin City University. Following that, she graduated from University College Dublin in 2021 with a master’s degree in Psychological Science. Samantha lectures and teaches undergraduate modules such as Introduction to Psychology and Cognitive and Biological Psychology. She has also been a research assistant on several projects, including #OpenTeach and Children’s School Lives.
In her spare time, Samantha loves to try baking new recipes, reading, and travelling to new places. In addition, Samantha founded Slàinte na mBan, an Irish Women’s Health Research Network aimed at connecting researchers across Ireland and building a community for those interested in women’s health research.
Siobhan Power, PhD Candidate
Siobhan is a PhD candidate at University College Dublin, where her research focuses on diabetes stigma and its impact on mental health and well-being, particularly examining the factors that buffer against and enhance its influence. She explores this through various approaches, including a cross-sectional survey, ecological momentary assessments, and a media analysis.
Siobhan completed a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at Dublin City University in 2022 and earned a Master’s in Psychological Science at University College Dublin in 2023. She also worked as a research assistant at the UCD PATH Lab on a project investigating the comorbidity between diabetes and depression, alongside postdoctoral researcher Dr. Jaroslav Gottfried, under the supervision of Dr. Sonya Deschenes.
In her spare time, Siobhan enjoys travelling, reading, and spending time with friends and family.
Dr Jaroslav Gottfried, Post-doctoral Research Fellow
Jaroslav Gottfried is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the School of Psychology at UCD and investigates the comorbidity between diabetes and depression under the supervision of Dr Sonya Deschênes at the UCD PATH Lab. Jaroslav finished his PhD in General Psychology at Masaryk University, Czech Republic, in 2022 and then worked for two years at a post-doctoral position at the University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic. There, in addition to his research project, he organized methodological and statistical workshops, and provided counselling on research methods and quantitative data analysis. Jaroslav is interested in survey methodology, data quality issues, and psychometrics, but also contributed to research on intimate relationships among people in higher age, and on the Czech adaptation of Beck Depression Inventory for assessing depressive symptoms.
In his free time, Jaroslav enjoys volleyball, dancing, and reading comics.
Dr Hugh Fulham-McQuillan, Post-doctoral Research Fellow
Hugh Fulham-McQuillan is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the School of Psychology at UCD. He is working primarily on the Research Culture UCD initiative with Dr Sonya Deschênes. His focus on this initiative is to explore how aspects of research culture can impact mental health and wellbeing among those engaged in research activities, and to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement, also to develop a better understanding of researcher wellbeing. He completed his doctoral degree in Psychology in Trinity College Dublin. His research combines and intersects the areas of mental health, health psychology and health services research, using both quantitative and qualitative methods.
In his free time he enjoys playing tennis and golf.
Isabella J. Lalor, Psychologist in Clinical Training
Isabella J. Lalor is a psychology doctorate (DClin) student currently completing her clinical training at University College Dublin. Her doctoral research is supervised by Dr Sonya Deschênes and Dr Niki Nearchou and focuses on the longitudinal relationship between physical multimorbidity and mental health outcomes. Specifically, her work examines whether the presence of multiple chronic physical health conditions is associated with an increased risk of developing affective disorders, such as depression and anxiety, over time.
Prior to commencing her doctorate, Isabella completed a BSc in psychology at Maynooth University, followed by a research master’s degree at Maynooth University. Her master’s research examined the predictive validity of the Function Acquisition Speed Test (FAST) in the context of attitudes and voting behaviour, and this work was recently published in Behavior and Social Issues. Isabella’s academic and clinical interests are grounded in clinical and health psychology. Currently, she is particularly interested in how physical health trajectories influence mental health across the lifespan, and how longitudinal cohort data can inform prevention, early identification, and integrated models of care for individuals with complex health needs.
Outside of her academic and clinical work, Isabella enjoys spending time with her family (including her toy poodle, Mylo), travelling, and playing and listening to music.
Lab Alumni
Dr. Amy McInerney, Doctoral Graduate & Lab Co-Founder
Dr. Amy McInerney completed her PhD at University College Dublin, funded by the Ad Astra PhD fellowship, successfully defending her thesis in November 2024. Her doctoral research explored the role of health behaviours in the development, progression, and maintenance of mental health comorbidities in people with diabetes.
Currently, Dr. McInerney is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Population-Based Medicine at the University of Tübingen. She lectures on the MSc programme and focuses her research on using digital monitoring devices to better understand the interplay between physical and mental health, particularly in individuals with diabetes.
Her work incorporates innovative methodologies such as digital phenotyping to assess daily changes in behavior and mood, and network analysis to explore symptom-level interactions.
Amy completed a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at NUI Galway in 2015 and completed an MSc in Psychology of Childhood Adversity at Queen’s University Belfast in 2018. Amy was a founding member of the PsychoSocial aspects of Diabetes ECR group which she currently co-chairs.
In her free time, Amy enjoys cycling, scuba diving, hiking, and sewing.
Our Publications
Read some of our previous publications.
The UCD PATH Lab 