​Lab Director
Dr. Raha Hassan, PhD, CPsych 
[email protected]

Dr. Raha Hassan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), a registered clinical psychologist in Ontario, and the director of the Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEW) lab. Prior to joining TMU, she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Western University from 2023 to 2026. Dr. Hassan received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from McMaster University under the mentorship of Dr. Louis Schmidt and completed her predoctoral residency at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. Dr. Hassan and her research team examine children’s social and emotional development, with a particular focus on temperamental shyness, self-regulation, and interpersonal dynamics, and whether and how relations depend on contextual factors on a small and large scale. One stream of her program, for example, uses a strengths-based approach to understand first-generation immigrant children’s friendship formation and positive social adjustment. Dr. Hassan typically integrates a multimethod approach to addressing these questions, but emphasizes naturalistic observation of behavior in her research. ​

Name Pronunciation
/Rah-hah/   /Ha-ss-ann/

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Graduate Students
Pascale Lacroix

Pascale is a PhD1 Student in Clinical Psychology. She completed her MSc at Western University where she examined the role of familiar others in preschoolers’ emotional expression and regulation, and her BSc Honours in Psychology at Mount Allison University where she examined the role of social feedback and executive function development on norm learning in preschoolers. For her future work, Pascale is interested in examining how other people’s perceptions of a child’s temperament shape that child’s developing self-concept. Pascale loves spending time with her people, being near (or in) water, reading, and painting!
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Name Pronunciation
/Pas-kahl/   /La-krwah/

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Raman Sangha

Raman is a first-year PhD student in Clinical Psychology. She completed her MSc at Western University where she examined emotional concordance in early childhood across different contexts. For her BSc Honours in Psychology at the University of British Columbia Okanagan, she investigated emotional concordance during social stress in an adult population. Raman’s research interests include clarifying what makes a “good” social interaction in childhood, from the perspective of children involved in the social interaction. In her leisure time, Raman enjoys reading, working out, and spending quality time with family and friends.
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Name Pronunciation
/Ruh-mun/   /Sung-gah/

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Sera Gandhi

Sera is a second year MSc student in Clinical Psychology at Western University. She completed her BSc Honours in Psychology and Cognitive Science at the University of Toronto in 2024. For her honours thesis, she investigated how time spent with different social partners affects mental well-being and developmental outcomes in early adolescents. Her research centers on socio-emotional development in children, with a focus on interpersonal dynamics during play and their links to children's concurrent and prospective social adjustment. After she defends her MSc thesis next summer, Sera will join the rest of the SEW Lab at TMU for her PhD. Outside of school, you’ll find her reading, chasing runner’s highs, or getting lost (happily) in secondhand stores.

Name Pronunciation
/Se-rr-ah/ (rolled r),  /Gahn-dh-ee/

​​Click below to hear the pronunciation
Brianna Meddaoui

​Brianna is an incoming fifth-year PhD candidate in Clinical Psychology. She earned MA/MSc degrees in psychology from Columbia University and Western University. Her research examines how vulnerability factors (e.g., cognitive, affective, physiological) interact with contextual stressors to shape suicide risk across key developmental periods. She can also be found making stained glass, spending time with her loved ones/dogs, and hunting down gluten-free food that actually tastes good.​

Name Pronunciation
/Bree-ANN-uh/   /Meh-DA-wee/

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Lab Coordinator

Serena Anderson​

Serena began at the SEW lab as an undergraduate student research intern (USRI) and has since been working as the lab coordinator. Serena is involved in behavioural coding, recruitment, and managing ongoing research projects with Dr. Hassan. She obtained her BSc Honours in Psychology from Western University in 2024, where she completed her thesis related to the dark tetrad cluster of personality traits and schadenfreude. Serena is interested in studying how early interpersonal relationships (e.g., parents, siblings, peers) affect children's psychological development and wellbeing. In her free time, Serena enjoys listening to music, playing the piano, going to trivia, and spending time with her family and friends.

Name Pronunciation
/Seh-rre-nah/ (Rolled r, short e)  /And-er-son/  

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InterPETsonal Supports

Clementine

Kota

Rigby

Pippa

Pippa

Remi

Charlie

Alumni

Zeinab Zammar, Former Research Assistant, Incoming Physician Assistant Student at the University of Toronto

Curtis Wagter, Former Honours/USRI Student, MA Clinical Psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University

Gabriela Valente Magalhaes, Former Honours Student

Connie Tsai, Former Honours/USRI Student, B.Sc Hons., at Western University

Katelyn Matsumoto, Former Research Assistant, Research Coordinator at St. Joseph's Healthcare

Alaya Bhimani, Former Honours Student, Schulich School of Medicine at Western University

Hilary Guo, Former Honours Student, WTW Financial Services

​Maria Zangari, Former USRI Student, MA Sociology at Western University

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