Marnie Wedlake, PhD, RP

Primary Research Interests

Mental Health and Wellness

• Existential Despair across the life span, particularly in post-secondary students
• Living well with compromised (mild, moderate, severe) mental health
• Workplace mental health, particularly emotionally safe workplaces, and accommodations for compromised mental health

Post-traumatic Stress Injury and Trauma-informed Practice

• Trauma-informed practice across the health professions
• Social determinants of mental health, particularly short- and long-term impact of adverse childhood experiences on mental & physical health, and overall quality of life
• Extreme states, particularly psychosis, as natural and expected responses to trauma and adversity
• Attachment theory, particularly the impact of compromised attachment on mental health in youth and adults

Mental Health, Mental Distress and Social Justice

• Positioning the self as the primary author (i.e. first authority) of one’s own story in those who experience mental distress
• Impact of psychiatric diagnosis on identity, agency, and sense of wellbeing in those who experience mental distress
• Vulnerability of service-user voice and personal authority within health care system hierarchies
• Critical analysis of various approaches to treatment and psycho-education for live with experience extreme states and/or serious mental distress

Additional Interests

Theorectical Application and Professional Practice in Mental Health Care and Education

• Existentialism in theory and practice
• Dialogism and practical applications of theories of dialogue
• Use of social constructionism and constructivism to inform processes aimed at making meaning, making sense, and creating understanding
• Critical analysis of selection, review and evaluation processes used to determine the nature of evidence in evidence-based, evidence-informed, and best practices
• Critical analysis of ethics in education and mental health
• Practical applications of constructivist pedagogy
• Critical narrative and critical autobiographical research

Arts and Humanities in Health Care

• Poetry, art, composition, and creative writing as data
• Aesthetic representation of knowledge
• Aesthetic representation of personal and lived experiences

• Wedlake, M. (2020). How to help students facing traumatic loss. The Conversation, Canadian Edition, April 17, 2020.
• Wedlake, M. (2020). COVID-19, fear and the ‘brave’ souls who disregard retail shop directional arrows. Journal of Ethics in Mental Health, Open Volume 11, August 20, 2020.

• Mental health and wellness across the lifespan
• Social Determinants of Mental Health
• Post-traumatic Stress Injury across the lifespan
• Understanding and managing stress
• Trauma-informed practice across the health professions
• Current & emerging paradigms in mental health & wellness
• Cultivating and maintaining wellbeing and resilience
• Innovative modalities and models of treatment, service delivery, and care
• Ethical practice in mental health and wellness
• Mental health and the media