Lab Director
Dr. Renée El-Gabalawy

Dr. El-Gabalawy is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Clinical Health Psychology and Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine in the Max Rady College of Medicine at the University of Manitoba (UM). She also holds adjunct appointments in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology (Fort Garry), and is an Adjunct Scientist at CancerCare Manitoba. As a Vanier Scholar, she received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from UM in 2015. She also completed a predoctoral research fellowship supported by a CIHR Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement at Yale University in 2013. Before joining the faculty at UM, Dr. El-Gabalawy completed her Clinical Psychology residency at the Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston Consortium) with a behavioural medicine and civilian trauma clinical emphasis.  

Dr. El-Gabalawy has been successful at obtaining millions of dollars of funding locally and nationally as both co- and principal investigator. She has well over 100 peer reviewed journal publications and book chapters, and has presented research findings in over 150 local, national and international conference proceedings. Dr. El-Gabalawy is also a co-investigator and the Clinical Research Network Director of the Chronic Pain SPOR Network at UM and a member of the Psychology of Pandemic Network (PsyPan). She also serves on the editorial board of General Hospital Psychiatry. Finally, she is the chair of the external advisory board for the Center of Perioperative Mental Health, Washington University.

Find Dr. El-Gabalawy on twitter and research gate

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Lab Members

Graduate Students

 Jordana Sommer (PhD Candidate & Research Associate)

Jordana is a fourth year PhD candidate in the Clinical Psychology program at UM and is co-supervised by Dr. El-Gabalawy and Dr. Kristin Reynolds. Her primary research interests are in the areas of perioperative mental health and post-traumatic stress disorder in health contexts. Her dissertation examines postoperative outcomes of preoperative distress among patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery, and the feasibility of a targeted virtual reality intervention to reduce preoperative anxiety.  She previously completed her MA and undergraduate degree under the supervision of Dr. El-Gabalawy. She has received well over a dozen awards and scholarships throughout her graduate training and has published over 45 peer reviewed manuscripts and book chapters. Most recently, she was awarded the Women's Health Research Foundation of Canada Graduate Scholarship, UM Sheu L. Lee Family Scholarship in Oncology Research, and the Faculty of Graduate Studies Student Achievement Award. She will be starting her clinical psychology residency in the Clinical Health Psychology program at UM in September 2023. You can also find her on Twitter.

Research Assistants & Coordinators

Megan Crooks

Megan completed her Bachelor of Science (Honours) in June 2023. She completed her undergraduate thesis under the supervision of Dr. El-Gabalawy. Her thesis focused on the feasibility of a novel virtual reality program for phantom limb pain among individuals with a lower limb amputations living in the community. She will be starting her MA in Clinical Psychology at UM in September 2023 under the supervision of Dr. El-Gabalawy. She is currently a research assistant in the HATLab where she acts as a co-research coordinator for a National Research Council funded study examining the development of a novel virtual reality program for phantom limb pain. She is also assisting in a project examining the utility of an acceptance and commitment based therapy online treatment program for chronic pain.

Jori Ganetsky

Jori completed her Bachelor of Science (Honours) in June 2023. She completed her undergraduate thesis under the co-supervision of Dr. El-Gabalawy and Jordana Sommer. Her thesis focused on health anxiety in vulnerable health populations during COVID-19. She is a currently conducting an independent project in the HATLab. She hopes to pursue graduate studies in Clinical Psychology in the future.

Gabrielle Logan

Gabrielle completed her Masters of Science in Clinical Epidemiology at Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2019 where her thesis focused on diagnostic imaging resource utilization for low back pain. Her research interests lie in chronic pain, women’s health, healthcare resource use, mixed methods research, and systematic review. She is currently working as a research coordinator for the HATLab and the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at UM. She is also the research coordinator for an HSC Foundation grant focused on the utility of a novel online intervention for chronic pain (led by Dr. El-Gabalawy and Dr. Brigitte Sabourin), for the SPOR Chronic Pain Network, and for a Tri-Council funded study examining the development and utility of a virtual reality intervention for preoperative anxiety.

Lily Pankratz

Lily is completing her second year of her MA in the Clinical Psychology program at UM. Her research interests lie in mental health service utilization, trauma, and women’s mental health. She is a co-research coordinator in the HATLab for a project funded by the National Research Council of Canada examining a novel virtual reality intervention for individuals with lower limb amputations experiencing phantom limb pain.

Sarah Kowall

Sarah completed her Bachelor of Arts (Honours Psychology) at the University of Winnipeg. She is most interested in neuroscience, and how the brain's structure and function is impacted by trauma, and mind body interventions. She is currently a volunteer research assistant in the HATLab and has been involved in projects related to mental health impacts of COVID-19. In the future, Sarah hopes to complete graduate training in clinical psychology. 

Jada Benedictson

Jada will be entering her final year of the Bachelor of Arts Honours Psychology Program at UM in the 2023-2024 school year. She was awarded the Psychology Undergraduate Research Experience (PURE) award under the supervision of Dr. El-Gabalawy. Her research will examine post-traumatic growth in a perinatal population during COVID-19. She is also involved in assisting with a Tri-Council-funded study examining the utility of virtual reality for preoperative anxiety. In the future, Jada hopes to pursue graduate studies in clinical psychology.

Sarah Petriw

Sarah completed her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in June 2023. Her research interests lie in health anxiety, trauma, chronic pain, and women’s health. She is currently a volunteer research assistant in the HATlab and has been working on a variety of projects. Sarah hopes to complete graduate training in clinical psychology.

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Residents

Kanwarjot Bhangu

Kanwar is a PGY2 in Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine. He is conducting his resident research project under the supervision of Dr. El-Gabalawy. His project examines the psychological impact of surgery cancellations during COVID-19.

Marinya Roznik

Marinya is a PGY2 in Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine. She is conducting her resident research project under the supervision of Dr. El-Gabalawy. Her project examines the feasibility of a virtual reality intervention for phantom limb pain in the acute post-operative period.

Marissa Bowsfield

Marissa is a PGY1 in Clinical Health Psychology. She is conducting a mixed clinical and research minor rotation in medical trauma under the supervision of Dr. El-Gabalawy. Her research focuses of trajectories of post-traumatic growth in Canadians during the early pandemic.

Thesis or Project-Based Lab Alumni

Graduate Students

PhD
2016-2022: Dr. Caitlin Blaney
Dissertation: "Anxiety in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Support for a Biopsychosocial Approach to the Management of RA"

MA
2017-2019: Jordana Sommer (co-supervised by Dr. Kristin Reynolds)
Thesis: Mental health sequelae in the perioperative period: An examination of perioperative dissociation, postoperative delirium, and posttraumatic stress

Undergraduate Students

2022-2023: Jori Ganetsky
Project: What does health anxiety look like in medically vulnerable Canadian during COVID-19?

2022-2023: Megan Crooks
Project:  Virtual graded motor imagery for phantom limb pain: A feasibility case series

2019-2020: Bronwen Grocott
Project:  "Three months ago there was nothing": Breast cancer surgery patients' emotional experiences

2019-2010: Gagan Gill
Project: Illness-induced post-traumatic stress disorder among Canadian Armed Forces Members and Veterans

BSc(Med) Students

2016-2018: Edward Noh
Project: Surgery delays and cancellations in Canada: A preliminary examination of prevalence trends over the past decade

2015-2017: Everett Vun
Project: An examination of chronic pain conditions and mental health correlates in a cross-sectional population based survey of Canadian Forces personnel

2015-2017: Joel Braun (secondary supervisor; primary supervisor: Dr. Natalie Mota)
Project: Trauma exposure, DSM-5 posttraumatic stress disorder, and maladaptive health behaviors: Results from a nationally representative sample of men and women in the United States

 Residents

2019-2021: Dr. Greg Wills
Project: Patient awareness during regional anesthesia for lower limb arthroplasty

2020: Dr. Amanda Shamblaw
Project: The impact of adverse childhood experiences on perinatal complications in a nationally representative sample.

2018-2020: Dr. Alicia Ling
Project: The impact of shared familial chronic pain experiences on healthcare utilization.

2016-2018: Dr. Karen Mac Donald
Project: An examination of preoperative distress and perioperative risk factors in non-cardiac surgery patients

2015-2017: Dr. Brian Csupak
Project: Generalized anxiety disorder and chronic pain in a nationally representative Canadian sample

2015-2017: Dr. Chris Hoban (co-supervised by Dr. Alan Mutch)
Project: Pre-operative neurological and cognitive markers predicting post-operative delirium: A pilot study