Olga Smoliak

Associate Professor, FRHD
Department of Family Relations & Applied Nutrition
Email: 
osmoliak@uoguelph.ca
Phone number: 
519-824-4120 x56336

Research interests: critical psychology, psychotherapy change processes, discourse analysis, couple therapy, gender and power, discursive construction of subjectivity and distress, narrative/collaborative/feminist therapies, qualitative research methods, emotion, emotion-focused therapy, systemic therapies.

Area: Family Relation and Applied Nutrition

Description of research: I am an Associate Professor in FRHD. I am also a clinical/counselling psychologist and marriage and family therapist. I conduct research within the framework of critical psychology, notably discursive and feminist psychology. I mainly study psychotherapy process with an emphasis on the discursive analysis of client-therapist interaction, therapeutic relationship, and therapeutic change. I have published and presented in the areas of interaction in couple therapy, gender and power, postmodern therapies, therapist authority and collaboration, the DSM and medicalization of distress, and qualitative methods of inquiry in psychology and psychotherapy. I have a small-scale psychotherapy practice which inspires and is informed by my research.

Accepting graduate students (I accept students in FRHD and SOPR)

Fall 2022: Yes

Fall 2023: Yes

Selected publications:

Lester, J., O’Reilly, M., Smoliak, O., Muntigl, P., & Tseliou, E. (accepted). Soliciting children’s views on circular questioning in child mental health assessments. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Smoliak, O., LaMarre, A., Rice, C., LeCouteur, A., & Tseliou, E., Myers, M., Vesely, L., Briscoe, C., Addison, M., & Velikonja, L. (2021). The politics of vulnerable masculinity in couple therapy. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. https://doi.org/10.1111/jmft.12530

Smoliak, O., MacMartin, C., Elliott, R., Hepburn, A., LeCouteur, A., & Quinn-Nilas, C. (2021). Authority in therapeutic interaction: A conversation analytic study. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy.https://doi.org/10.1111/jmft.12471

Smoliak, O., Rice, C., Knudson-Martin, C., Briscoe, C., LeCouteur, A., LaMarre, A., Tseliou, E., Addison, M., Myers, M., Velikonja, L., & Vesely, L. (2021). Denials of responsibility in couple therapy. Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332691.2021.1967248

Smoliak, O., Couture, S., Gaete Silva, J., Rogers-de Jong, M., Sametband, I., & LaMarre, A. (2021). Exploring the practical potential of discursive research in family therapy. In M. O'Reilly & J. Lester (Eds.), Improving communication in mental health settings: Evidence-based recommendations from practitioner-led research (pp. 36-53). New York: Routledge.

LaMarre, A., Smoliak, O., Cool, C., Kinavey, H., & Hardt, L. (2019). The normal, improving, and productive self: Unpacking neoliberal governmentality in therapeutic interactions. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 32(3), 236-253. https://doi.org/10.1080/10720537.2018.1477080

Smoliak, O., & Strong, T. (Ed.). (2018). Therapy as discourse: Research and practice. London: Palgrave/MacMillan.

Gaete, J., Smoliak, O., Couture, S., & Strong, T. (2018). DSM diagnosis and social justice: Inviting counsellor reflexivity. In C. Audet & D. Paré (Eds.), Social justice and counseling: Discourse in practice. New York: Routledge. 

Sutherland (Smoliak), O., LaMarre, A., Rice, C., Hardt, L., & LeCouteur, A. (2017). New sexism in couple therapy: A discursive analysis. Family Process, 56(3), 686–700. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12292

Sutherland (Smoliak), O., LaMarre, A., Rice, C., Hardt, L., & Jeffrey, N. (2016). Gendered patterns of interaction: A Foucauldian discourse analysis of couple therapy. Contemporary Family Therapy, 38(4), 385-399. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-016-9394-6

Sutherland (Smoliak), O., Peräkylä, A., & Elliott, R. (2014). Conversation analysis of the two-chair self-soothing task.Psychotherapy Research, 24(6), 738-751. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2014.885146

Sutherland (Smoliak), O., & Strong, T. (2011). Therapeutic collaboration: A conversation analysis of constructionist therapy. Journal of Family Therapy, 33, 256-278. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6427.2010.00500.x

Sutherland (Smoliak), O. (2007). Therapist positioning and power in discursive therapies: A comparative analysis. Contemporary Family Therapy, 29, 193-209. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-007-9050-2

PhD (Counseling Psychology) - University of Calgary, 2008

 

Area of Research

Family Relations and Human Development