Olga Smoliak

Research interests: conversation analysis, discursive psychology, qualitative inquiry, postmodern approaches to therapy, gender, social justice, couple relationships, couple therapy

Area: Couple and Family Therapy 

Description of research: Dr. Smoliak (PhD, C. Psych.) is an Associate Professor in the Couple and Family Therapy area. She is a Clinical and Counselling Psychologist and Clinical Fellow and Approved Supervisor with the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy. Dr. Smoliak has taken a social constructionist approach to psychotherapy and has explored the links between discourse or language use and the therapeutic practices. She approaches mental illness and mental health encounters from an interactional, discursive perspective. In particular, she uses conversation analysis and discursive psychology to investigate how psychological matters are constituted discursively and how therapeutic and diagnostic interactions operate in practice. In so doing, she challenges the conventional diagnostic discourses of mental illness and investigates how certain versions of clients' identities or experiences are constituted through social interaction. Dr. Smoliak has studied linguistic and interactional methods used by therapy participants to give and receive advice, collaborate, accomplish specific therapeutic tasks, and negotiate responsibility for blameworthy conduct. She is currently examining how therapists request in-session practical actions from clients, and how the authority to direct clients' actions is interactionally implemented and negotiated. Dr. Smoliak has a small-scale psychotherapy practice which inspires and is informed by her research work.

Accepting graduate students:

Fall 2018: Yes

Fall 2019: Yes