Education & Credentials

Dr. Ciara Briscoe completed both a Master’s and a Doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from Concordia University, and was awarded Joseph-Armand Bombardier scholarships for her research throughout her training. Her doctoral research focused on how mothers teach their children about emotion regulation through their reactions to their child’s emotions. Notably, her research findings have been published in esteemed peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Youth and Adolescence. Her professional expertise extends to trauma-related disorders and interventions, marked by her distinction as the sole publicly certified clinician in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) in Quebec. She is also a recognized member of the Order of Psychologists of Quebec.

Training & Experiences

Dr. Briscoe received her training in various public health settings in Montreal, including her predoctoral internship at the Jewish General Hospital in both the Child Outpatient Department as well as Youth Service. Her focus has consistently been in working with school-aged children and adolescents, and she has been trained both in psychological and psychoeducational assessment using gold-standard tools as well as evidence-based individual and group therapy interventions.

Dr. Briscoe is also passionate about teaching and has taught both at the CEGEP and undergraduate level in the psychology department. She has also worked on various projects to make psychological information more accessible and understandable, including knowledge translation projects for parents about bullying with the PREVnet organization. She has pursued training in teaching and knowledge translation strategies and tactics, and finds teaching and writing about psychological concepts in an accessible way to be an exciting creative endeavour.

Current Work

Since 2018, Dr. Briscoe has served as a full-time Clinical Psychologist at the English-speaking Department of Youth Protection in Quebec. Her primary responsibility includes working with children and adolescents who are under the care of the Youth Protection Act, typically presenting with trauma-related disorders as well as anxiety, conduct, eating, mood and neurodevelopmental disorders, chronic non-suicidal self-injury, suicidal ideation and behaviour, and family dysfunction. She engages in both assessments (i.e., psychoeducational, suicide risk) and interventions (i.e., individual and group therapy) with these youth. Dr. Briscoe acts as a consultant to social workers and educators in the residential campus settings, and provides training about key mental health issues. Dr. Briscoe is also enthusiastic about training the future generation of psychologists and supervises multiple doctoral-level graduate students per year. In addition to imparting knowledge about trauma-related assessment and intervention, she is determined to help the next generation of psychologists learn how to prioritize and care for their own mental health, especially when working with challenging populations.