Natacha Godbout, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist, researcher and professor at the Department of Sexology at the Université du Québec à Montréal. She has devoted her career to understanding interpersonal violence, treating its effects, and preventing its recurrence. In addition to be the director of the TRAuma and CouplE Research and Intervention Unit (TRACE), Dr. Godbout also shares her work to the scientific community through her articles, her participation to conferences, and the book Le trauma complexe : Comprendre, évaluer et intervenir, first French-language textbook on complex trauma. She also exerts efforts to make science accessible to the general population through her social media.
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Although a majority of adults aim to experiment a satisfying intimate relationship, instability, marital distress, sexual difficulties and intimate partner violence are common. Childhood interpersonal trauma can leave long-lasting effects on psychological and relational functioning.
The rates of interpersonal traumas (childhood violence and abuse, sexual assault, complex trauma, polytrauma, etc.) are alarming, affecting up to 70 % of the population. Victims are at risk of revictimization and to suffer from a constellation of intra- and interpersonal severe and persistent problems.
An overrepresentation of insecure attachment styles is observes among survivors of childhood interpersonal trauma. Our model (Godbout et al., 2006, 2007, 2009) stipulates that interpersonal trauma experiences in childhood are likely to lead to the development of representations of attachment… more
The experience of childhood interpersonal trauma can interrupt normal development, and impair the usual acquisition of self-abilities, which in turn disrupt psychological, and relational health. The self-capacities are grouped according to a tripartite typology : identity development,… more
Faced with interpersonal trauma, the individual typically finds himself in a state of emergency, with an activation of the biological systems associated with survival, great anxiety, and a shrinking of his capacity for attentive presence to his inner and outer worlds, for the benefit of survival… more
This project aims to understand the relationship between interactions among parents of young children and their psychological and couple well-being, and to compare the different trajectories in terms of family history of each parent.
A research project funded by the CIHR is currently being conducted by our research unit and aims to update the knowledge of existing data and research needs on men who are victims of violence.
