Raquel Carvalho Hoersting is an Assistant Professor in the Psychology department here at UPEI with a unique teaching style involving creativity and spontaneity. She has a glowing education background highlighted by an undergraduate degree from the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador), a Master’s and Ph.D. degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of North Texas (USA), and a postdoctoral fellowship in Social Psychology, Work and Organizations at the University of Brasilia (Brazil).
WIthin her research in clinical and intercultural psychology, Dr. Hoersting examines social identity, belonging, culturally congruent psychological interventions, expressive therapies, trauma, and mental health. Additionally, her background in clinical and social psychology has allowed her to research aspects of cultures’ effects on mental health like the identity shifts related to migration and other intercultural processes. More recently, she has begun to integrate expressive arts into her psychotherapy research, with emphasis on using it as a tool to connect with clients of different cultural backgrounds.
Dr. Hoersting has had numerous exciting things happen within her career recently. Something she is finding very rewarding in her role as an educator is the clinical training she has been part of in the new Doctor of Clinical Psychology program we have at UPEI. Additionally, last month, she was awarded a UPEI internal grant to study narratives and metaphors of transitions of Latin Americans living in PEI. In January, her team was joined by Alejandro Ramirez Torres as he was awarded the Emerging Leaders of Americas Program (ELAP). This award gives post-secondary individuals in Latin America and the Caribbean the opportunity to study or do research in post-secondary institutions here in Canada. He will be working alongside Dr. Hoersting on a few ongoing projects with plans to stay until July 2022. However, the excitement doesn’t stop there as she has had many invitations to conferences, workshops, and peer reviews to consider. Notably, she was invited by the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP) to deliver a pre-conference workshop at the Culture and Psychology Summer School in July 2021, focusing on values and identity, in which she presented virtually. A doctoral student of hers, Joy Nnadi, presented at this same conference as well. Dr. Hoersting also has upcoming presentations this year; as an Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy trainer, she will present at two EMDR conferences based on her developments within EMDR protocol and storytelling, trauma narratives, and metaphors.
After having accomplished so much in her career already, Dr. Hoersting’s plans for the future are to continue solidifying important relationships in the community for UPEI’s PsyD research and training, as well as supervising doctoral dissertations and honors theses. Regarding research, she will remain within her focus on clinical and intercultural psychology, and continue to learn more about the healing processes involving creativity and the contexts in which these processes can occur.
To end, we’ve asked Dr. Hoersting to send a message or piece of advice to both students and staff. She has shared two axioms that have helped her through difficult times:
“Progress, not perfection” & “Live and let live”
Thank you Dr. Raquel Hoersting for all that you do and we are all excited and thrilled to see what you accomplish next!