Research
Research has developed alongside my clinical work and remains an important part of my professional life. My academic training began in Iran, and over time my interests became increasingly focused on close relationships, personality, emotional life, and the ways people respond to hurt, conflict, disappointment, and relational strain.
I completed my graduate training in psychology in Iran and, since moving to Canada in 2023, I have continued this path through research collaboration at the University of Calgary. My research interests have especially centered on intimate relationships, relational beliefs, unforgiveness, revenge, and the emotional meanings people make of painful experiences in close relationships.
More broadly, I am interested in questions that sit at the intersection of personality, attachment, developmental history, and relational life. I value research not only as an academic activity, but as a disciplined way of thinking carefully about human complexity. For me, research is a way to ask better questions, remain intellectually honest, and deepen our understanding of psychological life without reducing it too quickly to simple formulas.
I enjoy different parts of the research process, including conceptual development, teamwork, study design, academic writing, and data analysis. My clinical and research work continue to inform one another. Clinical work keeps research connected to lived human experience, and research helps me think more carefully and clearly about suffering, relationships, and psychological change.
Current and recent projects have included topics such as communicating unforgiveness, revenge in romantic relationships, and reactions to wrongdoing in close relationships.