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The Lab Team

Meet our dedicated team

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People

The Anxiety Research and Treatment Lab is directed by Dr. Martin Antony, and is staffed by students at various levels of training, including undergraduate, masters, and doctoral. In addition, lab staff include a number of volunteer research assistants.

Lab Director

Dr. Martin Antony

mantony@torontomu.ca

416-979-5000, ext. 552631

Curriculum Vitae »
Personal Website »

Biography

Martin M. Antony is professor in the Department of Psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University in Toronto. He also holds faculty appointments at McMaster University and the University of Toronto. Dr. Antony previously served as founding graduate program director in the Psychology Department at Ryerson University. He was also the founding director of both the Anxiety Treatment and Research Clinic and the Psychology Residency Program at St. Joseph’s Healthcare, Hamilton. Dr. Antony is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and previously served as president of the Canadian Psychological Association (2009-2010) and the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (2019-2020). In addition, he is provincial clinical and training lead of the Ontario Structured Psychotherapy Program.

Dr. Antony received his PhD in clinical psychology from the University at Albany, State University of New York in 1994, and completed his internship at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He is internationally known for his books and research in the areas of anxiety disorders, perfectionism, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and assessment of psychological disorders. He has published 33 books, including a variety of evidence-based self-help manuals (e.g., Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in Groups (2nd ed.); Shyness and Social Anxiety Workbook, 3rd ed.; When Perfect Isn’t Good Enough, 2nd ed.; The Anti-Anxiety Program, 2nd ed.), Practical books for therapists (e.g., Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy for Perfectionism; Handbook of Assessment and Treatment Planning for Psychological Disorders, 3rd ed.), and research texts (e.g., Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Oxford Handbook of Anxiety and Related Disorders). In addition to these books, Dr. Antony has published more than 300 scientific articles and book chapters in areas related to cognitive behavior therapy, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, social phobia, specific phobia, and perfectionism. He has also held more than $6 million in research funding from a variety of national and international agencies.

Dr. Antony has received career awards from the Society of Clinical Psychology (American Psychological Association), the Canadian Psychological Association, and the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, and is a Fellow of the American and Canadian Psychological Associations, the Association for Psychological Science, the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, and the Canadian Association for Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies. He has also served on the Boards of Directors for the Society of Clinical Psychology and the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, and as Program Chair for past conventions of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and the Anxiety Disorders Association of America.

Dr. Antony trains and supervises numerous students in psychology, psychiatry, and other disciplines. He has given more than 500 workshops and presentations to professionals across four continents. He has also been interviewed, featured, or quoted more than 450 times in various print, radio, television, and online media outlets, including the CBC, CNN, CTV, the Globe and Mail, National Post, Toronto Star, New York Times, Washington Post, Chatelaine Magazine, O (Oprah) Magazine, Reader’s Digest, Prevention Magazine, Scientific American Mind, and many others.

Recent Publications

Rowa, K., Milosevic, I., & Antony, M.M. (in press). Cognitive-behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder: Applying the approach. In J.W. Weeks (Ed.), Wiley-Blackwell handbook of social anxiety (2^nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell.

Vieira, J.L., Antony, M.M., Milligan, K., Tabri, N., & Kim, H.S. (in press). Examining the transdiagnostic role of coping motives and experiential avoidance in the relationship between generalized anxiety disorder and addictive behaviours. Journal of Behavioral Addictions.

Liu, C.J., Coyne, A.E., Abapolnikova, M., Constantino, M.J., Westra, H.A., & Antony, M.M. (2026). Dynamic empathy as a predictor of worry reduction in cognitive behavioral therapy for generalized anxiety disorder. Practice Innovations, 11(2), 97-108. https://doi.org/10.1037/pri0000326

Tsekova, V., Gharehgazlou, A., Koerner, N., & Antony, M.M. (2026). Emotion regulation and high social anxiety: Spontaneous and instructed use of cognitive reappraisal to regulate anger. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, 39(1), 88-100.https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2025.2539985

Carney, A.E., Kandasamy, K., Tsekova, V., Provost-Walker, O., Rowa, K., Elcock, A., McCabe, R.E., & Antony, M.M.(2025). Group cohesion in cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety and related disorders. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 49(4), 721–727. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-025-10578-1

Constantino, M.J., Coyne, A.E., Gaines, A.N., Goodwin, B.J., Muir, H.J., Critchfield, K.L., Westra, H.A., & Antony, M.M.(2025). Therapist verification of patient self-concepts as a responsive precondition for early alliance development and subsequent introject change. Psychotherapy Research, 35(1), 17-31. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2023.2297995

Gaines, A.N., Constantino, M.J., Coyne, A.E., Farber, B.A., Hart, N.J., Kmetz, H.M., Westra, H.A., & Antony, M.M.(2025). Do patients internalize the positive regard they are offered? A dyadic test of a Rogerian condition. Psychotherapy Research, 35(5), 710-720. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2024.2350681

McCabe-Bennett, H., Kandasamy, K., Carney, A.E., Lachman, R., Girard, T.A., & Antony, M.M. (2025). Investigating the neuropsychological features of hoarding disorder using a novel virtual reality paradigm. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 30(2), 104-126. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546805.2025.2502618

McCabe-Bennett, H., Roorda, B.A., Girard, T., Lachman, R., & Antony, M.M. (2025). Relationship among indecisiveness, perfectionism, and hoarding symptoms in individuals with and without hoarding disorder. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 44, 100929. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocrd.2024.100929

Mehta, A.H.P., Constantino, M.J., Coyne, A.E., Gaines, A.N., Westra, H., & Antony, M.M. (2025). Parsing the within- and between-therapist positive regard-outcome association in cognitive-behavioral therapy for generalized anxiety disorder. Psychotherapy, 62(4), 474–485. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000606

Rowa, K., & Antony, M.M. (2025). Social anxiety disorder (2^nd ed.). Hogrefe.Rowa, K., Scott, A., Storch, E., Goodman, W., McCabe, R.E., & Antony, M.M. (2025). Psychometric properties of the YBOCS-II Self Report version). Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 44, 100932. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocrd.2024.100932

Santiago, V.A., Fredborg, B.K., Lenton-Brym, A.P., & Antony, M.M. (2025). Dating app use and everyday discrimination among bisexual and heterosexual individuals. Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 34(1), 65-41. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhs-2024-0045

Carney, A.E., Kandasamy, K., Lenton-Brym, A.P., Halbreiner, A.M., Schneider, L., & Antony, M.M. (2024). An investigation of the patterns of association between anxiety symptom clusters and mask-wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 56(3), 187-194. https://doi.org/10.1037/cbs0000371

Kim, A.J., Sherry, S.B., Mackinnon, S.P., Antony, M.M., Lee-Baggley, D., Hahn, C., Wang, G.A., & Stewart, S. H. (2024). When love hurts: Testing the stress generation hypothesis between depressive symptoms, conflict behaviors, and breakup rumination in romantic couples. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 43(2), 180-206. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2024.43.2.180

Lenton-Brym, A.P., Monson, C.M., Spaniol, J., Shoychet, G., Hernandez, K.M., & Antony, M.M. (2024). Negative affect following dating application use is predicted by social anxiety symptoms and match rate. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 27(11), 807-814. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2023.0604

McCabe, R.E., Capobianco, L., & Antony, M.M. (2024). Anxiety and fear related disorders: Social anxiety disorder and specific phobia. In A. Tasman, M.B. Riba, R.D. Alarcón, C.A. Alfonso, S. Kanba, D. Lecic-Tosevski, E.M. Ndetei, C.H. Ng, & T.G. Schulze (Eds.), Tasman’s psychiatry (5^th ed., pp. 1995-2029). Springer.

Montemarano, V., Kim, H.S., & Antony, M.M. (2024). Buying disorder: A narrative review of the neuropsychological evidence to inform its classification. Current Psychology, 43(10), 9336-9354. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05040-y

All Members
Graduate Students
Lab Alumni

Doctoral Student

Olivia Provost-Walker

Degree in Progress

PhD Clinical Psychology

Degrees

2020 MA Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan University
2016 BA (Honours) Psychology, University of Ottawa

Research Interests

Olivia’s research interests include anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. For her masters thesis, she examined reassurance seeking behaviour in body dysmorphic disorder. For her future research, she is interested in examining racial-ethnic disparities in the assessment and treatment of anxiety and related disorders, as well as growing our understanding of the role of contextual variables (e.g., power, oppression) in how anxiety and related disorders develop and are expressed.

Clinical Interests

Olivia’s training has primarily been in cognitive behavioural therapy. She completed her first clinical practicum in 2019-2020 at the Psychology Training Clinic (Toronto Metropolitan University and St. Michael’s Hospital), and is now completing a practicum placement at the Frederick W. Thompson Anxiety Disorders Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. At these practica she has worked with individuals with OCD, various anxiety disorders, PTSD, and mood disorders. She has experience with mindfulness based therapies and is interested in furthering her clinical training in modalities such as emotion-focused therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and dialectical behaviour therapy.

Research Support

2021-2025 – Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) – Doctoral Fellowship
2020 –Black Graduate Student Fellowship, Toronto Metropolitan University
2019 – Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships (CIHR)
2018 – Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS)

Publications

McCabe-Bennett, H., Provost-Walker, O., Lachman, R., Girard, T.A., & Antony, M.M. (2020). A virtual reality study of experiential avoidance, emotional experiences, and hoarding symptoms. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 27, 100590. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocrd.2020.100590

Conference Presentations

Provost-Walker, O., Tsekova, V., Rowa, K., Elcock, A., McCabe, R.E., & Antony, M.M. (2020, November 19-22). Treatment sensitivity of the STICSA in anxiety and related disorders [Poster presentation]. Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies 54^th Annual Convention, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Tsekova, V., Provost-Walker, O., Rowa, K., Elcock, A., McCabe, R.E., & Antony, M.M. (2020, November 19-22). Group cohesion in cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety and related disorders [Poster presentation]. Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies 54^th Annual Convention, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Provost-Walker, O., McCabe-Bennett, H., Girard, T.A., Lachman, R., & Antony, M.M. (2020, June). Indecisiveness and perfectionism in hoarding disorder [Poster presentation]. Canadian Psychological Association, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Provost-Walker, O., McCabe, R.E., Rowa, K., Elcock, A., & Antony, M.M. (2019, November). Illness intrusiveness in anxiety-related and depressive disorders: A replication and extension [Poster presentation]. Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies 53^rd Annual Convention, Atlanta, GA, United States.
Provost-Walker, O., Ashbaugh, A.R., Lalumière M.L., Levaque, E., Kane, L. & Marinos, J. (2018, June). Biological sex and the impact of anxiety on sexual arousal [Poster presentation]. International Congress on Applied Psychology, Montreal, QC, Canada.

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Alumni

Virginia Tsekova

Degree in Progress

PhD Clinical Psychology

Degrees

2020 MA Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan University
2017 BA (Honours) Psychology, Concordia University

Research Interests

Virginia’s research interest encompass social anxiety disorder. Her master’s thesis examined the relationship between anger in social anxiety disorder. Specifically, her thesis examined the role of rejection in the experience of anger in people with high and low social anxiety.

Clinical Interests

Virginia has completed clinical practica at St. Michael’s Hospital (Psychology Training Clinic) in Toronto and the Anxiety Treatment and Research Centre at St. Joseph’s Healthcare, Hamilton. At both of these settings, she has refined her skills in conducting cognitive-behavioural therapy for a range of disorders, including mood, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, and trauma-related disorders. Going forward, she is especially interested in gaining experience in dialectical behavioural therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.

Research Support

2022-2023: Jackman Foundation Psychology Graduate Student Research Excellence Award
2020-2024: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) – Doctoral Fellowship
2019-2020: Fonds de Recherche – Société et Culture Master’s Research Scholarship – Masters Award
2018-2019: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) – Master’s Award

Publications

Tsekova, V., Lenton-Brym, A. P., Rogojanski, J., Hood, H. K., Vorstenbosch, V., McCabe, R. E., & Antony, M. M. (2021). Psychometric properties of the Ryerson Social Anxiety Scales in individuals with social anxiety disorder. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping [advance online publication]
Serravalle, L., Tsekova, V., Ellenbogen, M. A. (2020). Predicting Interpersonal Outcomes from Information Processing Tasks Using Personally Relevant and Generic Stimuli: A Methodology Study. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.543596
Ellenbogen, M. A., Tsekova, V., & Serravalle, L. (2019). Hormones and major depressive disorder. In L. Welling and T. Shackelford, The Oxford Handbook on Evolutionary Psychology and Behavioral Endocrinology (pp. 379-404). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Conference Presentations

Tsekova, V., Provost-Walker, O., Rowa, K., Elcock, A., McCabe, R.E., & Antony, M.M. (2020, November 19-22). Group cohesion in cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety and related disorders [Poster presentation]. Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies 54^thAnnual Convention, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Provost-Walker, O., Tsekova, V., Rowa, K., Elcock, A., McCabe, R.E., & Antony, M.M. (2020, November 19-22). Treatment sensitivity of the STICSA in anxiety and related disorders [Poster presentation]. Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies 54^thAnnual Convention, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Tsekova, V., McCabe, R.E., Rowa, K., Elcock, A., & Antony, M.M. (2019, November). Examining the Social Phobia Inventory across DSM-5 depressive and anxiety-related disorders [Poster presentation]. Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies 53^rdAnnual Convention, Atlanta, GA, United States.
Trespalacios, F., Tsekova, V., Serravalle, L., Cardoso, C., & Ellenbogen, M.A. (2018, September). Context matters: Intranasal oxytocin increases negative memory recall in persons at risk for depression during computerized task, but not when administered by a person [Poster presentation]. Society for Research in Psychopathology Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN, United States.
Tsekova, V., Serravalle, L., & Ellenbogen, M.A. (2018, June). Positive coping style moderates the mood response to psychosocial stress following attentional retraining [Poster presentation]. International Congress of Applied Psychology, Montréal, QC, Canada.
Trespalacios, F., Tsekova, V., Serravalle, L., Ellenbogen, M.A. (2018, June). Retraining of attention improves mood repair following a psychosocial stressor [Poster presentation]. International Congress of Applied Psychology, Montréal, QC, United States.
Ellenbogen, M.A. , Cardoso, C., Serravalle, L., Tsekova, V. (2018, May). Intranasal oxytocin augments the efficacy of psychotherapy for major depressive disorder [Poster presentation]. Society of Biological Psychiatry Annual Meeting, New York, NY, United States.
Tsekova, V., Iacono, V., Serravalle, L., & Ellenbogen, M.A. (2017, September). High levels of parental positivity predict lower levels of depressive symptoms in the offspring of parents with bipolar disorder following a 12-week prevention program [Poster presentation]. Society for Research in Psychopathology Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, United States.
Tsekova, V., Iacono, V., Serravalle, L., & Ellenbogen, M.A. (2017, June). Improved organization in families with a parent having bipolar disorder following a 12-week prevention program [Poster presentation]. Canadian Psychological Association Annual Convention, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Serravalle, L., Iacono, V., Tsekova, V., & Ellenbogen, M.A. (2017, April). Improved dyadic mutuality between parents with bipolar disorder and their offspring following 12-week prevention program [Poster presentation]. Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting, Austin, TX, United States.
Iacono, V., Beaulieu, L., Tsekova, V., & Ellenbogen, M.A. (2016, October). Growing up with a parent having bipolar disorder: Parenting practices in middle childhood mediate the relation between risk status and mental health outcomes in young adulthood [Poster presentation]. Society for Research in Psychopathology Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, United States. Preliminary Finalist for the Smadar Levin Award

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Doctoral Student

Danielle Uy

Degree in Progress

PhD Clinical Psychology

Degrees

2020 MA Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan University
2017 BSc (Honours) Psychology, University of Toronto

Research Interests

Danielle is broadly interested in psychological predictors of human behaviour in adult populations. For her dissertation, she will be examining problematic gaming and its relationship with real-world engagement and perfectionism. For her master’s thesis, Danielle explored the relationship between multidimensional perfectionism and social comparisons using a combination of questionnaire and ecological momentary assessment methods.

Clinical Interests

Danielle’s training is strongly rooted in the principles of cognitive-behavioural therapy. She has experience in the assessment and treatment of a range of psychological disorders, including mood-, anxiety-, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. She has also worked with severe clinical populations (primarily individuals with severe and/or treatment-resistant OCD) who present with comorbidities such as trauma and personality disorders. Danielle completed her practica at B&C Health Canada, Sunnybrook’s Frederick W. Thompson Anxiety Disorder Centre, and St. Michael’s Hospital.

Danielle is interested in advancing her clinical training by gaining experience in the assessment and treatment of psychological disorders like insomnia, trauma, and addiction. She also hopes to expand her current skillset by learning other treatment modalities such as dialectical behaviour therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.

Research Support

Danielle’s MA and PhD training have been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) program, and the Toronto Metropolitan University Graduate Scholarship.

Publications

Rashid, T., Louden, R., Wright, L., Chu, R., Maharaj, A., Hakim, I., Uy, D., & Kidd, B. (2017). Flourish: A strengths-based approach to building student resilience. In C. Proctor (Ed.), Positive psychology interventions in practice (pp. 29-45). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51787-2_3
Chung, J. K., Nakajima, S., Plitman, E., Iwata, Y. Uy, D., Gerretsen, P., Caravaggio, G., Mallar, C.M., & Graff-Guerrero, A. (2016). B-amyloid burden is not associated with cognitive impairment in schizophrenia: A systematic review. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 24 (10), 923-939. doi:10.1016/j.jagp.2016.03.013

Conference Presentations

Provost-Walker, O., Uy, D. A., Tsekova, V., Cassin, S., Counsell, A., & Antony, M. M. (2022, November 17-20). Examining the role of reassurance seeking in body dysmorphic disorder [Poster presentation]. Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies 56^th Annual Convention, New York City, NY, United States.
Uy, D. A., Provost-Walker, O., Tsekova, V., Want, S., & Antony, M. M. (2021, November 18-21). The role of social comparisons in the relationship between multidimensional perfectionism and social anxiety: An indirect effects model [Poster presentation]. Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies 55th Annual Convention, New Orleans, LA, United States.
Uy, D. A., Halbreiner, A. M., Farvolden, P., & Antony, M. M. (2021, November 18-21). Effectiveness of online cognitive-behavioral treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic [Poster presentation]. Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies 55th Annual Convention, New Orleans, LA, United States.
Uy, D. A., Lenton-Brym, A. P., Rowa, K., McCabe, R., & Antony, M. M. (2020, November 19-22). Resilience-promoting factors and psychological distress in an anxiety treatment seeking sample [Poster presentation]. Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies 54th Annual Convention, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Lenton-Brym, A. P. Uy, D. A., Monson, C. M., & Antony, M. M. (2020, November 19-22). The relationship between self-disclosure and intimate relationship satisfaction among individuals with social anxiety disorder and healthy controls [Poster presentation], Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies 54th Annual Convention, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Uy, D.A., McCabe-Bennett, H., Girard, T., Lachman, R., & Antony, M.M. (2019, November). Virtual reality: A new approach to studying hoarding disorder [Poster presentation]. Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Atlanta, GA, United States.
Uy, D.A., Rashid, T., Sinyor, M. (2019, May). Self-reported vs. clinician-recognized suicidal ideation in a postsecondary setting: Implications for suicide risk assessment [Poster presentation]. Canadian Association of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Rashid, T., Uy, D., Sinyor, M. (2018, November). Searching for hope from minds steeped in hopelessness: What predicts, prevents and heals suicidal minds [Presentation]. Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Rashid, T., Cooper, A., Uy, D., Maharaj, A., & Dhillon, S. (2017, October). Campus mental health policy & planning: Insights from five-years of longitudinal, outcome-based data [Presentation]. Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Plitman, E., De La Fuente-Sandoval, C., Leon-Ortiz, P., Reyes-Madrigal, F., Gomez-Cruz, G., Nakajima, S., Gerretsen, P. M., Mallar, C. M., Chung, J. K., Caravaggio, F., Iwata, Y., Uy, D., Remington, G., & Graff-Guerrero, A. (2015, March). Increased myo-inositol and choline levels within the associative striatum of antipsychotic-naïve patients with first-episode psychosis [Poster presentation]. International Congress on Schizophrenia Research, Colorado Springs, CO, United States.

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