Graham Berlin, Masters Student in TMU’s Clinical Psychology Program and Arts’ Public Scholar to the Jack Layton Chair
Graham is the recipient of the Arts’ Public Scholar Award which has allowed him to work with the Jack Layton Chair, Ken Moffatt, where he hopes to address social justice issues and establish greater community connections.
Graham Berlin works with Dr. Trevor Hart in the HIV Prevention Lab. Graham’s current research examines the sexualized use of crystal methamphetamine among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBM) – often referred to as party and play or chemsex – with a focus on identifying psychosocial factors associated crystal methamphetamine use. His research integrates minority stress theory, cognitive escape theory, and the loneliness and sexual risk model with structural equation modeling to identify direct and indirect pathways to GBM’s sexualized methamphetamine use. Graham is an active member of the psychology Graduate Student Anti-Racism Initiative and a graduate student therapist for an ongoing randomized controlled trial focused on reducing social anxiety, substance use, and HIV risk among GBM.
Graham completed his undergraduate degree in Victoria, where he worked with the Couples and Families Lab conducting research on the effects of family-based heterosexism, shame and psychological wellbeing among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM). Graham was also a research assistant in the School of Public Health where he conducted interviews with gbMSM who use crystal methamphetamine. He is doing ongoing work with gbMSM who use crystal methamphetamine in order to inform intervention and harm reduction services. At the HIV Prevention Lab, he works collaboratively on the Engage Study – a large multi-site study of gbMSM in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.