Lisa Middleton
Lisa Middleton has been a practising social worker in the Ottawa community over the past 16 years and a practising registered midwife since 2015. Primarily working in the area of sexual and reproductive health, she has worked at numerous organizations at a community and national level. Working as a trauma therapist in sexual assault led her to become a midwife to help facilitate a safe-passage for people to give birth. Professor Middleton often works with people who carry post-traumatic stress symptoms from previous births. People’s apprehension towards the end of the prenatal period brings up issues of fear and grief. The goal of her research is to create interventions that can lessen these trauma responses for future births.
Professor Middleton’s main area of academic interest is in perinatal mental health for both the birthing person and the family unit. More specifically, her interest is in promoting the healing of birth trauma for the birthing person. The focus of her PhD research is on psychological birth trauma and healing from psychological birth trauma.
Research interests
- Undergraduate and graduate midwifery education
- Critical trauma theories
- Psychology of birth
- Intersectional feminist theory
- Feminist pedagogy
- Feminist phenomenology
Research projects
- Trauma-disrupting care
- Birth trauma cycle
- Healing from psychological birth trauma
Ontario Graduate Scholarship, Carleton University, 2023 and 2024.
Doctoral Domestic Entrance Scholarship, Carleton University, 2021.
Departmental Scholarship, Carleton University, Social Work, 2021-2025.
Phyllis Harris Scholarship, Action Canada, 2015.
The Murray and Eleanor Enkin Award for Social Justice, Toronto Metropolitan University, Midwifery Education Program, 2014.