Nikki Gunatilake is a PhD candidate (Youth Mental Health) and Research Assistant on the Longitudinal Adolescent Brain Study (LABS), a ground-breaking youth mental health research project conducted at the Thompson Institute.
Nikki is a registered psychologist with extensive experience working with children and adolescents. She is passionate about the prevention of mental health concerns in children and adolescents impacted by early life stress and developmental trauma.
Nikki's PhD project aims to investigate the neural correlates of early life stress by examining the white matter development of adolescents. Findings from this research has the potential to inform comprehensive intervention and prevention models for mental health concerns that develop following exposure to early life stress.
As part of her PhD, Nikki is heading up a research project (as an extension of LABS) that tracks the changes in white matter development and mental health concerns for adolescents with and without experiences of early life stress. The changes will be tracked across a 5-year period to determine how stressful experiences early in life impacts functioning during adolescence.
Member of the Australian Association of Psychologists Inc (AAPi)
Youth Mental Health - early life stress.