Amanda Dawson

Degrees, Title/Position:
Undergraduate student

Goal Groups/Integration Themes:
Horticulture Therapy Project

Bio:

Amanda Dawson is a Psychology BSc student at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Her research interests involve investigating alternative forms of therapy to mitigate aggression in at-risk persons and violent offenders through the manipulation of oxytocin levels. She wishes to address her research on an intersectional scale towards diverse populations, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ persons within the prison industrial complex (PIC). Her goal is to promote rehabilitative over punitive treatment, mitigating the stigmatized association of criminality and mental health.

She will be working on the Horticultural Therapy Project (HTP) supervised by Dr. Judith Andersen. She will be exploring horticultural therapy as a peer support program among undergraduate students. Amanda will be facilitating this project alongside a team of collaborators to organize and monitor the success of an alternate form of therapy at the University of Toronto Mississauga.