Mikaela joined the Sleep/Wake team in 2020 as a student in the Massey Doctorate of Clinical Psychology programme (DClinPsych). She is interested in the bidirectional relationship between sleep and mental health and is involved in the E Moe Māmā/Moe Kura study, looking specifically at the longitudinal relationships between maternal mental health and child sleep under the supervision of Professor Leigh Signal.
Mikaela completed her master’s degree at Harvard University, there her thesis explored the relationships between sleep, emotion regulation, and non-suicidal self-injury in adolescents. She gained several years’ experience as a research assistant at Harvard, and as a mental health counsellor and group facilitator at a residential treatment centre.