Headshot of Myriam Lesage.

Myriam Lesage, MA

PhD in Counselling Psychology, Year 2

Research Interests: Interpersonal mindfulness; Virtual Reality (VR) mindfulness

Biography: Myriam’s main research focus is developing and evaluating tech-assisted mindfulness-based interventions tailored to older adults with mood and cognitive disorders. She is particularly interested in leveraging digital technologies, including virtual reality (VR), as a means to deliver and enhance mindfulness interventions. Myriam believes that these technologies can address practical barriers to care often faced by older adults and improve treatment outcomes in this population.

Supervisor: Dr. Bassam Khoury

  • Journal Articles:

    Khoury, B., Lesage, M., Kasprzyk, A., Sadowski, I., Manova, V., Benchimol-Elkaim, B., Martins, C. D., Rigas, C., & Rej, S. (2025). Embodied and Embedded Mindfulness and Compassion Framework. Mindfulness. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-025-02561-4

    Lesage, M., Chan, S., Kumar, S., Rajji, T., Melichercik, A., Desjardins, C., Friedland, J., Burhan, A., Colman, S., Chu, L., Davies, S., Derkach, P., Elmi, S., Gerretsen, P., Graff-Guerrero, A., Hussain, M., Ismail, Z., Kim, D., Krisman, L., … Rej, S. (2024). Are Opioids Agitating? A Data Analysis of Baseline Data from the STAN Study. Journal of Alzheimer's disease reports, 8(1), 1297–1300. https://doi.org/10.3233/ADR-240025

    Sansfaçon, J., Cinalioglu, K., Gloeckler, S. G., Kern, M., Yarns, B. C., Lesage, M., Hunter, J., & Rej, S. (2024). Subspecialty Selection and Fellowship Training Satisfaction among American and Canadian Geriatric Psychiatry Fellows. Canadian Geriatrics Journal, 27(2), 178–182. https://doi.org/10.5770/cgj.27.733

    Cinalioglu, K., Lavín, P., Bein, M., Lesage, M., Gruber, J., Se, J., Bukhari, S., Sasi, N., Noble, H., Andree-Bruneau, M., Launay, C., Sanders, J., Gauthier, S., Rosa, P., Lifshitz, M., Battistini, B. J., Beauchet, O., Khoury, B., Bouchard, S., Fallavollita, P., … Sekhon, H. (2023). Effects of virtual reality guided meditation in older adults: the protocol of a pilot randomized controlled trial. Frontiers in psychology, 14, 1083219. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1083219

    Book Chapters:

    Bodenstein, K. C., Paquin, V., Sekhon, K., Lesage, M., Cinalioglu, K., Rej, S., Vahia, I., & Sekhon, H. (2023). Digital markers of mental health problems: phenotyping across biological, psychological, and environmental dimensions. In Biomarkers in Neuropsychiatry: A Primer (pp. 105-122). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

    Bein, M., Lesage, M. (co-first author), Dikaios, E., Chakravarty, M., Segal, Z., Royal, I., Speechley, M., Schiavetto, A., Blumberger, D., Sacchet, M. D., Therriault, J., Gruber, J., Tourjman, V., Richard-Devantoy, S., Nair, V., Bruneau, M. A., Rej, S., Lifshitz, M., & Sekhon, H. (2022). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy vs. a health enhancement program for the treatment of late-life depression: Study protocol for a multi-site randomized controlled trial. Frontiers in aging neuroscience, 14, 976636. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2022.976636

    Lavin, P., Lesage, M (co-first author)., Monroe, E., Kanevsky, M., Gruber, J., Cinalioglu, K., Rej, S., & Sekhon, H. (2022). Humanoid robot intervention vs. treatment as usual for loneliness in long-term care homes: Study protocol for a pilot randomized controlled trial. Frontiers in psychiatry, 13, 1003881. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1003881

    Sivan, K. D., J, K. A., Lesage, M., Allana, G., Sophia Diana, E., Marilyn, S., Karl, L., Soham, R., & Harmehr, S. (2022). Exercise for geriatric psychiatry outpatients: Results from a clinic intervention. Psychiatry research, 317, 114811. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2022.114811

    Burack, J.A., Friedman, S., Lesage, M., & Brodeur, D. (2022). Re-visiting the ‘mysterious myth of attention deficit’: a systematic review of the recent evidence. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research.https://doi.org/ 10.1111/jir.12994

  • Benm’rad, M., Lesage, M., Cinalioglu, K., Lavin, P., Malouin, J. F., Drouin, P. O., Nobel, H., Rej, S., Greenway, K., & Suri, R. 2024, June 6. Virtual reality use for exercise in hemodialysis: Co-creation of the VIRTUE-HD program by patient partners, healthcare professionals, and an industrial partner [Poster]. Jewish General Hospital's 2024 Student Research Day, Montreal, Canada.

    Lesage, M., et al. 2023, March 5. Case Series of a Humanoid Robot Intervention for Loneliness in Long-term Care Homes [Poster]. The American Association of Geriatric Psychiatry, New Orleans, USA.

    Lesage, M. 2022, October 14-15. The Impacts of Mindfulness and Behavioural Activation on Brain Health in Late-Life Depression: Resolving Complexity Through a Proposed Experimental Design [Poster]. The Canadian Academy of Geriatric Psychiatry Annual Scientific Meeting, Montreal, Canada.

    • Graduate Excellence Fellowship, McGill Education and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, $12,000 (2023)

    • Canadian Institutes of Health Research - Canada Graduate Scholarships Doctoral Award (CGS-D), $120,000 (2025)

  • ResearchGate Profile

  • BA in Psychology, McGill University

    MA in Counselling Psychology, McGill University