Meet the Researcher-Christina Daou

At the Strengths and Wellbeing Innovation Research Lab (SW-IRL), we take great pride in mentoring and educating the next generation of counselors, counselor educators, and researchers. Christina is a doctoral Research Assistant in the research lab. Learn more about her and her journey into research at the vlog below.

"There is no balance, there is harmony. It’s about what is needed in that moment and what needs to be prioritized over the other, and not letting one area dominate the other, and just trying to find harmony within all those areas and responsibilities." - Christina Daou on balancing her role as a clinician, researcher, and doctoral student.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/1fd9bb_3e37011d76524dcaa5db671a4152ad3a/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Cristal Velazquez:  

Hi guys, my name is Cristal Velazquez, and I'm here today to interview Christina Dao with the Strengths and Wellbeing Innovation Research lab, and honestly, I'm so glad I get the privilege to interview Christina and to give everybody who is watching this video a little background on who is working behind the scenes of our great researchers. So, my first question to Christina is basically just going to have her introduce herself and tell us a bit more about herself.  

Christina Daou: 

Hello, my name is Christina Daou, I’m an LPC-Associate, and I have been part of the lab for about 3-4 years, as I joined when I was still a master’s student, and now I'm a second-year doctoral student. I’m the current president of Sigma Alpha Chi and a board member on the ASGW division of ACA, so group works and I work on the products committee. I’m an international fellow for Chi Sigma Iota International, and I do a lot of clinical work at a private practice, and also do assessments to diagnose autism. That’s a little bit about myself, my clinical research, as well as my cool background.  

Cristal Velazquez: 

Thank you so much, Christina, for telling us a little bit about yourself. To get the interview started, could you share a little bit about your current research project within the Strengths and Wellbeing Innovation Lab, and essentially, what inspired your focus on student thriving and AI in counseling?  

Christina Daou: 

Engaging in organizations like Sigma Alpha Chi, well, Chi Sigma Iota on an international and chapter level, as well as divisions of ACA, and just going to conferences and talking to leaders within the field. The notion of thriving just kept coming to me because these were all part of my journey to becoming where I am today. All the lines on the CV are all hard work and interactions with really important and influential professionals, whether it’s our professors that we have at UT San Antonio or on a national level at conferences and all of that influenced who I am as a counselor, as a researcher, as a student and that’s kind of what triggered that interest in thriving because to me I don’t want to just survive I want to thrive and that’s something that I noticed within a lot of whether fellow master students at that point or now as a doctoral student starting as a TA or supervisor whatever capacity within my doctoral program and that’s how it sparked and from there I just started to look at what influenced my journey and to me I saw sense of belonging as being a really big important factor. So anytime id go to a conference or a class or interact within Sigma Alpha Chi local chapter or even on the international level with Chi Sigma Iota I would see that the more I felt like I belonged the more my identity was stronger and the more that I felt like I was thriving and I wanted to research it and see if there was an actual link there. So that’s one of my bigger projects within the lab is focusing on that and seeing if sense of belonging is an actual factor that influences student thriving and for AI I just love innovation and I love creativity within teaching and I find it as a tool to support learning versus it being a hindrance and I want to be one of the people along with Dr. Prasath and other people in the lab to start researching that and make sure we are implementing it in an ethical way and inviting that wave versus being left behind on all the innovation that is happening. So, although they are both not really connected in terms of one research project in that they are two different ones, they’re just things I'm very passionate about. For the AI project were working on looking at how we can diagnose using AI platforms and seeing if that’s and aiding tool for masters students as they’re learning how to do it but not replacing their own clinical judgement and clinical use of it and then also looking at how we can use AI tools to practice skills within avatar (AI avatar) versus role playing with peers where sometimes lines can be blurred between client and peer. So that’s the research projects I'm on right now.  

Cristal Velazquez: 

Thank you so much, Christina, for allowing us to know about the current research projects that are happening, which, may I add, I found extremely interesting. My next question to you would be how working under Dr. Prasath’s multi-tiered mentoring model shaped your experiences as both a researcher and a doctoral student?  

Christina Daou: 

Oh my gosh, where do I even start? Dr. Prasath is everything to me. Not just on a researcher and doctoral student level. On a personal level, as well, she is my mentor, the person that I go to. Anything I need. She has been part of my journey since my second year, probably in the master’s program up all the way up to now. So that’s probably four years of relationship and mentorship and pouring her heart and soul into her mentees. I see it every day. In my research journey, she allows me the freedom to ask questions and research it and supports me into learning because I entered the lab by no means an expert on research. I started with just literature reviews and gathering articles, and from there to actually publishing, writing a full journal and taking the lead on projects, and now in mentoring master’s students. That all is owed to her by her modeling and showing me the way, and holding my hand one step at a time for me to climb the ladder. So yeah, she’s a big part of my belonging and my thriving as a master’s student, then doctoral student, and even as a clinician, person, and leader in every way, shape, or form, she is my person. She is also my dissertation chair, so that’s the most exciting part. I'm announcing it to the world on this video. But yes, she is everything from her mentorship, the modeling, the support, and just her presence and belief in the students and nurturing them and making them rise and grow with her. I think that’s the biggest thing. There’s that saying you rise by lifting others, and that’s probably the definition of Dr. Prasath and her mentorship model. 

Cristal Velazquez:  

Thank you so much, Christina, for sharing that about Dr. Prasath. It sounds like she played a very influential role in your research identity as well as your clinical identity. From what I’ve seen, you hold several leadership roles, such as president of Sigma Alpha Chi and co-chair of the ASGW products committee. How have these experiences influenced your professional growth and perspective as a counselor educator in training?  

Christina Daou: 

First and foremost, what engaging in these leadership positions has taught me is pride. Pride in being a counselor. So, counselor with a capital C is the biggest thing I say in terms of counselor educator in training, me being proud of being a counselor and being able to communicate that to counseling students we are teaching, mentoring, and supporting through their professional journeys. That’s I think the biggest lesson and servant leadership. Servant leadership is at the essence of CSI Chi Sigma Iota, and I bring that into the chapter level, Sigma Alpha Chi or even with my interactions in the national diffusion of ACA, which is ASGW. That servant leadership to better the field and support the counselors in training or even the counselors that are working in the field, and making sure they have all the resources they need to succeed. I think embodying that servant leadership and serving to make others grow rather than just grow myself by myself, that also probably mirrors what I said earlier about Dr. Prasath and her rising by lifting others. Through that modeling, it influenced me and all my interactions within several organizations on a university and chapter level to national, and it’s just one of the best feelings ever to be able to model and communicate that to counselors in training as a future counselor educator.  

Cristal Velazquez:  

Perfect, it sounds like you have a lot going on, and may I add sounds like you are very passionate about what you do, which I applaud you for, we need more passion in the counseling field with a capital C, as you mentioned. Seeing how much you are in, how do you balance your role as a clinician, researcher, and doctoral student?  

Christina Daou: 

There is no balance, there is harmony. It’s about what is needed in that moment and what needs to be prioritized over the other, and not letting one area dominate the other, and just trying to find harmony within all those areas and responsibilities. And my planner, I love my planner as well. It is hard sometimes, definitely, but when you’re passionate about something, and you’re doing it because you want to, not because you have to, then you will find the time. Yeah, there is no such thing as balance, and putting that expectation on yourself is probably the biggest roadblock you can create.  

Cristal Velazquez:  

Perfect, so my next question would be what upcoming or emerging research topics within the lab are you most excited about, and how do you see them contributing to the counseling field? 

Christina Daou: To answer that question, it would be two different topic areas. One of them is the student thriving, related to, not just student thriving, professional thriving, thriving in general as a person on all levels. Academic, personal, professional, clinical, and that thriving, and how it’s influenced by a strong professional counselor identity. That’s the main thing I think to us to have a good, solid basis and a strong hold, the thing that grounds us is our professional identity that that allows us to move around the world and be counselors with a capital C. So, that understanding first, I think, influences the counseling field in general. The way we advocate through legislative work, or just the way that we show up with clients. From setting examples, where even clients right in the field, my clients, correct me if I say therapist sometimes, they’re like counselor, and I'm like yes, that’s where you see the advocacy showing up in your sessions. So that research impacts and. Maybe perhaps allows knowledge on why this is important and how we can integrate it within our educational systems, our counseling programs. Then also the AI research, I think we cannot just dismiss its presence just because we don’t always have a strong hold on professional counselor identity, but they have to be simultaneous and happening at the same time, and what better time than now, rather than waiting and having to catch up later on. So, ethical use of AI, its integration, rather than being scared and not riding that wave, because change is going to happen whether we come with it and accept it or not. So I think these are the two things that will impact the profession, the counseling profession in general.  

Cristal Velazquez:  

Thank you so much for sharing. All of these upcoming projects seem very interesting and very intriguing. Which leads me to my next question. For master’s level counseling students who want to get involved in research, or in general, people who want to get involved in research but might feel unsure where to start, what advice would you give to them?  

Christina Daou: 

I think there is no right way to start other than just starting. It's just reaching out to professors, doctoral students, or other even master’s students that are engaged within labs and saying I'm interested in this, I want to learn. Just like I did, I didn’t know anything, like I knew some about research from my bachelor’s level education, but it was by no means to the level of being able to conduct a whole study and publish on it, and generate the idea, the research question, and all that comes with it. So, I think one of the most beautiful things about our program here at UT San Antonio is that it does support research. We are an R1 institution, and all the professors that’s part of their identity to teach and show and guide students on how to conduct research and the impact that it has. So just reach out, and I promise if it starts with gathering articles, it’ll all make sense in the grand scheme of things when you start to learn from the baby steps to just getting to where you call yourself a researcher. Just like learning how to ride a bike, you start with four wheels, then you take one off, and then the another, and then you’re riding on the two wheels of the bike. So just like that, one step at a time, you learn, you grow, and you become that a researcher in training until you call yourself a full-on researcher able to conduct a study from start to finish.  

Cristal Velazquez:  

Thank you so much, Christina. That analogy was actually perfect to see the way to start, just getting into research in general. My next question is, you often emphasize healing through connection and understanding. How do these values guide the way you approach both research and counseling practices? 

Christina Daou: 

I think that probably is the guiding value for my counseling practice and research. So, I'm a qualitative researcher, so with that connection and understanding comes the qualitative interview that you use to gather the data, and then generate the themes, and get the answer to your research question. I think that connection is so important to me and it’s seen with one the methodology I use and then just whether it’s like in the counseling practice the narrative therapy approach that I use that’s a story telling, the rewriting the story, the externalizing the problem, all of those shape together in a case of way from research to counseling practice to teaching even with the teaching in experiential ways, how are we learning the topic but also writing a story and generating the understanding from it and connecting with peers through all of those models I think is just part of who I am and that’s just how I learned and how I teach, how I conduct research, and how I lead so these are all the areas.  

Cristal Velazquez:  

Thank you so much, Christina, once again, and for this next portion of the interview, I do really hope that the people who are watching this video can really get to know Christina on a deeper level outside of your professional identity. So, my next question would be essentially what’s a small joy or routine that helps you stay grounded while juggling so many responsibilities? 

Christina Daou: 

Okay, so for that, I actually do my own nails at home, and I've learned how to do them myself. That’s something that will take me about 2-3 hours, longer than I should admit it does. But I put on a good audiobook, and for one day a week, just give myself those 2-3 hours to do them and engage in that, and ground it might be a silly thing, but it just really helps me disconnect and just be present in the moment and focus on something other than school, or teaching, or clinical work. I think that would be my answer.  

Cristal Velazquez:  

That’s so great, it just sounds like you are a woman of many talents, like doing your own nails. Lastly, tell me a fun fact that people may not initially know about you from reading your professional bio? 

Christina Daou: 

 My fun fact actually is probably my nationality, so I am Lebanese, and I’m fluent in three languages in Arabic, French, and English. So, I'll say some examples of words: hello, mahala, bonjour, these are three words. And then another fun fact would be that I have the cutest onguard spaniard dog, his name is Toto, he is my little baby, and I will now show you a picture of him too. He is sometimes on my presentation slides for school for students while I'm teaching because it’s a must, I'm just saying. That would be my fun facts.  

Cristal Velazquez:  

Thank you so much, Christina, for taking the time out of your day to meet with me and telling me all of the insightful research projects and overall allowing people to get to meet you on a professional level and a deeper personal level. I really hope this segment of Meet the researcher is very insightful, and I can’t wait to show y’all all the other faces that are working behind the scenes at our research lab.  

Christina Daou is a Licensed Professional Counselor Associate and doctoral student in Counselor Education at UT San Antonio. Her heart lies in helping young adults and children navigate life's most challenging moments, trauma, relationship struggles, and the overwhelming question of where they belong in this world. She specializes in trauma processing, relationship challenges, and autism assessment using the ADOS-2. Her research focuses on student thriving, the application of AI in counseling, and innovative teaching methods. She is honored to serve as president of Sigma Alpha Chi and as a Chi Sigma Iota International Fellow and 2025-2026 president of the Sigma Alpha Chi chapter of Chi Sigma Iota, while also contributing to group work advancement as co-chair of the Association for Specialists in Group Work ASGW's Products Committee.

Cristal Velasquez is currently starting her second year in the Master’s program for Clinical Mental Health Counseling at UT San Antonio. Cristal first became interested in joining the CAST Lab after learning about it in one of her classes. The topic of sex trafficking is especially important to her, as a woman, and she views this work as a meaningful way to advocate for survivors and raise awareness. Cristal is particularly excited about using social media as a platform for advocacy and education. Her career goal is to become a licensed professional counselor, where she hopes to continue empowering individuals while also advocating for broader mental health and social justice initiatives.