Doctor Janel Gauthier - Biographical Notes

Doctor Janel Gauthier
Chair of the Committee on Ethics and Discipline
International Taekwon-Do Federation

Biographical Notes

Doctor Janel Gauthier was born in Black Lake, Québec, Canada, in 1950.

Professional Career

Doctor Gauthier is Professor of Psychology in clinical health psychology at the School of Psychology of Laval University, Québec, Canada. He is also a practicing psychologist with 32 years of experience in clinical and health psychology.

Professor Gauthier received his doctorate (Ph.D.) in psychology from Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario, Canada, in 1975. He was a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University in California from 1982 to 1983. He was formally recognized by the Canadian Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology for his distinguished contribution to Canadian psychology in 1998.

Currently, he is Secretary-General of the International Association of Applied Psychology. He is a Fellow and a former President of the Canadian Psychological Association. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Order of Psychologists of Quebec, a regulatory body for the practice of psychology and a member of the Council of Representatives of the American Canadian Psychological Association.

Doctor Gauthier is the author of over 100 publications on behavioural and cognitive interventions for anxiety, depression, grief, headaches, and low social self-esteem. He is also the author of several articles on the development of emotional competencies and the influence of emotions on health. He has developed and implemented programs that have helped many people to function more efficiently and effectively. He has presented throughout Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia. He is a leading authority on anxiety disorders and stress management, and an expert in the application of behavioural psychology to health and education.

Experience in Ethics

Doctor Gauthier has been involved in the development or revision of codes of ethics at the regional and national level. As Chair of the Committee on Scientific Affairs for the Canadian Psychological Association, and later as President of the Canadian Psychological Association, he has reviewed and contributed to the development of the Tri-Council Code of Ethics for Research with Human Subjects in Canada. More recently, he has been involved with the revision of the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists and has been appointed Member of the Committee on Ethics of the Canadian Psychological Association. Still more recently, as a member of the Board of Directors of the Order of Psychologists of Québec, he has been involved in the revision of the Québec Code of Ethics for Psychologists. Doctor Gauthier is also involved in ethics at the international level. In addition to chairing the Committee on Ethics of the International Association of Applied Psychology, he is leading an international initiative to develop a Universal Declaration of Ethical Principles for Psychologists. Doctor Gauthier is regularly invited to speak on ethics at international conferences or congresses in psychology.

Taekwon-Do

Doctor Gauthier has been a practitioner of Taekwon-Do for many years. Soon, he will be undergoing testing for 4th degree Black Belt. He has been involved in the organization of several regional, national and international Taekwon-Do championships in Canada. He has been President of the Association of Taekwon-Do for the Greater Area of Quebec. Over the last five years, he has developed and led various workshops with Master Trân to teach instructors of Taekwon-Do about moral development and mental training. In 2003-2004, he made several significant contributions to the development of a new Constitution and a new set of rules and procedures for the International Federation of Taekwon-Do. In 2003, he became Chair of the ITF Committee on Ethics and Discipline. Since 2003, he has been working closely with Master Trân and other colleagues to develop a master teaching program for the Do. He led the First International Workshop on the Teaching of the Do in Benidorm, Spain, in 2006 with Master Trân, Master Ung Kim Lan and Mrs. Joliette Trân.

Justice and Freedom

Doctor Gauthier was President of the Working Group for the Release of Trân Triêu Quân that was created explicitly to make representations in all arenas (political, legal, business, religious organizations, human rights associations, labour unions, chambers of commerce, schools and colleges, etc.) at all levels (regional, national and international) on behalf of Master Trân’s family when Master Trân was unjustly arrested and condemned to life imprisonment in Vietnam following the failure of a business deal involving the Vietnamese government and an American businessman for which he was the intermediary in the mid-90’s. He continues to make contributions to justice, freedom and other human rights through his work on ethics.

Februrary, 2007

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