Rate My Professor Levita D'Souza

Dr. Levita D'Souza is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Educational Psychology and Counselling within the Faculty of Education at Monash University. A registered Counselling Psychologist, she holds a Doctor of Psychology in Counselling Psychology from La Trobe University (2008–2013), with her doctoral thesis exploring the lived experiences of individuals who self-harm and use internet support. She also earned a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology (2003–2005). Prior to academia, D'Souza worked in public and private settings. Her research specializations encompass perinatal psychology, early childhood experiences and their impact on attachment and neurobiology, adverse childhood experiences, transgenerational trauma and attachment patterns' effects on parenting styles, mental health across the lifespan, attachment and bonding, trauma, child trauma, non-suicidal self-injury, and parenting. Recent projects examine psychological factors in first-time fathers' transition to fatherhood, infant safer sleep messaging consistency in Australia, parental perspectives on safer infant sleep in shared environments, father-focused interventions to reduce intimate partner violence during pregnancy and early parenthood, and digital perinatal mental health resource use among migrant women.

D'Souza supervises honours, masters, and PhD students on topics including early parenting experiences, infant mental health, attachment and bonding, psychological aspects of parenting, child and adult trauma, program and therapy evaluation, adoption, children in out-of-home care, and intergenerational trauma. She has led or contributed to projects such as 'Supporting Australian families to navigate sleeping and feeding practices' (2024–2025) and 'Improving access to culturally responsive information on perinatal mental wellbeing for women from refugee and migrant backgrounds' (2023–2025). Key publications include 'A systematic evaluation and comparison of the consistency of infant safer sleep messaging in Australia' (Kruse et al., 2025, Frontiers in Communication), 'Effectiveness of father-focused interventions to prevent or reduce intimate partner violence during pregnancy and early parenthood: a systematic review' (Wynter et al., 2025, Trauma, Violence & Abuse), and '“Lost in translation?”: A qualitative exploration of digital perinatal mental health resource use among migrant women' (Altun et al., 2025, International Journal for Equity in Health). In April 2023, she received the Advancing Women's Success Grant. D'Souza chairs the Intervention Group of the Australian Fatherhood Research Consortium, serves as a peer reviewer for Advances in Mental Health, and has presented public lectures on fatherhood transitions, such as 'A Systematic Review of Same Gender Couple’s Transition to First Time Parenthood' (2022) and 'The Birth of a Father' (2019). Her work aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goals including good health, quality education, gender equality, and peace, justice, and strong institutions.