Rate My Professor Stella Laletas

Dr. Stella Laletas is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Educational Psychology and Counselling within the Faculty of Education at Monash University, holding an ongoing position since 2015. She completed her PhD in Educational and Developmental Psychology at Monash University, receiving the Mollie Holman Award for the best doctoral thesis in the Faculty in 2017 and nomination for the Australian Association for Research in Education Ray Debus Award in 2018. As an endorsed and practicing educational and developmental psychologist, she offers family law and child custody evaluations, child and adolescent psychoeducational assessments, individual and family counselling, and serves as an expert witness and consultant in family law and mental health contexts. Her career history includes school leadership in student wellbeing for the Department of Education and Training in Victoria from 2006 to 2012, secondary teaching from 2004 to 2006, early childhood education and care directorship from 1993 to 2003, and classroom teaching from 1989 to 1993.

Stella Laletas's research interests focus on the lived experiences of at-risk children and adolescents impacted by childhood adversity, inclusive teacher education and social diversity, educational psychology and counselling across the lifespan, ethics in research and psychological practice, cultural variations in counselling, phenomenological inquiry, and intersections with cognitive neuroscience. Key areas include family law psychology, children of parents with mental health issues, parental alienation, high-conflict divorce and children's rights, post-separation parenting, and social and emotional learning. She has received the Dean’s Early Career Researcher Award in 2021, Dean's Award for Innovation in Learning and Teaching in 2020 (shared), Faculty Award in 2013, and Faculty Grant Award in 2014. Selected publications are “Children’s perceptions of a therapy dog-assisted social and emotional learning intervention” (Wintermantel, Grove, Laletas, 2025), “‘Having their best interest at heart’: the role of teachers working with adolescents of high-conflict divorce” (Podwinski, Laletas, 2025), “Art-based research to explore children's lived experiences of dysgraphia” (Kalenjuk, Wilson, Subban, Laletas, 2024), and “Factors influencing Indonesian teachers’ use of proactive classroom management strategies” (Paramita, Sharma, Anderson, Laletas, 2024). Laletas serves on the Monash University Human Ethics Committee and Academic Progress Committee Panel since 2018, chairs the Prato International Research Collaborative for Change in Parent and Child Mental Health since 2018, and is an editorial board member for Frontiers in Public Health since 2023. She has presented public lectures including “High-Conflict Divorce at School: The Experiences of Teachers” in 2024 and “Children’s Right to Participate: A New Conceptual and Practical Model” in 2023.