School of Education

Education

• Ph.D. in education, counselor education, University of Central Florida
• M.A. in counselor education, University of Central Florida
• M.S. in recreation studies, therapeutic recreation, University of Florida
• B.S. in psychology, University of Florida

Research interests

Relational stress and health; couple and family relationships; childhood adversity and trauma; health disparities and psychneuroimmunology

Career highlights

• Received the 2018 Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Education, Charles P. Ruch Award for Excellence in Teaching
• Received the 2017 Association for Counselor Education and Supervision Outstanding Dissertation Award
• Received the 2017 American Counseling Association Glen E. Hubele National Graduate Student Award
• Received the 2016 Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling Doctoral-Level Exemplary Research and Practice Award
• Served as executive director of the UCF Marriage and Family Research Institute (2014-2015) as well as co-principal investigator and director for Project TOGETHER, a federally-funded initiative aimed to provide relationship education services to individuals and couples with low-income

Recent publications/projects

• Wheeler, N., Daire, A., Barden, S., & Carlson, R. (2018). Relationship distress as a mediator of adverse childhood experiences and health: Implications for clinical practice and policy. Family Process. DOI: 10.1111/famp.12392
• Wheeler, N., Principal Investigator (2017-2018). Exploring the Psychoneuroimmunology of Relationship Stress as a Dyadic Mediator for Childhood Adversity and Adult Health with Couples with Low-Income. Virginia Commonwealth University, Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation, $10,000.
• Carlson, R., Wheeler, N., & Adams, J. (2018). The influence of individual-oriented relationship education on equality and conflict-related behaviors. Journal of Counseling and Development, 96, 144-154.
• Daire, A., Liu, X., Williams, B., Tucker, K., Wheeler, N., Moumouris, T., Leikweg, K., & Peoples, T. (2017). Examining RE and emotional distress in a population with existing cardiovascular disease risk factors and those without. The Family Journal, 25(4), 291-300.
• Gonzalez, J., Wheeler, N., & Daire, A. (2017). Exploratory analyses of cognitive schemas for child and adolescent sexual abuse survivors: Implications for the Research to Practice Gap. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 39(1), 25-38.
• Carlson, R., Rogers, T., Wheeler, N., Kelchner, V., & Griffith, S. (2017). The continuum of conflict and control relationship scale (CCC-RS): Psychometrics for a measure designed to discriminate among types of intimate partner violence. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling Development, 1-15.
• Wheeler, N., & Dillman Taylor, D. (2016). Integrating interpersonal neurobiology with play therapy. International Journal of Play Therapy, 25(1), 24-34.

Bio

Dr. Naomi J. Wheeler is a licensed mental health counselor in the state of Florida and a nationally certified counselor. She has extensive clinical and administrative experience providing service to children and families from predominately low-income and racially diverse backgrounds. Her research agenda builds from her professional experiences to examine relational stress across the lifespan including early life family adversity and couple stress as contributors to health disparities.

Dr. Wheeler’s teaching experience includes courses in techniques of counseling, practicum, human sexuality and relationships, and couples counseling.

Curriculum Vitae