Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Counseling. Psychotherapy'

This hermeneutic and alchemical hermeneutic dissertation reviews Jungian literature related to body-based methods of practicing depth psychotherapy to address the problem of extremely limited body-based Jungian psychotherapeutic modalities. It goes on to offer explanations of the various psychological aspects of four of the five Elements within Chinese medicine. It then offers four sequences of Five Element Archetypal Qigong (FEAQ) related to the four Elements previously addressed: Wood, Fire, Metal and Water. It concludes with a discussion of findings and recommendations for future research and practice. Essentially, this dissertation uses the psychological concepts and insights contained in Chinese medicine to show how they can be applied to Jungian psychotherapy through the moving meditation of FEAQ. Body-based psychotherapies constitute a minuscule fraction of the literature and practice modalities within Jungian psychotherapy. This dissertation begins the process of increasing the validity and prevalence of body-based Jungian psychotherapy. It also implies the need for further research on the applicability of Chinese medical concepts to contemporary Western body oriented psychotherapies.

This thesis addresses perceived gaps in the Western fields of somatic and depth psychology around the phenomena of higher consciousness. Using hermeneutical methodology, higher states of consciousness are explored through the phenomenological lens of the Kundalini awakening experience. Personal accounts, psychological literature, and clinical data weave together to frame deeper insight into Kundalini awakening, which allows the field of psychology to advance its understanding of cultural attitudes around psychopathology by learning to host a client's experience of Kundalini awakening symptomology in a clinical setting without pathologizing the experience as psychosis or as arising out of psychological disorder. Through the study of ancient traditions as well as contemporary science and psychology, knowledge of universal experiences of higher consciousness can enhance a psychotherapist's breadth of vision and have profound effects on the therapeutic encounter, potentially enhancing naturally occurring organismic trends toward increased coherence.

Little research has been conducted examining the use of dream interpretation in brief psychotherapy. This study examined the efficacy of transpersonal dream interpretation methods taught in a brief workshop. A mixed-method, control-group design was used. Participants included male and female Americans of European, Hispanic and Asian descent. The mean age of participants was 39.5 with most having some college education. Quantitative data was collected using the Outcome Measures 30 (OQ30), the State of Hope Scale (SHS), and the Gains from Dream Session Questionnaire (GDSQ). Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interview questions and thematic analysis of participant dream journals. Repeated measures ANOVAs conducted on the OQ30 failed to demonstrate significant improvements within the dream work group compared to the control group. A paired sample t test failed to demonstrate measurable improvement within the dream work group compared to the control group. Participants noted some improvement in their responses to the GDSQ. The qualitative data collected indicated, based on subjective participant commentaries, that the dream work was considered useful by most of the workshop participants. Implications for further research are discussed.

Depth psychology, as a tradition originating from Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, today differentiates itself from other practices of counseling psychology by claiming a special focus upon the soul and its experience of imagination. But the study of philosophy shows how the tenets of depth psychology are problematic—the anima mundi is a misunderstanding that brings about significant consequences for the practice of psychotherapy. This thesis undertakes a hermeneutic methodology by examining particular writings from philosophers Gotthold E. Lessing and Soren Kierkegaard. These works indicate the problematic character of thought that is not in accord with the beautiful, whereby a question is raised regarding how a psychotherapy that is informed by philosophy might make human life more beautiful. At the basis of these themes is the account of noetic heterogeneity and phantasia (“appearing”) in Aristotle’s De Anima, which is examined in relation to Michael Elliott’s new psychotherapy of Philosophic Psychology.

This thesis explores the psychotherapeutic value of working with the archetypal energies of two goddesses from the Hindu pantheon, Saraswati and Lakshmi. Considering that the field of psychotherapy stands on a Eurocentric tradition and that there is a concomitant need for therapists to be culturally sensitive and inclusive, this is significant and worthy of inquiry. This thesis asks what benefit working with Saraswati and Lakshmi would have for clients, as well as what their inclusion would mean for the field of psychotherapy as a whole. A qualitative approach is married with both hermeneutic and heuristic methodology in order to plumb the possibility that constellating Saraswati facilitates the cultivation of a discerning observing ego, whereas invoking Lakshmi supports the scaffolding of a robust sense of self-esteem.

Literature extolling the psychological benefits of self-forgiveness is robust, yet there are no evidence-based models for facilitating self-forgiveness in individual psychotherapy. Further, there is no consensus in the literature on the definition of self-forgiveness. This quantitative, survey-based study examined licensed clinicians’ (N=57) perceptions of the efficacy of self-forgiveness treatment interventions, their preferred definitions of self-forgiveness, and how frequently treatment methodologies were utilized. Correlational analyses examined the relationship between clinicians’ definitions, perceptions of efficacy, and frequencies of use of self-forgiveness methods and the clinicians’ demographic factors (theoretical orientation, type of licensure, age, years of clinical experience, and type of training). Hong and Jacinto’s (2012) definition was the most frequently chosen (36.8%), followed by Hulnick and Hulnick’s (2011) definition (35.1%). Most clinicians (57.9%) were not familiar with any of the various treatment methods. Among clinicians familiar enough to rate the methods, Hulnick and Hulnick’s (2011) method received the highest efficacy rating (M = 4.11, SD = 1.17), followed by Enright et al. (1996) method (M = 3.67, SD = 0.71). The most frequently used were Jacinto and Edwards’ (2011) method ( M = 2.09, SD = 1.35) and Hulnick and Hulnick’s (2011) method (M = 2.04, SD = 1.58). Correlations were significant for theoretical orientation and source of training; theoretical orientation provided the largest explanation for variance. Implications for future research, clinical training, and development of evidence-based treatment modalities are discussed. Linkage between self-forgiveness and remediating shame, recidivism, spiritual psychology, and Jungian psychology are reviewed. Keywords: self-forgiveness, psychotherapy, counseling psychology, spiritual psychology, quantitative study

This inquiry utilizes a qualitative heuristic design and methodology to explore the experience of psychotherapy in a home office setting, from the perspective of the psychotherapist. In addition to data collected through in-depth interviews with seven therapists who currently treat patients in their home offices, the study includes the experience and reflections of the primary researcher, who also practices in a home office.

By engaging with therapists who have direct knowledge of the home office, the study is privileged to share intimate perspectives of this rarely investigated phenomenon. The study explores the motivations of these therapists to establish a home practice, and presents their satisfaction and frustrations with this unique setting. The findings offer insight into ways a practitioner deals with self-disclosure, manipulates the therapeutic frame, and manages boundaries. The interviews and analysis explore different ways the setting — both natural and constructed — impacts the work. Participants in the study express confidence that working in a home office serves their patients well, matches their own strengths and personality, and is aligned with their theoretical beliefs about psychotherapy.

Deepening the research of home office practice beyond a study of setting and situation, the research reaches towards the symbolic in several ways. The primary researcher works with two dreams a patient shared about the home office. The literature review and data analysis includes reflections on the concrete and symbolic roles home plays in culture, in psychotherapeutic work, and in the personal life of the practitioner. Utilizing the ancient Greek goddess Hestia, the goddess of the hearth, the research employs a depth psychology insight into how the physical setting and psychological focusing combine to create a temenos.

The home office setting will continue to be an ideal setting for some practitioners for whom it makes practical sense. The implications of this study for the practice of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis point towards the importance for all practitioners to consider their conscious and unconscious motivations to practice in a particular setting, and how these choices affect their patients, the people they live with, and their own development.

Key words: home, home office, psychotherapy, setting, Hestia.

Middle Eastern individuals represent a heterogeneous group comprised of different nationalities, languages, and religious identifications. Yet, Middle Eastern Americans are widely underrepresented in the psychotherapy literature. Extant literature appears to focus on professional opinions about what psychotherapists should do when working with this population, including understanding cultural factors, such as incorporating family in treatment and acculturation status. Considering cultural communication patterns among this population, emotion is generally understood to be inhibited or suppressed, as disclosing personal problems and expressing emotion outside the family sphere can be viewed as disloyal and/or shaming. Thus, one of the many areas mental health clinicians should consider when working with Middle Eastern clients is how to recognize emotional communication patterns and identify and assist their clients with emotion regulation and/or dysregulation in a culturally sensitive manner.

To address the need for research on how emotions are expressed and regulated in psychotherapy with Middle Eastern clients, this study qualitatively analyzed three psychotherapy cases from a university’s community counseling center’s archival research database. More specifically, the researchers used an inductive content analysis approach with emotion, emotion regulation and InVivo codes to observe themes of emotional expression, regulation and dysregulation that emerged from the gathered data from a course of psychotherapy with these Middle Eastern American clients to further classify the observable phenomena (Elo & Kyngäs, 2008; Hsieh & Shannon, 2005; Saldaña, 2009; Weber, 1990).

Consistent with previous literature, results indicated that negative emotions were coded more frequently in psychotherapy sessions than positive emotions, as was the emotional regulation strategy of Experiential Avoidance. Surprisingly, data emerged revealing positive emotion regulation strategies (e.g., acceptance and emotional identification) that were not identified by literature describing this population. By obtaining a better understanding of how Middle Eastern American clients expressed and utilized their emotions in treatment, this study may be useful to the future work of clinicians and researchers targeting treatment of these individuals in a culturally sensitive manner and in an approach that emphasizes positive emotion regulation strategies.

Emerging adulthood is recognized as a growing developmental stage that varies within and across cultures. Existing research generally characterizes this period as one of identity exploration, instability, self-reflection, and optimism. For many in this cohort, life events that were once organized into a stable sequence such as entering the workforce, marriage, and having children are increasingly a highly individualized and somewhat unstructured trajectory. This lack of structure provides opportunities and potential challenges to those transitioning from adolescence to adulthood. To this end, experiential acceptance may be an important target skill for intervention in guiding emerging adults through this tumultuous period.

Experiential acceptance is multiply defined in the literature, but is generally understood to be a present-focused approach that encourages a willingness to engage with one’s moment-to-moment experience, nonjudgment of moment-to-moment experiencing, and nonattachment to thoughts or feelings. This focus may be useful for both therapists to use as an intervention tool in helping clients to form an integrated sense of self; a developmental task that is predictive of mental health in young adults. Despite the apparent fit between experiential acceptance and the emerging adult age range, no studies to date have explored experiential acceptance as an intervention with this population.

Accordingly, the purpose of the current study was to qualitatively explore how therapists facilitate experiential acceptance with emerging adult clients. A sample of 5 client-therapist pairs from community counseling centers was selected, and two videotaped therapy sessions for each participant pair were analyzed. Inductive content analysis was employed, using open coding and abstraction methodology to create a hierarchy of themes. Results indicated that experiential acceptance, overall, was rarely employed by trainee therapists in psychotherapy sessions with emerging adults. The one parent theme that emerged across participants was termed Increasing Awareness. Comments aimed at increasing flexibility in thinking were also observed, but not across participants. It is hoped that this study will provide foundational information on experiential acceptance use in psychotherapy with emerging adults, which could be used to promote more attention to skill and theory integration in clinical training and spur future research on experiential acceptance use in therapy-as-usual.

Psychotherapy interns often report feeling traumatized by the process that attempts to match them with an internship site. Once placed, feeling unsupported in one's supervisory relationship may lead to burnout, which contributes to high rates of attrition. A supportive relationship between supervisors and interns appears significant to the development of their early professional resilience. This integrative literature review asks, "How do therapists at all stages of their career achieve and maintain professional resilience?" and "What is inherent in the supervisory relationship that influences such growth and resilience in interns?"

Literature on psychotherapy supervision, professional trauma, compassion fatigue, and resilience was selected from the psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, and existential-humanistic traditions as well as from relational neuroscience. This literature was integrated in such a way as to define, compare and contrast these concepts.

Psychotherapists report a variety of historic traumas that contribute to their choice of psychotherapy as a profession. Therapists also identify as falling on a dynamic spectrum of resilience, reporting both personal and professional protective and risk factors. Psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, and existential-humanistic training and professional models continue to highlight the value of the supervisory and consultant relationship in support of recovery from professional overwhelm toward lasting personal and professional resilience. Therapists at all stages of their career report achieving and maintaining professional resilience by practicing individualized self-care, engaging in dynamic personal psychotherapy, and through supportive relationships in supervision and consultation. The primary element in the supervisory relationship that promotes growth and resilience in interns is the ability of the empathic supervisor to privilege the supervisee's experience in the supervisory relationship as well as with their mutual clients.

A supervisory model emerged that (a) elevates personal history and awareness of an intern's preexisting risk and protective factors, (b) promotes in-session self-awareness, and (c) draws on existential-humanistic theory, leading to the development of resilience. This model serves to support the humanity of the intern and supervisor as evolving professionals while respecting and perhaps enhancing the orientation of the training site.