Dissertation Oral Defenses
This study investigates the psychology of the warrior woman who is driven to be a part of military combat ground forces. Since 1970, U.S. military laws and policy have evolved, allowing women to fill a wider array of military occupations. Beginning in 2015, women have been advancing toward serving specifically in combat roles. The research…
Chronic pain is a complex, whole-being experience reflective of a multidimensional matrix of psychoemotional, neurodynamic, and physiological elements. Management of chronic pain has been confounded by its relationship with opioid misuse, leading to interest in nonpharmacological approaches to pain management. This uncontrolled, interventional mixed methods pilot study examined the impact of a program of somatic…
This study explored the experiences of three lesbian couples who used reciprocal in vitro fertilization (RIVF) to build their families. Semi-structured interviews provided the primary data, which was analyzed using the Listening Guide (LG) method. Although numerous voices emerged for each individual and within each couple, all informants, in one or more voices, expressed the…
While childhood is crucial to psychoanalytical understandings of adulthood, developmental theory is neglected within the Daseinsanalytical literature. Given the historical and theoretical relation between Freud’s work and that of Medard Boss, the founder of Daseinsanalysis, the present research will reconsider psychoanalytic perspectives on childhood in terms of Daseinsanalysis. The task is to identify key elements…
Law enforcement officers have reported the difficulty they experience dealing with critical incidents, particularly with crimes against children. Officers using maladaptive coping mechanisms to manage emotional trauma may develop stress disorders. This study served to assess adaptive and maladaptive coping mechanisms in law enforcement officers working as first responders to crimes against children and to…
Wounding affects everyone, but what happens when the wounds are invisible, ancestral, or have been abandoned? Furthermore, when one accesses the wound, it can bring to the surface shameful feelings too painful to articulate. This art-based research examines the marginalized parts of the soul that have been repressed, overlooked, or abandoned—the wound. It suggests that…
This research explored the psychological value of Vipassana practices in supporting African Americans’ well-being in the face of chronic and daily racism. Five African Americans who had attended a 10-day Vipassana course were interviewed to address the research question: What is the experience and perceptions of African American men and women who have completed a…
The topic being studied is the effects of Whiteness on the mental health services of African Americans in the United States. It is unknown how white mental health clinicians adapt their professional practices when working with African American patients and what barriers they identify throughout the therapeutic journeys when attempting to promote culturally competent treatment…
This hermeneutic study investigates the psychological impact and meaning of sound and considers what it may reveal about our relationship to the nature of reality. Sound’s influence on the psyche and its recurring characteristics are relatively unexplored in depth psychology. The new sciences, musicology, and cosmology help us better understand sound’s role in personal and…
Despite the vast literature available on the subject of anorexia nervosa, limited research has investigated anorexia among Mexican American women. Most of the research that has informed the diagnostic conceptualization of anorexia has been conducted with White Euro-American populations. Furthermore, the monopolization of Eurocentric epistemologies and empirical methodologies within the field of psychology has resulted…
Black women’s journeys to resilience are steeped in intergenerational experiences and multi-generational traumas, othering, racism, and environmental influences. In addition, each woman has her own lived experiences that shape her expressed energy in the world. The similarities of lived experiences of joy and pain does not diminish each woman’s individual and unique contribution to the…
This study utilized Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore the meanings made from experiences of childhood and adolescent bullying. Five participants engaged in semi-structured interviews that were transcribed, coded, and analyzed. The analysis yielded 5 primary themes and 6 subthemes. The results indicated that experiences of childhood bullying significantly impacted all participants’ sense of self.…
This dissertation is a depth psychological inquiry into the shadow of social work. The methodology is a phenomenological hermeneutic reading of contemporary texts, including the best-selling memoirs of figures affiliated with the Democrat and Republican political parties—Michelle Obama’s Becoming and J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy, respectively—and the foundational documents and recent publications of the National…
In this dissertation, a contemplative and depth psychological lens is used to examine motifs of refuge in myth, fairytale, and sacred text. Refuge speaks to the collective need for quiet and retreat that ultimately helps one abide in the present moment. The awakened heart implies a counter intuitive move whereby we are asked to become…
The purpose of this study is to understand the patterns and signs of vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue among clinicians who counsel sex trafficking victims. Specifically, this qualitative study seeks to understand the lived experience of clinicians by examining phenomenological patterns and signs of trauma and compassion fatigue that commonly arise when working with victims…
The purpose of this study is to understand the patterns and signs of vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue among clinicians who counsel sex trafficking victims. Specifically, this qualitative study seeks to understand the lived experience of clinicians by examining phenomenological patterns and signs of trauma and compassion fatigue that commonly arise when working with victims…
Cultural philosopher Jean Gebser (1985) posited that humanity is presently in the throes of a critical historical process that, hinging upon our successful participation, may result in a mutation of consciousness whereby the presently dominant mental-rational structure of consciousness will transmute into what he called the integral structure. Gebser’s vision holds profound implications for the…
This dissertation examines the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur in the labyrinth as an exemplar for an active, agential labyrinth meditation practice. The myth’s applicability for meditative practice is ascertained through three psychological interpretations of the myth. A collective meaning and two interdependent individual psychological meanings are produced through use of Marie-Louise von Franz’s…
This dissertation examines the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur in the labyrinth as an exemplar for an active, agential labyrinth meditation practice. The myth’s applicability for meditative practice is ascertained through three psychological interpretations of the myth. A collective meaning and two interdependent individual psychological meanings are produced through use of Marie-Louise von Franz’s…
In the United States, millions of athletic injuries are sustained through recreational exercise and sports every year, causing physical distress and psychological instability. Injured athletes often experience depression, anxiety, anger, fear, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Few studies have explored athletes’ psychological states post-injury or how to assist injured athletes in understanding the symbolic dimensions and…
