Dissertation Oral Defenses
This study utilized Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore loss of home as a result of natural disaster: Natural Disaster-related Loss of Home (NDLH). Four survivors were interviewed who experienced NDLH in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. A heuristic lens was employed to examine the researcher’s own NDLH experience in the wake of Hurricane Ivan.…
Modern Mythology in popular culture is represented with visual aesthetics, ritualistic elements, and thematic motifs that all nod at those found in ancient mythological traditions. Creators are utilizing new mediums to explore these ideas faster than researchers have been able to give rigorous analysis to them in many cases. George Lucas’s Star Wars saga, however,…
Passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years, oral histories told by Plains Indian peoples—Lakota, Dakota, Arapaho, Arikara, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, Pawnee, and many other tribes—account for how the animals, people, plants, and natural forces of the world came to be. As expressions of a cultural stream of ancestral memory, oral histories are interwoven…
This study delves into the realms of resilience when people are confronted with environmental adversity. Harnessing the wisdom from five seasoned environmental activists, this study focuses on the core qualities of resilience and overcoming the daily stressors that result from encountering the rapidly changing environment in the 21st century. Five co-researchers included (1) a Russian…
An advocacy initiative spearheaded by the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy is examined against a complex sociohistorical background, from a variety of perspectives. These include the global and local context of agriculture and their intersection in California as its residents grapple with a maze of regional, statewide, and federal policies in a…
Though once repressed into the shadow of world consciousness, the archetypal Crone is re-emerging from the depths. Instead of the stereotyped Crone, who is present in our culture as the debased image of the wicked witch, the archetypal Crone is the multi-faceted Regeneratrix who ushers in the death necessary for new life. While women at…
Myth is far more than fire-side entertainment or proto-science. It has shaped culture, history, popular entertainment, and even politics. It has also come under threat from multiple quarters: concretization through commitment to ink, use as nationalistic propaganda, and bastardized versions that ignore cultural context. The various versions of a myth must be carefully preserved in…
This is a qualitative, quasi-experimental study into the effects on the nature of the emotional development of boys in a society that values hypermasculinity. The research used archetypal and symbolic images from a 10,000-year-old folk-myth that originated in the islands of the far South Pacific, called the Half-Boy Story, integrated with the stories of study…
The purpose of this research was to shed light on, and draw awareness to, the impacts of the white supremacy cultural complex, both in the American collective unconscious, as well as the clinical unconscious within psychology. Eight adult clients, who identify as people of color, participated in individual semi-structured oral interviews, detailing their therapeutic encounters…
This dissertation details a study conducted with a group of women diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in rural Western North Carolina who participated in a 6-week Authentic Movement class. Multiple sclerosis is framed as a physical illness, which often means that the psychological impact of living with the myriad of neurologic symptoms is rarely addressed.…
In the literature and research on processes of change in psychotherapy the role of the unconscious has received little attention, more specifically there is almost a complete absence of research on the role of dreams in processes of change. In an attempt to respond to this neglect this Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) study explored the…
In the twentieth century, the life span of U.S. women expanded from 45-50 years, to over 80 years. Before 1900, most women did not live past menopause. As a result of this increased longevity, this study claims there has been an expansion of women’s mythological, psychological, physiological, and spiritual life stages from three to four.…
How do formerly incarcerated urban youth of color experience eco-liberatory praxes in the wilderness? This study explores the convergence of wilderness and eco-liberatory praxes for formerly incarcerated youth of color. The research was designed to understand how vast wilderness spaces affect young people who have lived in urban communities and juvenile prisons. Growing up in…
Clinical research that examines the lived experiences of first-generation Mexican American women growing up in America, is a topic that is minimally discussed. As a professional Latina woman working in the field of clinical psychology, I became increasingly aware of this unspoken phenomenon through my interactions with other Latinas in a professional, academic, and clinical…
For over twenty years, former Commander Jon Burge of the Chicago Police Department used methods of torture to coerce confessions from men and women of color on the South Side of Chicago. With the cooperation of the state’s attorney’s office and the courts, over 100 people of color were sentenced to prison, some even to…
This study was conducted to increase the understanding and explore the value of combined somatic and artistic approaches for healing trauma. The Personal Embodiment program offered at the Tamalpa Institute, which utilizes somatic and expressive arts methods, was the proposed therapeutic model. Using a depth psychological perspective, the literature review examined theoretical formulations in the…
This research explores the nature of the transcendent function in the context of personal myth as it is illuminated by one’s astrological profile, using active imagination to engage directly with the planetary archetypes around the primary tensions and archetypal themes that characterize the individual’s life experience, in order to cultivate a closer relationship between the…
The Whore of Babylon is a diabolical female figure in the Book of Revelation, the final book of the canonical Bible. Throughout history this image has been used metaphorically to communicate a threat. The focus on the Whore as a woman and mother infuses the female body with apocalyptic significance and reinforces stereotypical gender roles.…
Research bridging psychodrama and Jungian psychology has not looked at the role of the sacred, numinous, and the unitary nature of reality in the theory and practice of Jung and Moreno. This qualitative hermeneutic inquiry utilized imaginal and depth psychological approaches to explore psychodrama and Jungian psychology. Alchemy provided the sacred and transformational framework in…
Universal Self is an archetype in which there is reciprocal correspondence between individual and universe. A pragmatic research design grounded in the hermeneutic tradition of inquiry is used to explore Universal Self from the perspective of Ancient Egypt by synthesizing historical texts with contemporary art and science. A heart devoted to Gods and Goddesses, and…
