Dissertation Oral Defenses

This alchemical hermeneutic study examines the problem of the myth of separation between spirit and matter that lies at the wounded heart of the Western psyche. The myth of separation is conceptualized as a traumatic, intergenerational attachment wound that creates the perception of dissociation of the divine spirit from the material world. Diverse problems confronting…

Something significant is lost when verbalization is defined as an act of cognition or mental insight, separate from or in opposition to the “felt-sense.” This research challenges this dualism by framing and investigating voice as an embodied sense. The fields of trauma theory and trauma healing practice are addressed as sites where the harm of…

This practice-led, creative, and heuristic dissertation tracks the evolution of a depth psychologist from volunteer to program director at a nonprofit environmental organization. The research follows a life-changing, near-death experience that steered the author into a psychological and physical reconnective process with water, which included participation in ocean restoration programs, graduate studies in community, liberation,…

Honoring the need to feel heard when growing up in the foster care system is the main foundation of this research. This study explores how to understand, from a depth psychological perspective, the child in foster care’s trauma. Data has been gathered by utilizing hermeneutic, phenomenological, and alchemical hermeneutics approaches, providing an analysis of the…

This hermeneutic research explores couples therapy from a Jungian approach with both classical and archetypal lenses using the myth of Eros and Psyche as the guiding mythopoetic image. It challenges Hera and Zeus as the traditional myth of marriage, and examines the encounter of love and soul depicted in the Eros and Psyche myth as…

The purpose of this qualitative doctoral research study is to explore the mental health condition known as anorexia nervosa through the framework of depth psychology in combination with specific concepts from analytical/Jungian psychology to provide an in-depth analysis of the condition beyond current conventional clinical views. Anorexia nervosa is a psychological disorder clinically characterized by…

This qualitative research study makes use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to examine psychoanalytic psychotherapy as an effective treatment method for patients with a history of substance abuse. This research queries the experiences of psychoanalytically oriented therapists treating clients with substance use histories in private practice settings. In semi-structured interviews, these therapists were asked to describe…

This dissertation offers an in-depth analysis of the history of Asian American stereotypes presented throughout U.S. media and popular culture, with particular emphasis on the impact of racialized gender stereotypes on Asian American males. Utilizing a theoretical hermeneutic design, three primary stereotypes emerged as essential historical themes employed to control the image and perception of…

Oppositional defiant disorder is one of the most common psychiatric diagnoses in childhood. This hermeneutic research study explores the cultural, historical, and psychological phenomena contributing to contemporary childhood and related disorders, specifically oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD). Accurate diagnosis and treatment of ODD and CD has significant relevance to clinicians working with…

The new millennium with its great advances of science and technology is allowing more people access to a comfortable life in the material dimension, but also appears to be one of increasing dehumanization. What is missing to achieve more loving and peaceful relationships, on the individual and collective level? What should be re-membered from the…

This study explores women’s experience of sexuality as a path to God through the lens of the Jungian theory of individuation. Secondarily, this study explores how film images may be reflecting something new emerging from the collective unconscious related to reconciling the archetypal energies of sexuality and spirituality. Whereas these energies seem to many to…

This study focused on the lived experience of therapists whose clients are in recovery from psychotic disorders within the Windhorse IMH model. The study explored the clinicians’ lived experience of being in extended exchange with clients with psychotic disorders and how clinicians utilize embedded self-care strategies such as contemplative practice, a variety of supervision experiences,…

This research project is an ethnographic narrative that combines African Healing Drum Workshops with Popular Education (PE) and Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology as a tool for an emancipatory pedagogy that brings about a collective healing. It sheds light on an awareness of the potential future of the Leimert Park area of Los Angeles and…

This dissertation examines the quandary of modern societal dislocation and fragmentation due to loss of traditional forms of making meaning and culture cohesion such as institutionalized religious affiliations, public education, and shared values community building. This project’s approach to inquiry assigns agency to the individual seeking knowledge by bridging access from the self to universal…

This hermeneutic study explores new avenues of depth psychological understanding pertaining to the relationship between lunar symbolism and the psyche. This relationship is grounded in a study of myth, particularly Greek myth, which guides the amplification of the moon as a symbol of critical strata and dynamics of the collective unconscious. Jungian and archetypal psychological…

Qualitative depth psychological research was conducted in Ecuador, SA, to identify overt conscious-intentional and hidden unconscious-archetypal motivations that influenced the decisions for self-initiated expatriation (SIE) from North America and Europe to a country considered paradisiac for SIE.  Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) with a multilayered Jungian approach, results of five months of live interviews with…

This study examined the lived embodied experience of Argentine Tango as it pertains to habitual patterns of interpersonal relating. An interpretive phenomenological approach (IPA) was adopted to investigate how six participants made sense of their embodied experiences. Semi-structured in-depth interviews focused on dance encounters and one-of-a-kind moments related to the phenomenon. The intersubjective experience formed…

The purpose of this alchemical hermeneutic inquiry is to explore the image of ice through multiple media as it coalesces around C. G. Jung’s The Red Book: Liber Novus, a text which was published in our current era of climate crisis. Using the lenses of depth and archetypal psychology, this dissertation amplifies the archetypal core…

Death by suicide is a problem of epidemic proportions in the United States of America. In 2018, 50,351 people died by suicide, ranking the United States 27th in the world for suicide rates (Suicide Rates, p. 1). Nationwide, Black females have historically had the lowest suicide rates across any other culture, race, sex, ethnicity, and…

This depth psychology research interprets the deep and vast territory of self-meanings in the woman’s connection with the fetus, known as the prenatal attachment experience. This process is unique to each woman and may gradually unfold or suddenly arise to protect a woman’s ego from turmoil during the natural course of development. Led by the…