Dissertation Oral Defenses
This dissertation explores how assumptions about reality and the super natural can affect the ways in which both experiencers and non-experiencers approach the paranormal and super natural. Using written accounts of paranormal encounters at specific locations, this dissertation unpacks how time, location, and culture can influence how a person may or may not experience the…
This inquiry, using a narrative methodology, depicts the embodied experience of five women who handle and ride horses (horsewomen) through narrative and cameo vignettes. Embodiment is understood as the totality of the experience: sensations occurring in the structure of the body, energies flowing in and around the body, and images that arise in the mind.…
This dissertation examines the problem of substance addiction from a depth psychological perspective. It explores how sustainable recovery can be initiated in the treatment of substance addiction through the excavation of soul as a vehicle for healing trauma, loss of meaning, and connection with spirit. Using hermeneutic methodology, the study examines the conundrum of a…
Research has shown that writing personal stories or memoir has psychological impact on the individual author and may guide them on a path to healing through the process of crafting and reimagining their story. This study used Clark Moustakas’s qualitative heuristic methodology to analyze the co-researcher’s experiential data that was gathered through interview, the study…
This study reviews the psychoanalytic theory of anality, a pillar of Freud’s psychosexual theory of human development, and subsequent developments by psychoanalytic clinicians throughout the 20th century, focusing on the metaphysical assumptions underlying theory and practice. Freud encountered anal phenomena in the clinical hour in the free associations of his clients and their syntonic symptomology,…
This human science study utilized a hermeneutic methodology to explore place and people’s relationship to place from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Texts from the field of psychology, including environmental psychology, ecopsychology, attachment theory, and social psychology, were analyzed. Then, texts from phenomenological philosophy, phenomenological psychology, and ecologically attuned phenomenology were analyzed. The subsequent analysis resulted in…
The current body of cannabis literature is predominately rooted in the Western medical model and based in ideas of pathology and medicalization. A negative bias permeates the literature and use that falls outside the bounds of Western medicine remains poorly understood, yet some emerging and qualitative research suggests that there are reasons for use and…
This qualitative, phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of fire department union leaders who were invited to share their perspectives on the value of using ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) for firefighters diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Currently, the occurrence of PTSD and depression among firefighters is nearly five times higher than the civilian population. KAP…
This production style dissertation includes the exploration of the relationship between women’s erotic imagination and their individuation journey through living inquiry, a practitioner-based research method marked by the creation of 20 original works of art. Bolstered by the philosophical underpinnings of a Jungian arts-based research (JABR) methodology, the artist–researcher approaches archetypal images of her erotic…
Although the Jungian concept of cultural complexes added an essential layer to the understanding of the unconscious, research regarding how cultural complexes contribute to psychological suffering is still lacking. It is crucial to explore how the individual psyche is influenced by the group psyche in order to break crystalized worldview assumptions and improve clinical practice.…
The study used narrative inquiry to understand generational war and the history of Genocide in Armenia. The intention is to bring awareness to the world regarding the challenges and the chaos that one nation is experiencing and the trauma that they endured while the Armenian Genocide received little attention in the media. Narrative interviewing was…
This Jungian Arts-Based Research (ABR) dissertation explores women’s sexual sovereignty through the creation of artistic work that enters into creative conversation with the mythology of the Mórrígan, an Irish sovereignty goddess. The creative work produced includes an experiential workshop format exploring the story of Macha (a figure of the Mórrígan), example images and interpretations from…
This hermeneutic study considers the role of Dionysian consciousness in the engagement of trauma and grief, the embrace of instinctual life, and the evolving perception of “the other” as these matters are drawn into our relationship with nature. Dionysian consciousness is explored by means of the archetypal psychology of James Hillman and applied to the…
The purpose of this study was to shed light from a depth psychological perspective on the role that hope plays in the successful transition out of gang life for previously incarcerated Latino men. A phenomenological approach was taken to help understand the role of esperanza, or hope, in the lived experience of formerly incarcerated men.…
This dissertation seeks to understand how clinicians can best support the psychedelic integration process. There is currently an overemphasis on the administration of psychoactives in psychedelic-assisted therapy and a lack of attention on the aftercare process termed psychedelic integration. Utilizing a voice-centered and relational approach, five informants were interviewed about their experience of working in…
Following dominant practices of traditional and mainstream Christianity, contemporary American evangelicalism primarily images Jesus as Savior, Messiah, and Son of God. The supporting language and imagery are overwhelmingly masculine, repressing, if not totally excluding, feminine language and imagery for God and Jesus. These predominantly masculine images of God and Jesus substantially contribute to the abuse…
Mysterious stone structures are scattered across the place known today as Woodstock, New York—on the side of Overlook Mountain, in its hollows, and in the valley below. This hermeneutic study seeks to uncover the symbolic meaning of the place and its stones for our cultural-historical time. The study shows that the place that birthed the…
This study describes an interrelational, embodied perspective of death and dying that challenges existing understandings of mortality. For example, some depth psychological and existential phenomenological thinkers frame death as a dynamic reality at the center of existence. Under this perspective, death is related to dying, but the two are conceptualized as distinctly different. In contrast,…
Conversations connected to pleasure, consent, safety, access to clean water, land, and quality medical-care are all subjects inherently connected to bodily autonomy and sexuality, making the comprehensive sex-ed classroom a powerful space for liberatory learning. This critical qualitative study conducted with experienced intersectional comprehensive sexuality and relationship education (ICSRE) providers attempts to understand their perceptions…
This archetypal astrological and hermeneutic study explores Carl Gustav Jung’s The Black Books 1913-1932: Notebooks of Transformation, a collection of his private journals published in 2020, comprising his visions (or “active imaginations”) from 1913 to 1932. The journals detail Jung’s encounter with the depths of his psyche, initiated by a personal crisis, in which he…