Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Influence Of Self-Compassion On Perceived Stress Reactivity, Emily C. Helminen

Theses - ALL

Contemplative psychological traits (e.g., mindfulness and self-compassion) have become a popular area of research in recent years, often in the context of their influence on stress (Creswell & Lindsay, 2014). One promising subset of contemplative science research demonstrates that higher levels of contemplative traits are associated with decreased physiological stress reactivity during psychosocial stress induction. This is important due to the negative health outcomes that are associated with persistently heightened stress reactivity. Research investigating self-compassion has demonstrated that higher levels of trait self-compassion are associated with lower levels of stress reactivity (Breines et al., 2015; Luo et al., 2018). Currently, …

Reflections From The In-Between: Visualizing The Mental Thresholds Of Dissociation, Katherine Virag

Theses - ALL

I am fascinated by the state of being in-between; by the mental spaces that are somehow neither here nor there, but also somehow both here and there. At a young age, I began to experience depersonalization and derealization, and this dissociated state left me feeling trapped somewhere on the threshold of reality and non-reality. My artistic practice is concerned with the psychological antitheses of dissociation – comfort vs discomfort, safety vs danger, and reality vs non-reality, and the continuum of space between these polarities. Often through large-scale installations, I create a physical space for the viewer to enter. These spaces, …

Family History Of Alcohol Use Disorder As A Predictor Of Endogenous Pain Modulatory Function, Kyle Mackenzie White

Theses - ALL

Family history of alcohol use disorder (AUD) is frequently endorsed by chronic pain patients. Although individuals with a family history of AUD have demonstrated enhanced sensitivity to painful stimulation, we are not aware of any previous research that has examined clinically-relevant endogenous pain modulation (i.e., capacity to inhibit or facilitate pain) in this population. The goal of this study was to test family history of AUD as a predictor of conditioned pain modulation, offset analgesia, and temporal summation among a sample of moderate-to-heavy drinkers. Participants (N = 235; 58.3% male; Mage = 34.3, SD = 12.3) were evaluated for family …

Exploring The Therapeutic Relationship As A Central Focus Through Expressive Arts Therapy In Oncology, Akshata Parekh

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The treatment for cancer can be physically, mentally, emotionally and socially challenging. These treatments have side effects like physical body pain, hair loss, changes in weight, energy, nausea and more. These physical changes impact the social, mental and emotional well-being of the patient and makes this journey of the life-threating prognosis of cancer very tough to confront. Expressive arts therapy provides a safe space for the patients to address their mental health concerns as a result of this treatment. The Capstone Thesis Project explored expressive arts therapy interventions with 95 patients through single or multiple sessions while going through their …

Language As The Medium: A Literature Review. Harnessing The Prolific Power Of Dramatic Language As A Therapeutic Tool In Drama Therapy, Edward Freeman

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Language in and of the theatre, with its palate of variegated writing styles and playwrights from throughout time, has the potential to be harnessed, focused, and systematized for use as a therapeutic tool within drama therapy – the field’s artistic medium. Drama therapy could benefit from having a specific medium germane to its artform which has the potential to provide practitioners with a common resource and means of communication, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment planning, as well as align the field with other creative arts therapies. Language encompasses all forms of human communication – speaking, writing, signing, gesturing, expressing facially – …

Exploring Tactile Art-Making With Deafblind Students And Their Families: An Opportunity For Creative Play, Alice Rodgers

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The impact of a deafblind diagnosis on an individual’s mental health and the well-being of the family involved can be profound. However, current research and available literature for the mental health treatment and therapy practices of deafblind persons and their families is limited (Kyzar et al., 2016; “WFDB Global Report 2018,” n.d.). This thesis used the Leeds Family Psychology and Therapy Service principles (Leeds FPTS) and the Expressive Therapies Continuum with established deafblind teaching strategies to facilitate an original arts-based community project entitled: “Things We Like.” This project provided an opportunity for deafblind students (ages three to 22) and their …

Music As A Gateway To Healing Speech Disorders And Mental Health Holistically In The Patient With Aphasia: A Literature Review, Susan Warren

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

People with some types of post-stroke aphasia often experience depression as well as loss of speech. Music therapy has unique properties that allow it to be used therapeutically to treat both speech impairment and depression yet it is rarely used to treat both disorders. This literature review seeks to examine the underlying causes for this discrepancy, review methods used by practitioners to treat both disorders and suggest future directions for additional research and implications for the treatment of patients with aphasia who have both language impairment and depression.

Making Room: Addressing The Counter-Therapeutic Nature Of Psychiatric Hospitalization Through Containment- Based Group Expressive Therapy, Max Sandor Copans

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The process of hospitalization and the environment of a typical psychiatric hospital is often counter-therapeutic. To challenge this problem, clinicians may introduce the concept of psychological containment. To elaborate, being hospitalized anywhere can be disorienting, frightening and even traumatic. This problem is only further exacerbated in psychiatric hospitals where patients may be disorganized, manic, or struggling with psychosis. Furthermore, psychological containment is essentially the ability for psychiatric patients to prevent their intense emotions from effecting others negatively, and to act with resiliency when other patients are unable to contain their own disruptive behaviors. This paper utilizes both an initial literature …

Storytelling As An Expressive Arts Therapy Intervention With Children Via Telehealth, Sidney Marie Joines

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

As an expressive arts therapist in training working in the midst of a global pandemic, I sought to develop a creative, safe, accessible, and effective intervention for children via telehealth during a time of great uncertainty. Coronavirus 2019 has had a massive impact on mental and physical health and disrupted the lives of billions across the globe; the pandemic also forced mental health professionals to online formats. I found a significant lack of literature around expressive arts therapy via telehealth. Through considering theoretical approaches from cinematherapy, narrative therapy, metaphor therapy, play therapy, and expressive arts therapy, I developed an eight-week …

Exploring The Usefulness Of Mindfulness Practices Through Zoom Meetings In Reducing Anxiety And/Or Stress Of Adults With Learning And Developmental Disabilities During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Thatiane Abra

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis explored which mindfulness meditations or mindfulness practices could be beneficial in the online sessions, the extent to which adults with learning and developmental disabilities could learn the practices remotely, and how stress and anxiety disorders could be reduced through online mindfulness interventions. Furthermore, it was also necessary to address the online sessions as the only mental health treatment possibility during the Coronavirus pandemic for the clients observed and the benefits and limitations of these interventions. Additionally, the importance of structure and routine for this population, the multi-modal structure of the interventions, and how attunement plays an important role …

Educating Providers To Screen For Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Alyssa Fraino

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Background: The purpose of this evidence-based change in practice is to increase the knowledge base of psychiatric providers in outpatient psychiatric settings, by educating clinicians regarding the significance of implementing a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) screening tool during the initial evaluation of patients. This can help to identify patients with PTSD that may not have been identified on initial visit, and may otherwise go unrecognized or untreated for PTSD, without the inclusion of a PTSD screening tool.

Problem: Evidence suggests that PTSD is underreported and overlooked in most populations. However, there is no standardized practice surrounding the routine use of …

The Use Of Mindfulness Meditation To Increase The Efficacy Of Mirror Visual Feedback For Reducing Phantom Limb Pain In Amputees, Nicolas Sebastian Mills

Doctoral Dissertations

Phantom limb pain is a chronic pain condition that negatively impacts the lives of over half of amputees, and results in considerable morbidity. Currently, there is no gold standard for treatment for phantom limb pain. However, a frequently used intervention is the use of mirror visual feedback, in which the amputee watches the reflection of the adjacent non-amputated limb move and exercise. In the last few decades, mindfulness-based interventions have been increasingly used with individuals living with different types of chronic pain. This study attempts to discover if the addition of a mindfulness-based intervention, such as guided meditation, will augment …

Predicting Covid-19 Behavior: Is It All Due To Political Orientation?, Caleb Potts

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Adherence to COVID-19 preventing measures is becoming increasingly important as governments across the world realize COVID-19 is not an acute, but a chronic problem. There is, however, disagreement over to what extent COVID-19 is a problem. In the United States, the division appears to be primarily along party lines (Democrat and Republican[1]), though even within parties there is division. This division might be explained by differences in: the behavioral immune system and trust in government. Additional factors to examine include: personality, fear of COVID-19, and religious beliefs. The present study used previously validated self-report measures to assess …

The Effect Of Implementing A Generalized Anxiety Disorder Protocol For Anxiety And Depression Symptoms In The Primary Care Setting, Bailey J. Hinman

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is very prevalent in the United States with 5.7% of citizens affected (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2017). This number is expected to be even higher because individuals avoid care due to stigma of mental illness (Andrews et al., 2018). GAD can have significant implications such as decreased ability to function, decreased quality of life and increased risk of suicide (Fong, 2018; Lizarondo, 2018). The purpose of this project was to improve outcomes for adult patients with GAD in the primary care setting by improving treatment to follow best practice recommendations. The Johns Hopkins Evidence …

Art And Empathy: Self Discovery In A Dark Forest, Younser Lee

Graduate School of Art Theses

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 40 million people report feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress as the world moves at an increasingly rapid pace and faces unprecedented challenges. However, many ignore these negative thoughts and fail to acknowledge them as a serious issue. My art, which shares my own experiences, creates safe, cathartic places for viewers to think about their own emotional experiences. Crucial to this process is my use of daily objects and the creation of individualized, participatory, and multisensory experiences.

My art relates to daily life and the negative emotions that we experience daily. I …

Academic Stressors, Perceived Stress, And Coping Strategies Among Undergraduate Students, Danielle J. Levin

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

Stress is common among college students and is a predominant factor interfering with academic performance. This study evaluated how college students perceive their level of stress, the coping strategies used, and the use of resources to offset stress offered by the university. This study showed that overall, undergraduate students at JMU experienced moderate levels of stress. Pressure to succeed, balancing coursework, and lack of motivation were the most prevalent academic stressors experienced by students. This study provides evidence that perceptions of stress greatly impact student behavior and use of coping strategies. Variation in coping strategies among students highlights the importance …

Death Anxiety, Artmaking And The Facilitation Of Death Discourse, Heather Conley

Art Therapy Counseling Final Research Projects

Discussion about death, known as death discourse, has been historically limited to the confines of the palliative care, elderly and hospice arenas (Bradshaw, 1996; Granek, 2013; Safrai, 2013; Zimmerman, 2012). This study examined the impact of artmaking on facilitating death discourse in college-aged students from a midwestern United States campus. A mixed methods design was implemented in which participants completed the Communication Apprehension about Death Scale (CADS; Carmack & DeGroot, 2016), an artmaking directive addressing feelings about death, followed by a Post-Artmaking Reflection about their artwork. Following a 10-day time period after the artmaking session, participants were re-administered the CADS …

The Power, (Problem), And Potential Of Prayer, Meghan E. Stretar

School of Theology and Seminary Graduate Papers/Theses

This paper illuminates the complex and nuanced relationship between mental health and prayer, particularly seeking theologically grounded understandings of prayer and of our relationship with God in times of mental distress that goes beyond intercessory prayer. The paper begins with an evaluation of social structures that cause mental health problems (notably in college students). A discussion on emotional agility, scarcity, and vulnerability serves as a transition to examining this question from a theological perspective, the second main section of this paper. In this section, I claim that a misunderstanding of the divine-human relationship and of prayer is one potential source …

How College Men Describe Their Understanding Of Sexual Assault, Sarah Anolik

Dissertations, 2020-current

Despite the proliferation of many vital bystander intervention programs across the country, approximately one in four college women will experience sexual violence. Though it was once believed that a small minority of men were responsible for the vast majority of sexual violence, an estimated 12%-25% of college men report having used sexual violence as an undergraduate student. Research across disciplines suggests several factors associated with the perpetration of sexual violence. While numerous studies have explored these constructs quantitatively on and off college campuses, there have been far fewer qualitative studies that provide insight into how men who have perpetrated violence …

Surmounting Disembodiment: Architecture And Suicide Prevention, Jack Mcgeehan

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Suicide is currently the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, more than double the number of homicide deaths. This thesis questions how architects can design more appropriately for people who are at risk for suicide in the United States. While suicide is individualistic and varies from person to person, there are consistencies that can serve as a basis for mitigating the problem and building an infrastructure for the solution. This thesis begins by examining four key cohorts that are typically high risk in the United States; veterans, the elderly, the homeless, and youths. It examines the behavioral …

A Tailored Multicomponent Intervention In Primary Care For Survivors Of Adverse Childhood Experiences (Aces), Rebecca L. Peterson

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) include 10 traumatic events of abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction that occur before 18 years of age. Adverse childhood experiences affect greater than 60% of the population, and approximately one in six individuals affirm that they have experienced four or more types of ACEs. They are associated with negative, long-term health outcomes in adults, including 9 out of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.; Felitti et al., 1998). The purpose of this evidence-based practice project was to implement a tailored, multicomponent intervention to mitigate the …

Relationship Between Outcomes Of Psychiatric Genetic Counseling And Time Since Onset And Diagnosis Of Psychiatric Illness, Sarah Saxton

Human Genetics Theses

Research shows that psychiatric genetic counseling (pGC) improves outcomes for patients. We conducted a retrospective chart review study to examine the relationship between outcomes of pGC and time since onset and/or diagnosis of psychiatric illness at a specialist pGC clinic. Specifically, we examined change in empowerment scores (as measured by the Genetic Counseling Outcome Scale (GCOS) prior to (T1) and approximately one month after the pGC appointment (T2)), in relationship to: a) time since symptom onset (TSO) and b) time since psychiatric diagnosis (TSD). Linear regression was used to determine the relationship between TSO and/or TSD and GCOS change, and …

Examining Physical Activity Behaviors And Psychometric Beliefs Of College Students Before And After The Covid-19 Shutdown, James White Iii

Graduate Theses

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine PA behaviors, social support and self-efficacy for PA, Rosenberg self-esteem, and perceptions of body weight before and after the COVID-19 shutdown (March 15, 2020) among the college demographic.

Participants: 311 college students from a four-year, comprehensive, southeastern university in the United States were included in the study from December 1, 2020 until March 5, 2021.

Methods: Surveys were conducted via Qualtrics, an online survey system, and consisted of approximately 40 items, including demographic information, PA behaviors, social support and exercise, self-esteem, self-efficacy to exercise, and perceptions of body weight and self-image. …

Feeling Smarter: The Impact Of Emotional Intelligence And Situational Academic Stressors On Resilience, Coping, And Well-Being, Jenna Bohrer

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Since its inception, Salovey and Mayer’s (1990) construct of emotional intelligence has been associated with positive outcomes from heightened academic performance to resilience (Connor & Slear, 2009; Costa & Faria, 2020). The present study focused on the impact of emotional intelligence and academic stress on coping, resilience, and psychological well-being within a college population. It was hypothesized that those high in emotional intelligence would employ more approach coping strategies and fewer avoidance coping strategies compared to those low in emotional intelligence, and that the higher stress scenario would result in more avoidance and less approach coping compared to the moderate …

Mental Health Of Individuals Within Incarceration: A Systematic Literature Review, Steven I. Valladares

Capstone Experience

Mental Health Illness is on the rise in the United States. About 90% of incarcerated individuals have at least one mental health condition. The current federal and state incarceration systems do not seem to be well-equipped to transition an incarcerated individual to the civilian life. This is so because the incarceration system focuses too much on the punishment rather than rehabilitation. This framework could be deemed unsafe and dangerous to the civilian world once a prisoner gets released, due to incarcerated individuals not receiving adequate mental health treatment. This literature review highlights the flaws of the current incarceration system mental …

Distress Tolerance As A Potential Target For Change: The Relationship Between Distress Tolerance, Craving, And Alcohol Consumption In A Lab-Based Experiment, Isabel F. Augur

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Distress tolerance (DT) has recently been studied as a potential catalyst for the development ofalcohol use disorder (AUD). Research exploring the relationship between DT and craving is limited and has primarily focused on nicotine craving. Furthermore, there are no current studies examining the relationship between DT and alcohol consumption. This study was designed to fill this gap in the literature, which may shed light on a potentially important target for alcohol use treatment. Additionally, the role of mindfulness was explored in the context of the relationship between DT and alcohol craving and consumption, with the intention of expanding on the …

Mindful Eating And Perceived Stress In College Students, Emily G. Garrett

Graduate Theses

Background: Evidence suggests that in college student populations, stress levels often manifest as maladaptive eating and/or functional gastrointestinal disorders. These conditions can degrade wellbeing and academic performance if not addressed.

Research aim/question(s): The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between students’ perceived stress, their overall mindfulness, and mindful eating patterns. Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms and bowel habits were also investigated to determine whether these factors were stress-related or influenced mindfulness behaviors.

Materials and Methods: An online survey was conducted during the 2020-2021 academic year. Demographic information, including smoking, alcohol, and drug use patterns, was gathered in addition to …

The Effects Of Virtual Reality Therapy On Acrophobia: A Literature Review, Emma Zobal

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper examines the effects of virtual reality therapy on acrophobia. Virtual reality therapy is a valuable tool that can be utilized to expose individuals to their phobias in a controlled, virtual setting with the use of technology. Acrophobia is described as an extreme fear of heights and can interfere with the daily lives of individuals. In this review, four studies were examined that focused on the use of virtual reality therapy in individuals with acrophobia. The overall findings indicated that virtual reality therapy was effective in reducing symptoms of acrophobia. Furthermore, this literature review examines the benefits and successful …

Developing The Facilitative Health And Well-Being Tool: Freeing Writing, William O. Fogarty

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Research into processes of self, including self-concept clarity, identity, and meaning and purpose in life, has demonstrated that human beings that feel they know themselves tend to experience positive health and well-being outcomes, while people who feel they don’t know themselves tend to experience more negative health and well-being outcomes. These findings indicate that knowing oneself is essential. Thus, the facilitative tool I am creating with this Master’s Project, Freeing Writing, combines the power of self-knowledge and self-discovery with the healing power of expressive writing. In this manuscript, I synthesize the scientific research, Design Thinking process, and real-world experiences which …

Headache-Related Disability Among Individuals With And Without Migraine Aura, Delora Denney

Honors Theses

Migraine is a neurological disease marked by recurrent headache and migraine attacks. Migraine is one of the most common diseases in the world, and as a result of high prevalence and symptoms, migraine is also quite disabling. One-third of people who have migraine experience aura, and these individuals have a greater risk for stroke, psychiatric comorbidities, and suicide attempts. The present study aimed to evaluate if there was a difference in headache-related disability between those who have migraine with and without aura, and any headache or psychiatric factors that may account for observed difference in disability.

The present study is …