Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

An Exploration Of Art Therapy Services Offered To University Community Members During Transition, Julia Arias, Marissa Gonzales, Melissa Gonzalez, Raegen Valdes

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study examined art therapy services offered by Loyola Marymount University's Helen B. Landgarten Art Therapy Clinic to university students and staff amidst the transition back to in-person services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to explore the efficacy of interventions and clinical themes that emerged as a result of the services offered to members of the university as they transitioned back to in-person services. Two focus groups were held to gather data from participants and facilitators of the workshops. The analysis of this data led researchers to find that the art therapy services …

Visionary Metamorphosis In The Yogavāsiṣṭha: A Transpersonal Approach To The Existential Crisis, Caitlyn Lauren Selve

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

This paper presents an unconventional approach to the existential crisis according to the transpersonal psychology of the eleventh century text, Yogavāsiṣṭha. An existential crisis is a general term used to signify a subjective experience of emotional distress as it relates to certain objective realities of human existence. This paper builds off key concepts (“givens”) from the field of existential psychotherapy, including death, isolation, freedom, and meaninglessness, provided by psychoanalyst Irvin D. Yalom, illuminating how the crisis is addressed in contemporary psychotherapeutic settings. Brief attention is given to the Western academic roots of existential psychotherapy, including areas of continental philosophy and …

Exploring Arts Based Assessments For Relevancy In Art Therapy Research, Anjelica Cortés, Denielle Dominguez, Hayoung Lee, Naomi Nessim, Ciera D. Olson

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores the integration of art assessments with cancer patients as a tool for determining potential scholarly value. Qualitative data was collected from two clinicians who ran weekly art therapy groups with women who are undergoing or who have survived breast cancer treatment. Both groups were 10 week modules structured as open studio groups, and each clinician was subsequently interviewed by the researchers who used a series of formatted questions to assess how the four art assessments were offered to participants, how participants responded to the invitation to engage in assessments, and how the clinician’s reflected on patients’ experiences …

Sex Addiction: A Literary And Yogic Perspective, Adrienne Hope Hite

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

First offering insight into the disease of sexual addiction overall and what, in fact, does delineate it from sexual promiscuity, this paper will go on to seek ways to mitigate such behavior by exploring not only symptoms, but the existing underlying issues as well through a yogic whole-body perspective. Furthermore, diving deeper into such an application, specifically under the context of the yamas and niyamas and investigating how both might, not only serve as therapeutic tools for sex addicts, but perhaps allow for a healthier approach overall to sex in the modern world.

First offering insight into the disease of …

In Search Of Divine Liberated Love: A Yoga Memoir, Katie D. Davidson

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

I opted to write a memoir about my personal experiences in yoga, rather than a traditional research-based thesis. A key distinction between memoir and autobiography or auto-ethnography is that it’s not linear—much like my yoga journey. Often, experiences, particularly around healing emotional trauma, are more circular in nature, perhaps even more of a spiral. According to Carl Jung, “The spiral in psychology means that when you make a spiral you always come over the same point where you have been before, but never really the same, it is above or below, inside, outside, so it means growth.” (Jung 5, p. …

Contemporary Art Therapists: Study Of Identity Within Artmaking, Chelsea Cota, Essayan Hart, Jamie Lombrana, Ivan Lopez, Liz Sizemore, Susana Valdez

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

This paper highlights the design and results of a research study conducted by graduate art therapy students that surveyed professional art therapists and the role that personal and clinical art making has in their practice. The study included a mixed-method approach that involved a survey of 88 graduates from art therapy programs, interviews, the creation of art by art therapists, and the creation of art responses by the graduate researchers. The researchers analyzed the data from the surveys and interviews through thematic coding and identified common themes that reflected the research questions: What is the relationship between personal art making …

Developing Cultural Humility Using Art-Based Group Practices: A Collaborative Autoethnography, Dani De Herrera, Amanda Ramirez, Vivien Chia, Yu Liu, Vanessa Perez, Victoria Mason

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

As the state of the world continues to evolve through means of social justice and technology, the discussion of cultural humility as the evolution of cultural competence is a growing topic in the field of mental health and the art therapy community. The following mixed- method research explores the impact of art materials, group processes, and creative practices in the development of cultural humility. Six graduate students from the Marital and Family Art Therapy Program at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) designed the following collaborative ethnography. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data to answer the question: How can group art-based practices …

Eco Yoga Therapy For Mental Health Related To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Karyn Stein

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Recently the magnitude of the mental health crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been emerging. Reports of anxiety or depression related to COVID-19 have been on the rise globally. Individuals have been living in a perpetual state of the unknown for over two years. Fear of the virus, sickness of oneself or family/friends and social isolation have taken a toll. According to the WHO, anxiety and depression have gone up 25% in the last year (2022). The effects of a rising mental health crisis will be drastic on top of the deaths and sickness related to COVID-19. While governments …

Kundalini, Cerebrospinal Fluid, Multidimensional Health, Theresia Portoghese

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this thesis is to explore “the inner spiritual architecture” (prāṇa, nāḍī, cakra) through the lens of the pañcamayakośa model concerning raising kuṇḍalinī. We will discuss how the components of the “spiritual architecture” are directly influenced by four select techniques (mula bandhā uḍḍīyāna bandhā, jālandhara bandhā, and mahabandā). These are known as bandhās/mudras, which are specific to The Medieval Transformation for raising kuṇḍalinī. Our focus will explore the mechanics of the bandhās and the recorded, effects.

The thesis’s secondary focus is cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Under the traditional lens of the pañcamayakośa model, a comparison will be made between …

The Solace Of Grey: Yogic Perspectives On Healing Through Complex Trauma, Xyloh Gargiulo

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Through perspectives from neuroscience, transpersonal psychology, and transcendentalist philosophy, the art of yoga is proposed as a supporting modality for healing through complex trauma. Personal narrative and original paintings further speak to a process of coming back Home. Where trauma strips one of self, yoga breeds connection back to Self. Yoga is union of individual consciousness with universal consciousness. Yogic philosophy invites one into a space of grey, somewhere between object and subject, physical and spiritual, tangible and ineffable. It is there one comes to find healing by sitting back as a pure observer. In the journey of trauma uncovery, …