Theory and Philosophy Commons^™

Religion's Role In Shaping Psychopathological Narratives, Andrea Gonzalez Mendoza

The Graduate Review

Understanding the interplay between religion and psychopathology is essential for clinicians navigating the complexities of mental health diagnosis and treatment. This paper explores the nuanced relationship between belief systems and diagnostic frameworks, shedding light on how religious beliefs influence the perception, assessment, and treatment of mental disorders. Drawing upon historical and current-day research, this paper examines how religious interpretations shape the presentation and understanding of psychopathological symptoms. In doing so, this paper argues that psychopathology cannot be understood without considering the influence of religion on its conceptualization. The latter is illustrated by looking at historical diagnostic patterns and how they …

The Journey Of Psychotherapy: Understanding Therapeutic Technique Through Ultralight Thru Hiking, Emma Bossier

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

This paper explores several principles of ultralight backpacking as metaphors for developing one’s therapeutic technique. The tenets of ultralight thru hiking, when interpreted through a clinical lens, offer early clinicians insight into the importance of moving through fear and leaning into exploration, discomfort, and authenticity while on the journey of becoming a therapist. The experiences of numerous thru hikers are synthesized into five principles: Don’t Pack Your Fears, Be Present for the Journey, Slow Simplicity, Embrace the Suck (and The Stink), and Trail Legs. These principles do not define ultralight as carefreeness but rather offer a metaphor for the careful …

An Exploration Of The Potential Impacts Of Philosophical Idealism On Psychotherapeutic Practice, Ian Richard

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

This study presents a review of the modern ontologies available regarding the nature of the universe and identifies Bernardo Kastrup’s formulation of idealism as a leading model. Idealism theorizes that consciousness is the basis of reality, as opposed to physical objects. The implications of Kastrup’s idealism on psychotherapeutic practice are considered, including conflicts with the medical model, synergies with the contextual model, and suggestions for approaches that align with the findings of idealism.

Internalized Homonegativity And The Mental Health Of Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Individuals: An Integrative Treatment Approach, David Kearby

DSW Capstone Projects

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals (LGBI) have a higher rate of mental health disorders than the general population. The mental health disparities experienced by LGBI are positively correlated with higher internalized homonegativity (IH) levels, which impacts their functioning at the unconscious, cognitive, and interpersonal levels. Thus, effective interventions targeting the mental health of LGBI must consider IH's intrapsychic, cognitive, and interpersonal nature. An integrative psychotherapy approach addressing the mental health and IH of LGBI is needed to address the intrapsychic, cognitive, and interpersonal factors at play.

Product one of this capstone is a systematic literature review that identified psychotherapeutic interventions …

The Impossible Situation? Impasse As Psychotherapeutic Paralysis, Possibility, And Progress, Leo Cancelmo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Psychotherapeutic impasse has long been understood in the clinical literature as treatment stagnation and even failure, both from one-person and two-person psychodynamic perspectives. However, there is a dearth of empirical research that delves deeper to understand this complex and rich phenomenon. Using semi-structured interviews with nine psychodynamic therapists speaking about individual adult patients, this study examined experiences of impasse to better understand treatments that become embroiled in a kind of paralysis. Qualitative analyses revealed dyads where patients were conceptualized as struggling chronically with negative feelings about themselves and others, and who experienced traumatic personal histories. Impasse in and of itself …

How Psychotherapists Practice In The Digital Era, Josh Weinstein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The digital era, marked by digital devices connected via high speed data networks, has altered human experience in profound ways over the past 40 years. The potential for novel forms of human relating and fulfillment of desire has led to myriad changes in behavior, thought and unconscious activity. While many adapt or thrive in expanded reality, for some, the digital can be context, source and/or location for psychological affliction. When those who suffer seek psychological relief, how psychotherapists listen for, conceptualize and work with the effects of the digital matter a great deal. While theoretical and quantitative research literature exists …

Lived Experience: The Training Of Therapists, Actors & Human Beings, Richard Williams

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

There is much in common between theater and therapy. Both happen live. Both are explorations of human experience. Both require participants to be emotionally and mentally present. Both are hard to do well (and easy to do poorly). Training to be a clinical psychologist requires hours of coursework, administrative work, supervision, and on the job clinical experience. Training to be a professional theater maker or actor requires hours of rehearsal. The elements of acting are deconstructed during training so that rehearsal consists of voice-work, physical theater, scene study, etcetera. Training to be an actor entails much more practice of the …

Agency, Atonement, And Psychological Theories Of Change: A Latter-Day Saint Christian Perspective, Richard N. Williams, Edwin E. Gantt

Issues in Religion and Psychotherapy

This paper interrogates the relationship of the hard determinism inherent in the theories and models currently on offer in mainstream psychology and the current trends in psychotherapeutic approaches. It foregrounds the seeming contradiction between the emphasis placed on mastering and incorporating discipline-specific knowledge – which clearly assumes scientism and hard determinism – and the emphasis placed on practitioners to develop a coherent theory of change as part of their approach to effective clinical practice. We argue that hard determinism and strategies for facilitating genuine therapeutic change and transformation are incompatible where there is no clear, coherent view of human beings …

Bourdieu And Jung: A Thought Partnership To Explore Personal, Social, And Collective Unconscious Influences On Professional Practices, Rosa Bologna, Franziska Trede, Narelle Patton

The Qualitative Report

This paper introduces a thought partnership between Pierre Bourdieu and Carl Jung used to explore clinical play therapists’ understanding and critical reflexivity of unconscious influences on their relational practices with parents. The partnership is situated within a broader methodological partnership between Paul Ricoeur and Jung discussed by the authors in another paper in this issue. The purpose of the Bourdieu and Jung partnership is to design a comprehensive theoretical tool kit that enables the exploration of the interrelated nature of personal, social, and collective unconscious influences on professional practices. The paper discusses seven Bourdieusian and ten Jungian thinking tools and …

A Critical Imaginal Hermeneutics Approach To Explore Unconscious Influences On Professional Practices: A Ricoeur And Jung Partnership, Rosa Bologna, Franziska Trede, Narelle Patton

The Qualitative Report

Professional relationships are at the heart of professional practice. Qualitative studies exploring professional practice relationships are typically positioned in either the social constructivist (interpretive) paradigm where the aim is to explore actors’ subjective understandings of their relationships and relational practices, or in the critical paradigm where the aim is to reveal objective unconscious structures and hidden power plays influencing actors’ practices. This paper introduces critical imaginal hermeneutics as a systemic philosophical and methodological approach situated on the juncture of the social constructivist and critical paradigms where the dual aim is to explore both actors’ subjective understanding and meaning-making processes associated …

Unveiling God In Counseling: The Compatibility Of Christian Theology And The Modern Therapeutic Process, Kelvin Jamaal Mack

Senior Theses

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the compatibility of Christian theology and a modern therapeutic process informed by secularism. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate that the conceptualization of an active God in the therapeutic process is essential for counselors and clients who adhere to the Christian faith. This conceptualization is either missing or altered by therapeutic processes that operate under the worldview assumptions of secularism. This is what is described as the veiling of God. To explore this issue, a four-tiered analytical approach has been invoked. First, a brief history of secularism and its major …

The Dialogical Principle In Counseling And Psychotherapy: An Exploration Of Martin Buber's "I And Thou", Matthew Martin

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

The relationship has become increasingly decentralized as counselors and psychotherapists continue to turn towards evidence-based techniques and manualized intervention strategies. Although counselors must learn to incorporate appropriate technique and therapeutic strategy during the process of therapy, these interventions must be predicated on an understanding of the real meeting between counselor and client. Dialogical theory, based on the philosophical anthropology of philosopher Martin Buber, emphasizes the client-counselor encounter as the fundamental source of healing in counseling and psychotherapy. This paper will explore the Dialogical principle found in Martin Buber’s philosophy of “I and Thou,” and how these can be related and …

Understanding Attitude Towards Help Seeking In Predicting Preference For Psychotherapeutic Orientation, Gregory J. Petronzi

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This research examined the extent to which people’s dispositional qualities predict their psychotherapy preferences. Additionally, this study examined the extent to which people’s attitude toward seeking professional psychological help would predict their psychotherapy preferences above and beyond their dispositional characteristics.

An online survey was administered to participants (N = 312) for remuneration. Personality traits were measured using the HEXACO-60, attachment styles were measured using the Relationships Questionnaire (RQ) and Experiences in Close Relationships Scale- Short Form (ECR-S), attitude toward help seeking was measured with the Attitude Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale – Short Form (ATSPPHS-SF), and psychotherapy preferences were …

David Grove's Metaphors For Healing, David Pincus, Anees A. Sheikh

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Within the ever-expanding list of approaches to psychotherapy, there is a tendency to overlook deep imagery approaches. The current article reports on one such metaphor-based therapy developed by David Grove (Grove & Panzer, 1989). The approach is analyzed within the context of mainstream contemporary psychotherapy in general, the state of empirical understanding of common processes to psychotherapy, and in relation to other deep imagery-based approaches to therapy. Next, a step-by-step description of the techniques used within metaphor therapy are presented, along with a case example demonstrating the use of these techniques on a case involving pain symptoms. Finally, it is …