<p> This thesis addresses perceived gaps in the Western fields of somatic and depth psychology around the phenomena of higher consciousness. Using hermeneutical methodology, higher states of consciousness are explored through the phenomenological lens of the Kundalini awakening experience. Personal accounts, psychological literature, and clinical data weave together to frame deeper insight into Kundalini awakening, which allows the field of psychology to advance its understanding of cultural attitudes around psychopathology by learning to host a client's experience of Kundalini awakening symptomology in a clinical setting without pathologizing the experience as psychosis or as arising out of psychological disorder. Through the study of ancient traditions as well as contemporary science and psychology, knowledge of universal experiences of higher consciousness can enhance a psychotherapist's breadth of vision and have profound effects on the therapeutic encounter, potentially enhancing naturally occurring organismic trends toward increased coherence.</p><p>

<p> Ritualized initiations are explored as having an important role in the breakdown of ego that is necessary for the growth and integration of components of the self once hidden in the shadows of the unconscious. In the modern world, the drive for linear growth and financial conquest has broken connection to archetypal, spiritual, and mythical guidance as well as to the numinous experiences that allow transformation. Through heuristic methodology, both depth psychological literature as well as broader media are considered to determine the importance of initiation for psychic growth and how a lost connection affects recent generations. This work shows that through the psychotherapeutic process, the therapist can provide the stage needed for a client in a transitional phase of life to safely break down and rebuild the ego structure necessary to move toward individuation.</p><p>

<p> Depth psychology, as a tradition originating from Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, today differentiates itself from other practices of counseling psychology by claiming a special focus upon the soul and its experience of imagination. But the study of philosophy shows how the tenets of depth psychology are problematic&mdash;the <i> anima mundi</i> is a misunderstanding that brings about significant consequences for the practice of psychotherapy. This thesis undertakes a hermeneutic methodology by examining particular writings from philosophers Gotthold E. Lessing and Soren Kierkegaard. These works indicate the problematic character of thought that is not in accord with the beautiful, whereby a question is raised regarding how a psychotherapy that is informed by philosophy might make human life more beautiful. At the basis of these themes is the account of noetic heterogeneity and <i>phantasia</i> (&ldquo;appearing&rdquo;) in Aristotle&rsquo;s <i> De Anima</i>, which is examined in relation to Michael Elliott&rsquo;s new psychotherapy of Philosophic Psychology.</p><p>

<p> This thesis uses heuristic and alchemical hermeneutic methodologies and a depth psychological perspective to examine the metaphor and experience of tattoo. The history of tattoos and ideas around healing are explored, as well as the author&rsquo;s own healing and transformation through multiple tattoo experiences. The author&rsquo;s analysis illustrates how a tattoo may be not only representative of a snapshot of the psyche in a moment in time, but might also move the psyche toward healing through the exploration of the archetypal energy in the image. In addition, the author explores how the modification of the body has the capacity to change the emotional and psychological relationship to one&rsquo;s body.</p><p>

<p> This study examined the difference between counselor empathic responding with and without a therapy dog in their counseling sessions was examined in a within-subjects design. Counseling consisted of animal-assisted therapy, play therapy, and other psychotherapeutic activities with elementary aged clients. Seven female school psychology graduate student clinicians were rated on their empathic responding using the Carkhuff (1969) Empathic Understanding in Interpersonal Processes Scale. A 2 (Dog Presence) X 4 (Empathy Level) analysis of variance was used to evaluate the difference between counselors&rsquo; empathic responding. The hypothesis that the therapy dog would have a beneficial impact on the counselors&rsquo; empathic responding was not supported by the results. The findings indicate that the therapist talks more when the dog is present, mainly due to an increase in Level 1, low empathic responses, and that higher level empathic responding did not vary between conditions as measured in utterances per minute. Further research is needed to determine how to incorporate an animal into therapy while maintaining the core facilitative condition of empathic understanding.</p><p>

<p> This phenomenological study used a qualitative, hermeneutic analysis to explore the lived experiences of the moments of psychological change in five women and one man recovering from alcoholism. Interviews with the participants were coded thematically and analyzed in relation to a psychic movement that initiated sobriety. The data were compared to the process of transformation in the myth of <i>Inanna&ndash;Queen of heaven and earth</i> as a metaphor for psychic movement. Jung&rsquo;s concepts of matter, spirit, and the psychoid function of the archetype were explored through a Post-Jungian approach, which also incorporated current research in neuroscience. Based on the analysis, the results suggest the psychoid nature of the archetype to be a function of an organically anchored archetype/primordial image analogous to implicit, dormant neural ensembles/representations in the body. These underlying representations or images activate cognitive/spirit and emotional/matter processes, and energy charges ideas, emotions, and feelings, either separately or together. Images are then released, producing cognitive and/or emotional responses. The analysis revealed that ambiguous energy charges are responsible for less complete cognitive, emotional, or feeling images, observable in unfinished sentences, phrases, words, and pauses in narration. The analysis also discovered how spiritual material supports the suggestion that cognitive and emotional processes are present at the same time in a psychophysical process releasing images, which produce thoughts, emotions, and feelings. The findings also indicate that raising awareness of how these cognitive, emotional, and feeling images interchangeably play a role in recovery could be a therapeutically beneficial approach when working with recovering addicts.</p><p>

<p> Trauma is ubiquitous in our society, taking a costly toll on the physical and psychological well-being of individuals across all social strata, and creating an ever-increasing need for better understanding of how to help the victim survivors. The purpose of this current study addresses an aspect of that need for understanding by examining the lived experiences of clinicians who have learned about trauma and who are addressing trauma survivors&rsquo; needs by acting as supervisors for other clinicians. This qualitative, phenomenologically oriented study used van Manen&rsquo;s (1990) four lived existentials, Bronfenbrenner&rsquo;s (1979, 2005) bio-ecological model of human development, and existing trauma literature as its base. Historically, basic trauma education has not been provided to master&rsquo;s or doctoral level students in counselor education programs. The rapidly expanding base of trauma literature has referenced knowledgeable, competent supervision as a necessity for therapists working with traumatized clients, yet little has been written about those supervisors, how they are trained and educated, and their lived experience in the process of becoming competent trauma supervisors </p><p> For this study, eight clinicians who have been supervising other clinicians who work with adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse were interviewed. The results were summarized into five themes that focused on the ubiquity of trauma, the &ldquo;trial by fire&rdquo; learning that was required to become knowledgeable, the rise to supervisory roles for which participants were sometimes unprepared, what they needed but didn&rsquo;t get, and what they deem necessary to support them in their work. The author suggests ways in which the field of counselor education could be enhanced to better support supervisors in addressing the needs of their supervisees, and those of their traumatized clients.</p><p>

<p> Los siguientes tres prop&oacute;sitos guiaron esta investigaci&oacute;n. En primer lugar, saber cu&aacute;nto conocimiento tienen los/as profesionales de consejer&iacute;a sobre la poblaci&oacute;n transg&eacute;nero. Segundo, conocer las percepciones, creencias y actitudes que tienen dichos/as profesionales sobre la poblaci&oacute;n. Tercero, saber si los/as participantes conocen las competencias para trabajar con esa poblaci&oacute;n, las obligaciones &eacute;ticas contenidas en todos los c&oacute;digos y las leyes que son aplicables tanto a la profesi&oacute;n como a las personas transg&eacute;nero. </p><p> Para lograr esos objetivos el investigador cre&oacute; un cuestionario amparado en los postulados de las competencias profesionales para trabajar con las personas transg&eacute;nero, en adici&oacute;n a la revisi&oacute;n de literatura relacionada a la mencionada poblaci&oacute;n y al ejercicio de la profesi&oacute;n en diversidad de escenarios laborales. El cuestionario fue administrado a consejeros/as profesionales licenciados/as que voluntariamente decidieron participar durante la Convenci&oacute;n Anual de la Asociaci&oacute;n Puertorrique&ntilde;a de Consejer&iacute;a Profesional (APCP) de 2016. </p><p> Se repartieron 151 cuestionarios, de los cuales se recibieron 131, lo que representa una tasa de respuesta de 87%. El instrumento fue sometido a una prueba Alpha de Cronbach que result&oacute; en .882 estableciendo lo robusto de este, conforme a lo establecido por Best y Kahn (2006). </p><p> Los cuestionarios se analizaron mediante estad&iacute;sticas descriptivas para la obtenci&oacute;n de los resultados. La mayor&iacute;a de los/as participantes indican conocer temas tales como: &ldquo;empowerment&rdquo;, la promoci&oacute;n del bienestar, la identidad de g&eacute;nero de los/as clientes/as, el discrimen, todo lo relacionado a la identidad de g&eacute;nero, entre otros. </p><p> Sin embargo, los resultados indican que muchos/as tienen desconocimiento de temas tales como: la afiliaci&oacute;n religiosa, el uso de los modelos te&oacute;ricos feministas, la aplicaci&oacute;n de lo proveniente de la consejer&iacute;a multicultural, los factores biol&oacute;gicos, el vivir su vida conforme al g&eacute;nero con el que se identifican, el C&oacute;digo de &Eacute;tica de ACA, el &ldquo;advocacy&rdquo;, las leyes que cobijan a las personas transg&eacute;nero, entre otros. Un 57% indic&oacute; no haber tomado adiestramientos relacionados. Mientras, un 53.7% indic&oacute; no haber ofrecido servicios directos a personas transg&eacute;nero. </p><p> Partiendo de los hallazgos m&aacute;s importantes de la investigaci&oacute;n se presentan recomendaciones dirigidas a los/as practicantes de la profesi&oacute;n, a las instituciones educativas que les preparan y para futuras investigaciones. </p><p>

<p> Problem: Although the literature is clear that low emotional distress tolerance is associated with a myriad of self-damaging behaviors, very little is known about individual difference factors in distress tolerance. Both theoretical and empirical support suggest that emotional reactivity and learned helplessness may be individual difference factors in distress tolerance. Specifically, individuals with high emotional reactivity and high learned helplessness may be at risk for low distress tolerance. Further research was needed to clarify the role of emotional reactivity and learned helplessness in distress tolerance in the context of self-damaging behaviors. </p><p> Method: Participants completed surveys which measured their (a) emotional reactivity, (b) learned helplessness, (c) distress tolerance, (d) two-week frequency of self-damaging behaviors, and (e) lifetime frequency of self-damaging behaviors. Structural equation modeling was used to test two models for the role of emotional reactivity and learned helplessness in distress tolerance. The first model was in the context of two-week frequency of self-damaging behaviors and the second model was in the context of lifetime frequency of self-damaging behaviors. </p><p> Results: Structural equation modeling indicated that the original models were a poor fit for the data. So, both models were revised on the basis of theory and modification indices. The revised models revealed that emotional reactivity and learned helplessness had negative direct effects on distress tolerance. Together, emotional reactivity and learned helplessness explained 70% of the observed variance in distress tolerance. Distress tolerance had a negative direct effect on two-week frequency of self-damaging behaviors, explaining 7% of the observed variance. Distress tolerance had a negative direct effect and depression had a positive direct effect on lifetime frequency of self-damaging behaviors, together explaining 36% of the observed variance. </p><p> Conclusions: This study confirmed emotional reactivity and learned helplessness as important individual difference factors in emotional distress tolerance. It suggests that high emotional reactivity and high learned helplessness contribute to low distress tolerance. This study also demonstrated that distress tolerance explains a small amount of variance in two-week frequency of self-damaging behaviors. Whereas, distress tolerance together with depression explains a larger amount of variance in lifetime frequency of self-damaging behaviors. These results have implications for researchers studying distress tolerance and self-damaging behaviors, clinicians treating clients with difficulty managing distress or with self-damaging behaviors, and individuals developing preventative initiatives to reduce the development of self-damaging behaviors. In particular, this study suggests that emotional reactivity may be an important target of clinical intervention and preventative education.</p><p>

<p> This study examined the relationship between counselor ethnic-racial identity (CERI), counselor exposure to client trauma (CECT), counselor wellness (CW), and counselor burnout (CB). Ethical practice requires that counselors avoid impairment, in part, by increasing wellness. Therefore, understanding the factors that impact wellness and burnout is essential due to prevalence of trauma and the profession&rsquo;s growing diversity. Participants (N = 138) completed the Ethnic Identity Scale (EIS-B), Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (STSS), Counselor Burnout Inventory (CBI), and Five Factor Wellness Inventory (FFWel-A2). A path analysis was utilized to examine the simultaneous relationship between the variables. Differences between majority (n = 62) and minority participants (n = 76) were explored using subsequent path analyses. Results and recommendations for future research are discussed. </p><p>